Man who spans the generations

One song - Sure As I'm Sitting Here - was picked up by Three Dog Night and was a Top 40 hit.

Now, for a songwriter, John Hiatt laboured under a bit of handicap: he couldn't actually 'write' music. He could compose. But he couldn't put it down on paper. So he would record the songs.

And when the chaps at Epic Records were picking out the hit for Three Dog Night, they were taken by the raw intensity of the young Hiatt's voice.

Before much longer, he was on his way to a new career - as a singer. In fact, he became one of the new breed of singer-songwriters, the musical magicians who have entertained every generation to the present day.

Now in his fourth decade as a writer-performer, Hiatt is at the top of his game. He has mastered the knack of turning a bunch of ideas and a few choice phrases into classic songs which are snapped up by the music world's biggest names.

But the truth is that nobody sings a John Hiatt song quite as well as John Hiatt himself.

His gruff voice can be equally tender. And the lyrics set those neck hairs trembling.

While he stands head and shoulders above most fellow performers/writers, he shares one thing in common: he knows that talent is not enough to get get you noticed in the music business.

He has been courted by - and dropped by -numerous labels who love his sound, but despair at the sales figures. That isn't to say he hasn't had his hits. In the last 20 years or so, his albums have sold and kept the wolf from the door. It is just that they don't sell enough for record managements.

This has not stopped him continuing to turn out a clutch of 'keeper' albums and a host of unforgettable songs.

Latest is Master of Disaster, recorded in Memphis with Jim Dickinson and his sons Cody and Luther, who comprise two thirds of the North Mississippi Allstars. Veteran Muscle Shoals session man David Hood handled bass.

Said Hiatt: "I saw this almost like a Fathers and Sons project, similar to what those guys did in Chicago with the Chess legends and the young rockers.

"Jim's sons brought in youthful assertiveness; Jim and I were the old guys, grabbing hold to their grooves and doing something else with them."

The result is a worthy successor to his benchmark albums Bring The Family, Stolen Moments and Crossing Muddy Waters.

With Master Of Disaster he shows he still has plenty of compositional might in him.

In Love's Not Where We Thought We Left, he sings of disillusionment and hypocrisy. Nothing unusual in that, you might say. But who else, other than Hiatt, would use a dispute between Jesus, the apostles and Mary Magdalene to grab your attention?

Later this month, Hiatt kicks off a rare UK tour with a show at London's Barbican on Monday, October 22.

A couple of days later he is in striking distance, appearing at York Opera House (Wed, Oct 24: 0870 606 3595) York Opera House and he returns to our region, appearing at Manchester Bridgewater Hall on October 30 (tickets: 0161 907 9000).

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