Hiatt goes back to basics

John Hiatt
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It took John Hiatt 18 years longer than he originally planned, but he finally got to make an album with famed producer Jim Dickinson.

“We had talked about working together as far back as 1987 before I did Bring The Family,” Hiatt said, mentioning his seventh album, which was released that year. “In fact, originally, Bring The Family was going to be me and Dickinson in Memphis with the Hi Rhythm Section, which would have been a whole other story.”

Hiatt, obviously, doesn’t lament that plans changed for Bring The Family. That album — made after he had overcome a long-standing drinking and drug addiction — became the turning point in his career. To many Hiatt fans, that rootsy pop gem still stands as the definitive record in a catalog full of outstanding albums and songs.

Recorded in just a few days with a backing band that included guitarist Ry Cooder, bassist Nick Lowe and drummer Jim Keltner, Bring The Family is that rare album that not only featured great songs (such as “Thing Called Love,” which later became a hit for Bonnie Raitt, and “Have A Little Faith In Me”), it truly captured a magical chemistry that occurred between the musicians who were involved.

In fact, Hiatt said the way Bring The Family was made became the template for his subsequent CDs. And as much as any album he has made since, his new disc, Master Of Disaster, fits that approach. This time, Hiatt not only thought of Dickinson to produce, but also used Dickinson’s sons, guitarist Luther and drummer Cody (two-thirds of the acclaimed bluesy roots rock group the North Mississippi Allstars), as the core backing group on the CD, which was recorded at the famed Ardent Studio in Memphis.

“For me, the whole game with recording is I don’t have a sound in my head that I’m trying to capture,” Hiatt said. “But I like the idea of setting up a scenario where something magic might actually happen, with a certain group of players and a certain producer. That’s what intrigues me.”

The process that produced Master Of Disaster actually began with Hiatt writing and recording new material for what he thought might be a solo acoustic CD.

“I just couldn’t quite get a handle on it, and I realized I was kind of working in a vacuum,” Hiatt said. “So I just started thinking of who I’d like to work with and I just started thinking about Jim [Dickinson].”

So Hiatt contacted Dickinson, and then suggested using Luther and Cody Dickinson on the sessions. Veteran session bassist David Hood was brought in by Dickinson to complete the core band. Master Of Disaster, which is yet another solid effort from Hiatt, actually doesn’t seem that far removed from the solo acoustic album he started out intending to make.

Songs like “Howlin’ Down The Cumberland,” “Thunderbird” and “Cold River” are decidedly spare and relaxed as Hiatt’s vocal melody takes center stage, with acoustic guitar and light percussion providing supple support. On “When My Love Crosses Over” and “Ain’t Ever Goin’ Back,” Hiatt opts for a bit more electric guitar and little more rhythm, but stays close to the album’s blues-and-country-accented sound.

In fact, the only full-on rocker is the excellent “Love’s Not Where We Thought We Left It,” although the chunky “Find You At Last” and the title song (which neatly mixes rock, soul and country) also bring some muscle to the CD.

That musical direction of Master Of Disaster is a bit of a surprise considering the involvement of the Dickinsons.

As a producer, Dickinson is known for his work with the revered pop group Big Star and the equally respected punkish rockers the Replacements. He also played keyboards on albums by the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin.

The music of the North Mississippi Allstars, meanwhile, is rooted in the raucous and raw blues of the nearby Mississippi hill country, a region that has produced such artists as Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside.

For his part, Hiatt is best known as a masterful pop songwriter, shifting easily between brisk and catchy rockers and elegant ballads. But the country-folk leanings of Master Of Disaster aren’t unprecedented for Hiatt either.

In fact, the new CD strongly recalls Hiatt’s excellent blues-inflected, largely acoustic release from 2000, Crossing Muddy Waters. It also shares plenty of traits with his 1995 CD, Walk On, a friskier record that brought Hiatt’s folk and country influences more to the forefront.

Hiatt said had it been entirely his call, he might have taken a more spare approach to Master Of Disaster. And while the instrumentation on the CD is nothing if not judiciously applied to the songs, Dickinson pushed for more of a full-sounding recording.

“I just always kind of like to keep it lean and mean,” Hiatt said. “I think initially Jim had imagined some more filigree on it maybe, which I told him I was not afraid of by any means. But it just kind of happened this way. We just sort of developed this really lean, kind of honest, hard-won simple sound that seemed to be very forthright. It just felt right.”