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It’s easy to call John Hiatt the underappreciated voice of America when everyone from Bob Dylan to B.B. King to Iggy Pop covers his songs and takes the glory, but with his 21st album Hiatt may have to get used to the limelight. Enlisting old pal Jim Dickinson (the Replacements, Big Star) to produce was a masterstroke, since he has an innate ability to capture the essence of Hiatt’s songs and present them in an intimate fashion that makes it feel like the whole band is playing live in your living room. A cast of all-stars joins in with everything from a full-on horn section to violins, but Dickinson doesn’t let them dominate the mix, instead letting Hiatt’s world-weary drawl take centre stage as he works his way through 11 originals that further the image of Americana Hiatt helped construct.
