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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my all-time favorite CDs ever, July 6, 2003
This is an album that would be in my 5 top list to bring on an island ...and I own 500+ CDs. I have all of JH's albums and this continues to be my absolute favorite and the only one of his on my top-5-island-choices. That's how much this has affected me. The album is a very reflective and spiritual body of work and I feel profoundly moved by this album. I would say that if you like your JH as a southern folk rocker best, than this album may come off as a bit off-kilter, or even soft, new-ageish (it's not!) or pretentious. I would say that you almost have to have an appreciation of Native American spiritual/religious beliefs/concepts to appreciate the spiritual insights of the writing in this work.
JH makes references to time, spirits, nature, in the Native American sensibilty of how each are intertwined and affect our reality of things. This album first and foremost in my opinion is about the writing. The music is like icing on the cake, which on some songs are softly Native American-feeling in tempo (Seven Little Indians, Thirty Years of Tears, Listening to Old Voices). There are few "rocker" pieces here but it's again the terrific writing here that simply really blows my mind. All the songs are incredibly poetic in the imagery that gets painted. I cried the first time I heard Listening to Old Voices -- a very beautiful piece about the realization of how beautiful life is both in the real and spiritual world. There is a very Zen-like quality that JH draws in this song. 13 years later the song (and the album) still affects me profoundly with each listen. The title track also makes references to time and how we and the spirits weave in and out of it together. The song The Rest of the Dream on the outset is about bringing a new life physically into space but the title is a really a reference to the Native American concept of the continuity of life like a dream and that lives weave in and out of it, just as in how dreams operate. To be more honest, this album really changed my life and came into my life at one of the lowest points of my life. This album is not particularly "depressing" or even "uplifting" but rather it is a life affirming, written by a person who probably has had his fair share of ups and downs and this album is a chronicle of his life and his reflections and self-examination of why things are the way they are. What I am saying in this review is not so much to try to persuade anyone but rather how a particular work of music can greatly affected and enriched your life. If you do give this CD a whirl I hope it has the same positive afect on you as it had on me. Thanks Mr. Hiatt!
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~ John Hiatt
~ John Hiatt
~ John Hiatt
~ John Hiatt
~ John Hiatt & the Goners
is John Hiatt's 
