Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| John Hiatt | Bring The Family | <p>In 1987, John Hiatt, clean and sober and looking for an American record deal, was asked by an A&R man at a British label to name his dream band. After a little thought, Hiatt replied that if he had his druthers, he'd cut a record with Ry Cooder on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, and Jim Keltner on drums. To Hiatt's surprise, he discovered all three were willing to work on his next album; Hiatt and his dream band went into an L.A. studio and knocked off Bring the Family in a mere four days, and the result was the best album of Hiatt's career. The musicians certainly make a difference here, generating a lean, smoky groove that's soulful and satisfying (Ry Cooder's guitar work is especially impressive, leaving no doubt of his singular gifts without ever overstepping its boundaries), but the real triumph here is Hiatt's songwriting. </p><p>Bring the Family was recorded after a period of great personal turmoil for him, and for the most part the archly witty phrasemaker of his earlier albums was replaced by an wiser and more cautious writer who had a great deal to say about where life and love can take you. Hiatt had never written anything as nakedly confessional as "Tip of My Tongue" or "Learning How to Love You" before, and even straight-ahead R&B-style rockers like "Memphis in the Meantime" and "Thing Called Love" possessed a weight and resonance he never managed before. But Bring the Family isn't an album about tragedy, it's about responsibility and belatedly growing up, and it's appropriate that it was a band of seasoned veterans with their own stories to tell about life who helped Hiatt bring it across; it's a rich and satisfying slice of grown-up rock & roll.</p><p>— <strong>Mark Deming</strong></p> |
| John Hiatt | Bring The Family | <p>In 1987, John Hiatt, clean and sober and looking for an American record deal, was asked by an A&R man at a British label to name his dream band. After a little thought, Hiatt replied that if he had his druthers, he'd cut a record with Ry Cooder on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, and Jim Keltner on drums. To Hiatt's surprise, he discovered all three were willing to work on his next album; Hiatt and his dream band went into an L.A. studio and knocked off Bring the Family in a mere four days, and the result was the best album of Hiatt's career. The musicians certainly make a difference here, generating a lean, smoky groove that's soulful and satisfying (Ry Cooder's guitar work is especially impressive, leaving no doubt of his singular gifts without ever overstepping its boundaries), but the real triumph here is Hiatt's songwriting. </p><p>Bring the Family was recorded after a period of great personal turmoil for him, and for the most part the archly witty phrasemaker of his earlier albums was replaced by an wiser and more cautious writer who had a great deal to say about where life and love can take you. Hiatt had never written anything as nakedly confessional as "Tip of My Tongue" or "Learning How to Love You" before, and even straight-ahead R&B-style rockers like "Memphis in the Meantime" and "Thing Called Love" possessed a weight and resonance he never managed before. But Bring the Family isn't an album about tragedy, it's about responsibility and belatedly growing up, and it's appropriate that it was a band of seasoned veterans with their own stories to tell about life who helped Hiatt bring it across; it's a rich and satisfying slice of grown-up rock & roll.</p><p>— <strong>Mark Deming</strong></p> |
| John Hiatt | Slow Turning | <p>After the success of Bring the Family, John Hiatt originally intended to reunite that album's all-star backing band (Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner) for a follow-up. Hiatt's "dream band" proved to be unavailable, and he ended up cutting Slow Turning with his road band, the Goners, but the finished product proves he remembered well the lessons learned from Bring the Family. Slow Turning is a lighter and wittier affair than Bring the Family; the outlaw rocker "Tennessee Plates" and its more subdued companion piece, "Trudy and Dave," are more rambunctious than anything on the previous album, and the tempos are sharper this time out, with a bit less blues and a touch more twang in the melodies. But Slow Turning is also an album of hard-won lessons about life and love, placing a subtle but pronounced emphasis on the nuts and bolts of family life with the mingled joys and annoyances of parenthood dominating both "Georgia Rae" and the title cut, and the newfound maturity that made Bring the Family so special is still very much in evidence. And while the Goners aren't quite up to the standards of the quartet that recorded Bring the Family (and who, pray tell, is?), they're still a stronger and more empathetic band than Hiatt usually had in the studio, with Sonny Landreth's guitar work a standout. Following the best album of your career is no easy task for most performers, but with Slow Turning John Hiatt made it clear that the excellence of Bring the Family was no fluke.</p><p>— <strong>Mark Deming</strong></p> |
| John Hiatt | Stolen Moments | <p>John Hiatt's highest-charting album yet is a step down from the dizzy heights of Bring the Family and Slow Turning, as he abandons his more acid commentaries and turns in a self-deprecating set full of promises of reformation and celebrations of marriage and family life. But the observations remain acute, and Hiatt's singing (so much camouflaged in his early days) is becoming his secret weapon.</p><p>— <strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p> |
| John Hiatt | Crossing Muddy Waters | <p>John Hiatt's 16th effort is a marked departure from his work of the previous 25 years, and a vast improvement over 1997's disappointing Little Head. Hiatt retrenched and recorded his first drummer-less, predominantly acoustic record for Vanguard. It's a sympathetic match and a smart move, since the company has a long, rich history working in the unplugged medium before it became trendy. The result is the most natural and relaxed John Hiatt album in years, and a welcome addition to his extensive catalog. With just a duo of acoustic multi-instrumentalists, Davey Faragher and David Immergluck (both longtime associates), Hiatt pulls out some of the most earnest, down-to-earth songs of his career. He sings like a man rejuvenated, totally at ease with his surroundings, and plays with the laid-back, homespun honesty that has infused his best work. Although some comical lyrical touches remain, the majority of the album is a sober reflection on lost love ("What Do We Do Now," the title track) and the resulting psychological scars. Hiatt's voice has never sounded better; its coarse edges sometimes straining for high notes works perfectly with this craggy, unpolished music. The mandolin is the most distinctive instrument here, and its brittle, trebly, crisp tone gives the disc an underlying tension, especially on the ballads that comprise the majority of the album. Heart-rending, sincere, stripped down yet multi-faceted, John Hiatt has taken a step forward by taking a small step back. Although not quite in a class with career highlights like Bring the Family or Slow Turning, Crossing Muddy Waters is a subtle treat and an album whose watercolor brush strokes paint a vibrant picture of stirring delicacy.</p><p>— <strong>Hal Horowitz</strong></p> |
| John Hiatt | The Tikki Bar Is Open | <p>On a creative roll after 2000's acoustic Crossing Muddy Waters, John Hiatt returned rejuvenated as well as electric. Old backing band the Goners returned for his 17th -- and best -- album in the 13 years that have passed since the same outfit accompanied him on 1988's classic Slow Turning. Unlike its intentionally cheesy tongue-in-cheek title, Tiki Bar is a keenly constructed collection of heartfelt, bluesy tunes that rock -- and often rock hard -- with tremendous soul. Subtle use of drum loops and the occasional overdub enhances, but doesn't update, Hiatt's roots approach. Like the Band, whose "The Weight" he evokes on "Hangin' Round Here," these songs seemingly spring from a bottomless well of melodies and hooks, all energized by his raw, throaty vocals.</p><p>The famed Goners guitarist, Louisiana's Sonny Landreth, positively burns throughout, especially on slide, and the group consistently coalesces like Crazy Horse on a hot night. They follow their eclectic leader through waltzy ballads, folksy love songs, mid-tempo burners, and even an unusual album-closing ten-minute psychedelic romp, "Farther Stars," that takes the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" to the Middle Eastern swamps. Far from winding down in his fifties, John Hiatt released the most inspired work of his life. Not quite as magical as his high-water mark, Bring the Family, this is still a superbly crafted disc whose songs quickly sink in and stay lodged in your brain.</p><p>— <strong>Hal Horowitz</strong></p> |
| Rocky Hill | Rocky Hill | |
| Chris Hillman | Slippin' Away | |
| Home | Home At Last | |
| John Lee Hooker | Boogie Man | |
| John Lee Hooker | That's Where It's At | |
| Daniel Hope | Air: A Baroque Journey | <p>Daniel Hope's adventurous spirit this time leads him into repertoire that's familiar to Baroque violinists but which few "modern" players have ventured into: that of the 17th-century virtuosi who took the first steps in making the fiddle the concert instrument it is now. To judge from his impeccably stylish performances, Hope has the music-making of period colleagues ringing in his ears; but although there's more than a touch of the Hespèrions, for instance, about his bubbling, percussion-enhanced accounts of Falconieri and Ortiz, it would be wrong to suggest that he's "playing at Baroque" rather than creating something that's individual and true to himself.</p><p>For a start, his choice of music is clearly the product of much consideration, for alongside favourites such as the Pachelbel Canon and Bach's "Air on a G String" (exquisitely performed with a one-to-a-part ensemble drawn from members of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe), Hope homes in on single, characterful movements from relatively obscure larger works, including sonatas by the dazzling German Johann Paul von Westhoff, whom even period players have tended to neglect.</p><p>The concertos by Telemann and Geminiani are thoughtfully chosen, and there is also a handful of specially made arrangements. So what impression will be gained by new listeners following Hope and his excellent collaborators in this repertoire? He himself says he wants to emphasise the modern-ness of the music, and the exotic attraction some of these wandering composer-violinists must have had in person. In this he succeeds entirely, for this is an exciting disc with a heady, pied-piper power over the listener that comes from realising that the bright sense of discovery once felt by these composers is being experienced just as much by their modern-day interpreters. You can't ask for much more than that.</p><p>—<strong>Lindsay Kemp</strong></p> |
| Lightnin' Hopkins | The Roots Of Lightnin' Hopkins | |
| Lightnin' Hopkins | Lightnin' Hopkins | |
| Tim Hopkins | Upon My Camel | |
| Son House | Delta Blues | |
| Son House | Father Of Folk Blues | |
| Son House | Father Of The Delta Blues | |
| Cisco Houston | Cisco Houston | |
| Cisco Houston | Songs Of The Open Road |
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