Talking to John Hiatt after listening to his 20th solo album “Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns,” is a bit disconcerting. The recently released album is filled with the darkest blues rock you can imagine written and performed by one of contemporary music’s greatest songwriters. Surely the man himself, whose numerous accolades include a slot in the prestigious Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, is as somber and measured as the songs. That just shows how wrong preconceived notions can be.
“Well you have to have darkness to have light,” said Hiatt with a genuine laugh when asked why many of the songs on his album tackle many dark and somber topics. “We cut 19 songs and really [song selection] is a matter of what hangs together. We aren’t geniuses. The story emerges in a set of songs and we noticed the theme is the disparate energies between big cities and verdant rush of landscapes of the past.”
| Onstage |
| John Hiatt |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday |
| Where: Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Art, Filene Center, 1551 Wolf Trap Road, Vienna, Va. |
| Info: $25-$75; 1-877-WOLFTRAP; wolftrap.org |
Many might beg to differ with the Indiana native’s statement that he isn’t a genius. Anyone who has a 30-year career as a musician and songwriter and seen their work covered by everyone from Bob Dylan to Eric Clapton to BB King, to Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop, Three Dog Night, the Neville Brothers and that’s just for starters, is clearly a musical genius.
And his musical prowess is nothing new.
Consider “Train to Birmingham,” on the August release. He wrote that when he was 19 and included it on the album because “it just seemed to fit what we were doing.”
To hear Hiatt tell it, he’s just a guy who carefully observes the world and writes about what he sees before sharing it in song.
And what sights he has seen and emotions he explores. Take the song “New York Had Her Heart Broke,” which he wrote after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He never planned to record the song and likely wouldn’t have if his producer hadn’t been so deeply moved by it.
Or how about “Down Around My Place,” a song Hiatt wrote after last year’s Nashville, Tenn., floods?
“So many people lost homes, there was just so much devastation,” he said. “It made me really think about stuff.”
In the same understated way, Hiatt talks about continuing to tour at age 59 when he said his body reacts to “every bump in the road and every bad hotel room. Physically it gets harder and harder.”
Looking at the tour schedules of such elder statesmen as BB King and Buddy Guy shows Hiatt that he can and should persevere, if only to satisfy himself.
“I see [touring] still keep them alive, practically,” he said. “It is the same kind of force for me. I still love playing so much.”
