Venue:
The Birchmere
Date: 20/08/2018
A show in two parts.
A half hour of Mr Hiatt solo doing some old and some new (as in, unreleased) material. Then 90 minutes or so of Hiatt, Sonny Landreth and the Goners going through “Slow Turning”, which was released 30 years ago.
The first section was great. One man, guitar, and years of life in a voice. His slightly strained delivery always makes me thing that “yeah, he lived THAT feeling”. It’s something that comes through on his albums as well, and it’s great to hear live.
The second section I’m vexed about. The songs are great. Nary a duff song on the album. Prine is again in fine voice, although not quite at the very rare high notes he’s asked to hit. The thing is, he’s on stage with Sonny Landreth. Two issues here: One, he is great to watch. The he’s all arms and fingers with a curious mix of languid grace and intensity. Two, he sounds so good. The sound is being superbly mixed and you can hear everything.
The end result is that sometimes Hiatt becomes the spare guy who sings the song when Sonny isn’t playing. The totality of the experience is fine, but if – like me, uninformed – you’d come in to see and hear Hiatt, your expectations need to be rest sharpish.
The audience:
Mostly my age and older. Some are very pleasant. Some just won’t shut up talking and get the full Paddington from me.
It made me think..
I don’t like going to the Birchmere sans Sharon.
That wasn’t a flatbread, it was a soft medium crust pizza.
I need to buy more Hiatt.
retropath2 says
Spot the unintentional Prine (for Hiatt), which I get, as thinking about JH straining does sort of invoke JP.
Are you saying Landreth stole the show or was he the recipient of a generous host?
Sitheref2409 says
Stole would imply intent. He just stood out.
A generous host as well, but as I said, I expected a Hiatt show and not the balance that appeared. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an adjustment.
bigstevie says
I’ve said before, that Hiatt says (generously) his secret is to surround himself with musicians much better than he is. He always hires great guitarists. Not necessarily big names, but great players nonetheless. I am sure Landreth enhances the songs, just as Ry Cooder did on the originals, but it’s because they are great songs to begin with. I have a couple of Landreth cds and the playing is excellent, but I never play them because the songs do nothing for me.
I am jealous, as I’ve never seen him with a band. When I saw him solo in Edinburgh, he did 45 minutes with an acoustic guitar, then 45 minutes with an electric. Gretch Country Gentleman guitar fans. When playing it, he said he got to pretend to be George Harrison.
Mavis Diles says
Landreth played on Slow Turning.
bigstevie says
Oops!
I always get these 2 albums mixed up.
So many albums, so many songs, so many musicians!
Sitheref2409 says
The songs are fantastic. As a songwriter, he’s up there – an American RT for me. “Hurt my baby” for example, is a stone classic.
Landreth just blew me away. I’ve seen some good and great guitarists in my time. Only RT and Landreth have left me slack jawed. I could honestly mute video and just watch him. Michale Jerome makes me like to watch drummers; Sonny did that with guitar.
And Hiatt makes me listen to the song.