JOHN Hiatt is further proof that singers these days just don't know when to stop, even when they have just rolled past the sign with a big red 50 on it.
Giving his callused band a jokey name, Hiatt addresses middle life with songs of customary wit and pathos, moving from the Chuck Berry-style rock of Uncommon Connection ("Well I do my best thinking sitting on my ass"), via the disappeared youth of My Baby Blue to the stand-out Almost Fed Up With The Blues, a 12-bar blues song about, fittingly enough, the ups and downs of depression.
Circle Back tells of driving a daughter to college, My Dog And Me is a hymn to a favourite dog that has started biting people, and How Bad's The Coffee looks back to the gritty charms of pre-Starbucks America. Gruff and tender, Hiatt conveys the puzzlement of getting this far, on an album that rings true musically too, gaining from having been recorded in eight days.
Updated: 10:58 Thursday, June 19, 2003
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