John Hiatt Tiki Bar Is Open CD

W/ The Goners. All New

John Hiatt & The Goners: John Hiatt (vocals, acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars, mandolin, harmonica, piano, harmonium); Sonny Landreth (acoustic, electric, 12-string & slide guitars, E-bow, background vocals); Dave Ranson (acoustic & electric basses); Kenneth Blevins (drums, percussion).
Additional personnel: Jay Joyce (guitar, keyboards, loops); Dave Bianco (piano); Julie Miller, New Reflections Men's Choir (background vocals).
Personnel: John Hiatt (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, mandolin, harmonica, piano, harmonium); Jay Joyce (guitar, keyboards, loops); Sonny Landreth (electric guitar, slide guitar, E-bow, background vocals); David Bianco (piano); Kenneth Blevins (drums, percussion); Julie Miller (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: David Bianco; Richard Dodd.
Recording information: New Reflections Studio; Woodland Studio.
Photographer: Senor McGuire.
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. 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. ~ Hal Horowitz
It's hard to imagine how singer-songwriter par excellence John Hiatt manages to keep churning out album after album of carefully wrought, emotionally loaded material. It must be that Nashville-derived work ethic tempered by a touch of mad genius. Whatever Hiatt's secret, we can all rejoice in the fact that THE TIKI BAR IS OPEN offers another batch of fine songs, sung in that patented sandpaper-soul voice.
Hiatt's crack band, including guitar ace Sonny Landreth, chugs along spiritedly, supporting an amalgam of rock, country, blues, and R&B distinguished by Hiatt's plainspoken-but-trenchant lyrics. From the bluesy, violent scenarios presented in "I Know a Place" to the existential drinking song that is the title track, Hiatt is in fine form. To his credit, his inspiration doesn't flag towards the end of the album either. The last two songs are possibly the most impressive; "Come Home to You" is a touching troubled-relationship ballad that contains the sage line "there's no man so wicked he cannot come home, nor so good he passes each test." The closer "Farther Stars" is a genre-hopping affair that trails off with a long and surprisingly effective neo-psychedelic (!) jam on the order of the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows." Just goes to show that you never know what to expect from a professional expectation-tweaker like Hiatt.

Entertainment Weekly (9/28/01, p.74) - "...While the Goners are consummate roots-rock pros, this reencounter is mere Hiatt Lite albeit highly listenable..." - Rating: B-
Q (10/01, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A rollicking bar band set that blends characteristicly picaresque rockers with tender ballads..."
No Depression (9-10/01, pp.132-3) - "...A greasy, swampy roadhouse party..."