Customer Reviews

Rollin Into Memphis: Songs of John Hiatt

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What a treat it was to stumble across this more than deserved tribute to the songs of master songwriter John Hiatt. Right from the top, a (zydeco) version of Falling Up by CJ Chenier, the CD just rocks! While Hiatt has had his songs covered by artists ranging from Paula Abdul (yuck!) to Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Phil Collins (double-yuck) and Bob Dylan, this tribute leans in more of a blues direction and let me tell you what, it works perfectly! Other faves include Irma Thomas on Old Habits.... and Tab Benoit on Feels Like Rain. Can anyone say volume 2??????

What a delight to find this CD. An Interesting list of artists too, some of which I'd not heard of before. My Personal favorite is Kenny Neals "Love Like Blood." This man just keeps getting better. Though maybe Chris Smither's (who?)version of "real Fine Love is the best cut, his brilliant version is so different from the original. And doing a zydeco version of "Fallin Up" was inspired and CJ Chenier just rocks the song. Iread that Hiatt thought Odetta doing was one of his songs was really cool. Overall the choices of songs are very good with a strong emphasis on the Stolen Moments CD, one of Hiatts best albums. If your a Hiatt fan your gonna find these versions very strong, and if your not aware of Hiatt then buy not only this CD to hear some great music, but Hiatts best of CD. Of course you should really own everytthing by this great American songwriter.

What a treat it was to stumble across this more than deserved tribute to the songs of master songwriter John Hiatt. Right from the top, a (zydeco) version of Falling Up by CJ Chenier, the CD just rocks! While Hiatt has had his songs covered by artists ranging from Paula Abdul (yuck!) to Joan Baez, Iggy Pop, Phil Collins (double-yuck) and Bob Dylan, this tribute leans in more of a blues direction and let me tell you what, it works perfectly! Other faves include Irma Thomas on Old Habits.... and Tab Benoit on Feels Like Rain. Can anyone say volume 2??????

allstar tribute to the great american songwriter john haitt himself. collection of very talented artist from kenny neals version of "love like blood" to my favorite cut by irma thomas "old habits are hard to break". cd also includes guest' tab benoit and chris smithers

My first introduction to John Hiatt's songwriting was the best one: 1987's "Bring the Family." Working WITH Ry Cooder's non-pareil band, and working THROUGH some tough personal issues, Hiatt turned up a masterpiece - evidence of some sort of grace suffusing his art.

BTF led me to other Hiatt recordings ------ and the reluctant realization that this was likely to remain his best for a long time. The other albums didn't fully crystallize musically, although they never failed to have a number of outstanding songs on them, and rarely any "bad ones." I pulled back from buying Hiatt albums for awhile, but after occasionally returning to the ones I owned and giving them a deeper listen, I made peace with the understanding that the nature of his work seemed to entail a mixed output. Hiatt is a truly singular musician and songwriter, and expecting talents of this sort to make every composition a gem is unrealistic. His subject matter takes risks, exploring lyrical areas that are virgin territory, e.g. "Warming Up to the Ice Age." And this means he is more like a home-run hitter: for every ball blasted into the bleachers, there are more line drives just inches inside the foul ball pole, long flies caught on the warning track, and towering infield pop-ups. In other words, they may not be hits (pun intended), but they do induce our admiration, pointing to those other works that "clear the fences." Anyway, I know look for and pick up Hiatt's work whenever I can.

His unusual song-writing range, however, does leave some interesting material available to other artists to interpret, borrowing from him to give the song another rendition from a different perspective. This may be at least half the value of Hiatt's output, placing intriguing material in the hands of other singers.

Tribute albums - and Hiatt has no less than 3 - have become a good means to test a song's viability beyond its composer. ROLLIN' INTO MEMPHIS has some solid, emotionally-compelling moments that flicker into life by track 4, Odetta's plaintive-owl stylization of "Listening to Old Voices." This is followed by Kenny Neal's powerful version of "Love Like Blood," a more nuanced vocalization than Hiatt gave. "The River Knows Your Name," by Colin Linden reaches anthem status with its hand-in-glove vocal and guitar delivery. "Feels Like Rain" is energized by a fine New Orleans-style arrangements, though the vocals of Benoit and Neal fall a tad short. Not so with Andrea Re's firm and sensitive delivery on "Thirty Years of Tears" - a sold work.

Chris Smither's "Real Fine Love" has a pleasantly relaxed conviction informing the song's sentiments.

Less successful - but earning a gentleman's grade - are the efforts of Irma Thomas's "Old Habits Are Hard to Break." Terrence Simien's "It Hasn't happened Yet" doesn't quite, well, happen. And it was a mistake to lead the recording with CJ Chenier's "Falling Up," a zydeco missfire interpretation. Both Cliff Eberhardt and Patty Larkin (whose own work I much admire) stray off the mark by being either too plaintive or too restrained.

I'm sorry, but this is not Hiatt. If you are interested in John Hiatt, buy the real thing and skip this one. There is nothing special on this disc. It seems to me that there are some artits without a large audience that want to capitalize on some well written material, but only deliver obscure interpretations. I regret buying this CD.

Seems some people don't get the idea behind tributes. It's not about trying to outdo the original but to give an interpretation in your own style. For this reason it is a great album, not as strong as the first tribute "Love Gets Strange" (a must have) but an enjoyable collection of songs none the less and on a par with the later "It'll Come To You". In my opinion all are worth having.