Songwriting virtuoso John Hiatt wants to make two things perfectly clear: No, he is not getting a divorce, and no, he has not fallen off the wagon. In fact, it's now been 11 years since those demons ruled his life.
"My wife, God bless her, is getting calls from all our friends saying how sorry they are we are getting a divorce and that I'm drinking again," Hiatt says with a bemused laugh. "No, no, no."The confusion stems from Hiatt's latest release "Walk On," a musical masterpiece that is laced with dark references to wanderlust, addiction and the loss of love.
Hiatt agrees the topics are particularly dark, but they are not necessarily autobiographical. The 14 songs on "Walk On" are simply a reflection of the loneliness that comes with life on the road away from hearth and home.
"I was in the midst of touring (on the `Perfectly Good Guitar' tour), and after awhile a certain kind of unreality, a fatigue sets in," Hiatt told the Deseret News in a telephone interview. "I was constantly fighting the fatigue and boredom for the two-hour payoff when I got to play every night."
So in his off hours, Hiatt sat down with an acoustic guitar and penned about 30 tunes, 14 of which made the cut on "Walk On." It was an expression of the boredom that comes with touring and the fact he missed his wife and children.
"Native Americans say that boredom is a gateway to higher spirituality," Hiatt said in a moment of reflective seriousness. Then with a chuckle he added, "if that's true, it certainly bodes well for the youth of today."
Hiatt performs in concert Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 9 p.m. at the Zephyr Club. The show is sold out.
Whatever the impetus for "Walk On," Hiatt has penned a brilliant masterpiece, one as good as, in some respects even better than, "Bring the Family" or "Stolen Moments" or "Slow Turning" - the hallmarks of Hiatt's acclaimed career.
"Walk on" is unquestionably Hiatt's most listener-friendly album, offering one superlative melody after another, each of which floats effortlessly through a classic hybrid of folk, country and blues. The harder rock edge of "Perfectly Good Guitar" has been replaced with a mellower approach that emphasizes the interplay of string instruments with Hiatt's gravel voice.
That sound can be attributed in part to multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck (Camper Von Beethoven), who joined Hiatt's band three weeks before the album was recorded. Immergluck contributes a new musical dimension to Hiatt's music with the addition of slide guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar, lap steel and three-stringed stick (his electric guitar licks are also noteworthy).
Immergluck's string wizardry weaves in and out of Hiatt's tunes, just enough to highlight Hiatt's vocals but never enough to seem superfluous or to gloss over imperfections. Not coincidentally, Hiatt's vocals have never sounded more soulful.
And then there are Hiatt's lyrics. Unlike the classic "Stolen Moments" that portrayed the virtues of home and family, "Walk On" is a portrait of angst on the road. You can feel the ache in his voice when he sings "For all the noise on my hometown street, little children playing at my feet, well I would give my soul to be, back in your arms in Tennessee," a soulful, rhythm-dominated tune called "I Can't Wait" that could be a breakout single (if not for Hiatt then for one of the dozens of musicians who regularly cover his songs).
Other sensational cuts include the smoke and ashes of "Wrote It Down and Burned It," the straightforward rocker "Cry Love" (which is getting some much-deserved airplay) and "The River Knows Your Name," a breathtaking tune reminiscent of the Hiatt classic "Feels Like Rain."
The darkest of the bunch is "Mile High" (not listed on the jacket), a seductive jazz-blues tune where Immergluck's slide-guitar creates a smokey mood for Hiatt's disturbing heroin imagery.
Perhaps the one attribute that distinguishes Hiatt's songwriting more than his contemporaries is his uncanny ability to use words to create palpable images - from the taste of dust on a country road to the bobbing sensation of a Huck Finn raft on the mighty Mississippi and the feel of railroad steel as you listen for an oncoming train.
Despite the darker themes that seem to prevail, there is a sense that Hiatt has found a musical niche perfectly matched for his artistic expression. Without exception, this collection of Hiatt tunes reaches for the soul rather than the amplifier.
"I had spent 14 months bashing my brains out and playing pretty loud" (on the "Perfectly Good Guitar tour"), Hiatt said. "I had a great time making music that was majestic, fun and powerful. But I was ready to try something else."