Your Dad Did

Forget Cat Steven's Father and Son (I know that might be sacrilegious to most people).  In honor of Father's Day here's John Hiatt's Your Dad Did. It's a classic.  Love Sonny Landreth's guitar work on this performance. 

John Hiatt Vibrates Irving Plaza

"You make me vibrate" John Hiatt told the crowd at Irving Plaza. He shook his body and went into a fist pumping version of Cry Love. Hiatt is the master of spoken intros. He draws you into the song with a story. If he doesn't love his "job", then I'm the Pope. He has fun with the audience. He appeased a fan's request for Ethylene, which ignited a request shouting frenzy. He's the ultimate song craftsman as evident in his performances of Feels Like Rain and Real Fine Love. The latter opened with a melodic, beautiful guitar interaction by Hiatt and his guitarist/ Nashville-based producer Doug Lancio.

Hiatt's shows are informed by his band and his song arrangements admirably change with each incarnation. This band, The Combo, which includes original Goners drummer Ken Blevins felt like a meeting point between previous bands, the Goners (Sonny Landreth on guitar) and The Guilty Dogs (Michael Ward on guitar): a little blues, country and rock. Lancio was forefront as the show had a prominent jamming element.


John has a great catalog of road songs. His most recent recording is the The Open Road and the band performed the title track. Last night's set would be a great soundtrack for any road trip. Drive South, a love song about getting away from it all was heard early on and it primed the crowd for the joy ride that followed. Tennessee Plates is an ironic play on the title: steal a Cadillac and you're doing time making license plates. John sang with a preacher's enthusiasm in Memphis in the Meantime and rounding out the road tunes was Riding With The King. It wasn't all songs about driving as Hiatt closed the show with a Whiter Shade of Pale-inspired rendition of what has to be his most covered song, the revered Have A Little Faith In Me.

Like Keith Urban, John Hiatt respects and appreciates his fans. John thanked everyone for spending their money to come out and see him in such hard economic times. Following these comments, the guy behind me yelled, "I was on the guest list". You have to love a NY crowd.

She Loves The Jerk

The song has been covered by Rodney Crowell and Elvis Costello. Here's the original by the very prolific John Hiatt.

Nick Lowe: A Most Charming, Witty Rocker

There are few musicians who craft lyrics the way Nick Lowe and John Hiatt do. They were band mates in Little Village and have played on each others records. Nick does a great cover of Hiatt's She Don't Love Nobody , a Hiatt. Although their style is different, their similarities were apparent in Nick's performance Wednesday night in New York. They're master storytellers, who tells it like it is.

Has She Got A Friend, elicited a few chuckles with its opening lines:

I'm so glad to hear about the true happiness you've found and how your retched life has been turned around I can try to achieve joy for your empty nights now at an end but what I really want to know is Has She Got A Friend?

Who else could make the word retched work so well in a song? Well maybe Hiatt who rhymed the word somnambulist in Ride Along (Sometimes that girl she'll slip you a kiss/ But she's just another somnambulist).

Lowe has an understated delivery which could be mistaken as mushy pop if you're not paying attention. He writes unforgettable melodies, but listen for the lyrics because there's always a point. He was amazed that people applauded his performance of I Trained Her To Love Me (I trained her to love me so I can go ahead and break her heart). It's a crazy rant from a serial heartbreaker, who knows he'll end up alone and miserable, but can't help himself.

Classic songs take on a new life with his stripped down arrangements including Heart, which goes from an upbeat Rock Around The Clock to a sentimental ode to love. Without Love, When I Write the Book, Cruel To Be Kind and What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding (which becomes increasingly relevant with each decade) are timeless gems.

At the urging of an audience member, he pulled off an impromptu version of Heart Of the City. Another yelled out Marie Provost, but alas he did not take him up on it. She was a winner who became the doggie's dinner, but not part of the music Wednesday night. Nick Lowe is a man for all musical seasons.

Nick played at the relatively new City Winery. You would think a place that names itself that would pride themselves on wine. Ten minutes after being seated and given menus and a wine list, no one came by to take our order. Turns out we were in "bar seats" although the bar was half a venue away. The bartender told me he was swamped and couldn't help me. When I asked if the other bartender could take our order, he shot back "what do you want?" He poured a 3 oz glass of riesling for $12 and emptied prosecco from two different bottles into one glass. Nuff said? Our seats were "obstructed view". They should rename these seats "no view". There are massive pillars just past the stage, making it impossible to see Nick. We had to move ourselves and stand through the set. If you plan on seeing a show there, make sure you have one of the six tables directly in front of the stage or you'll be craning all night. Great performance, subpar venue.

Max Tuohy

Max Tuohy is new to the UK music scene. He doesn't have a dedicated website and his MySpace profile has been up since August. He's only 16. He sounds older. He will appeal to fans of Jack Johnson. Definitely has good songwriting instincts to build on. He has one song posted which is a demo: Run Over. In exchange for your email address you can have the song for free.

This is one of those sparse demos that 99% of the time taken up by a big producer, in a big studio with lots of musicians, will kill the raw power of the song. It's catchy, it has feeling. John Hiatt's Have a Little Faith In Me, which is a classic, only worked when it was John, his voice and the piano. A big production would have definitely diminished it's message.

There's not too much info or images of Max in the US, but I hear he just got signed to a UK label, which means a US label isn't probably far behind.

Only 5 Songs In The World

I am listening to Sirius and Meg Griffin is playing Rock Your Baby by George McCrae which sounds just like When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman by Dr Hook. I've heard both of those songs a hundred times and never realized how close they sound until today. Now I had to search YouTube for Sylvia's Mother. One of the most melodramatic songs of the rock era. "and the operator says....." Things I did not know about Dr Hook and you probably don't either
1. They are from Union City, NJ
2. Band member Ray Sawyer's eye patch was legit and not a prop. He was in a car accident in 1967, the year before the band was formed.

John Hiatt once told me that there are only about 5 songs in the world and everything else is derived. He then referred to his song Slow Turning which he said had the same chords as ROCK in the USA, That's What I Like About You and the list went on......