Likewise, looking at his own critical and commercial breakthrough, there’s no better way to experience Hiatt in concert than with the band supporting him this weekend. True to Hiatt’s playful form, the song rhymed “Queen of Sheeba” with “amoeba”.īut nothing beats the sound of Hiatt performing his own songs, as will be the case when he returns to Lexington for a performance on August 14 at the Opera House. One of his works, a root romantic diversion called “Thing Called Love” (which taps into a much sunnier sense of expression than the more cunning “Same Old Man”) was recorded by Bonnie Raitt in 1989, sparking a mid-career business renaissance that transformed her into pop stardom. A short list of those who have colored their careers with his music: Bob Dylan, BB King, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop, Jimmy Buffett and a few dozen others. You’re so nice, you keep it under your hat.įor nearly half a century, the sometimes dark, often whimsical and always worldly humanism of Hiatt’s songs has been taken up by legions of artists from remarkably disparate camps. “Oh, I’m the biggest baby in the world,” Hiatt sings in a playful growl. It expresses gratitude rather than desire, confession rather than intimacy, and cunning rather than innocence. It’s more of a love song for another age, that of Hiatt (56 at the time he’ll be 70 next week). The title tune of the album is a love song – not the kind that promotes the youthful abandonment that even then was long in his rearview mirror. Inside, however, as the music pours in, the real Hiatt emerges. He sounds less like one of the most defended songwriters in the country and more like a hip, rural hitman. His wardrobe: yellow shirt, blue tie, glasses and a sharply chiseled frown. Thanks to the strategically positioned silhouette of a water tower for that. On the cover of his 2008 album “Same Old Man,” John Hiatt is seen leaning against a car at dusk, staring at a skyline deliberately devoid of metropolitan detail. John Hiatt will perform at the Lexington Opera House on August 14 with his band, the Goners and featuring Sonny Landreth.

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