---

John Hiatt

 

Bring The Family  When John dragged me to see John Hiatt at First Avenue I had this vague sense of the man as an artist a record company or two had try to groom as an American Elvis Costello. And until that solo acoustic show that would've been pretty much on the mark. That night, however, your uncle and I and maybe 200 others were treated to one of the most starkly personal and earnest performances I have ever witnessed. The bulk of it came from Bring the Family, which wouldn't come out for another month or so, and which, as I recall Hiatt telling us from the stage, almost didn't come out because no record company was really interested in trying to market him after his previous failures, certainly not with an album of relatively low key material in which he tries to exorcize his demons. I actually don't listen to this much because it's so personal, but I'm rewarded every time I do.