By James Turano
John Hiatt’s diversely rich, respected, and rowdy vocation has been a series of perfectly turned phrases with some perfectly good guitar. And now he’s adding some insightful, lingering “leftover feelings.”
Hiatt’s may not be a name you immediately recognize, but he’s always been there. “I like to sneak up from behind,” Hiatt says slyly. You’ve certainly heard many of the songs he’s written during an acclaimed career that includes nine Grammy nominations and the highest praise from peers and fans alike.
“ ‘All the Lilacs in Ohio’ was the first song we recorded. We did it in three takes. When we played it back, you could tell everyone was grinning under their masks. You could see it in their eyes. Everyone was so happy to be making music again.”
John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas outside the RCA Victor studios in Nashville, where they recorded Leftover Feelings last fall
His path to prominence during the past five decades has been steady but splintered, filled with stops, starts, and several serendipitous detours that have included pop, rock, country, folk, blues, and even ’80s new wave. These fortuitous diversions enabled Hiatt to work with an eclectic group of musicians, from slide guitar rebel Ry Cooder to wandering wordsmith Nick Lowe and many other notables in between. In the process, Hiatt has established a distinct canon highlighted by albums like Bring the Family, Slow Turning, Perfectly Good Guitar, Stolen Moments, and Same Old Man, with songs like “Have a Little Faith In Me,” “Slow Turning,” “Paper Thin,” “Memphis in the Meantime,” “She Don’t Love Nobody,” “Across the Borderline,” and “Tennessee Plates” scattered across them.
Hiatt, a Ravinia regular since the early 2000s (including appearances with his singer/songwriter daughter Lilly), returns on August 24 with The Jerry Douglas Band. The two will present their latest, rustic alliance, Leftover Feelings, which adds yet another unique chapter to both artists’ vast musical ventures.
Douglas and Hiatt in the reverb room in RCA Studio B
Last October, Hiatt and Douglas met up in the collaborative atmosphere of Nashville’s historic RCA Victor Studio B to record Leftover Feelings with Douglas’s band. The project was originally scheduled to begin that April, but the pandemic delayed it. “As the months rolled on, Nashville got better at testing. By the fall, we felt we could go in,” Hiatt recalls. “We set up about 10 feet apart in the studio and wore masks in the control booth. We were all tested, safe, and mindful of everyone’s health.”
RCA’s Studio B has been used to record some of the greatest music of the last six decades. Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Roy Orbison, and many other country and pop hitmakers have graced its acoustically vibrant walls. “All those ghosts come to visit when you’re there. There’s an ‘X’ on the floor where Elvis stood,” Douglas observes.
“They come out of the woodwork. The room is an extra musician helping to make the sound,” Hiatt adds.
“ ‘All the Lilacs in Ohio’ was the first song we recorded. We did it in three takes,” Hiatt continues. “When we went into the control room for the playback, you could tell everyone was grinning under their masks. You could see it in their eyes. Everyone was so happy to be making music again, and music of this caliber. We had a sneaking suspicion we were making something really cool. We were delighted with the racket we were making.”
“John didn’t know what he was getting into until we played the first song [at studio B]. He kept saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know it could sound like this!’”
“John didn’t know what he was getting into until we played the first song there. He kept saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know it could sound like this!’ He was a cheerleader for what was happening. The songs came alive,” Douglas remembers of making Leftover Feelings, which took just four days to record. The result is a stunning synthesis of Hiatt’s emotionally delving, raspy recollections filled with wit, wisdom, whimsy, and well-crafted rhymes, and Douglas’s sliding, muscular instrumental twang.
With the addition of Jerry Douglas Band members Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle, Daniel Kimbro on bass, and Mike Seal on guitar—but no drums—Douglas says he and his band aimed to put focus on Hiatt’s strong set of songs. “We brought sensibilities of our own, but our main goal was to frame them and give them the appropriate treatment and respect these great songs deserve. Don’t play too much; perform as a band.
“We’re painting around John with the right colors. Not too many, just what each song needs. It’s something you learn as a studio musician. We didn’t want to get in the way of John’s lyrics—accent them and support what John is saying. I think we pulled it off,” Douglas says with a proud chuckle.
Released in May to enthusiastic, glowing reviews, the album’s crisp, stripped-down, natural vibe is filled with a mix of up-tempo, fun, frisky country rockers (“Long Black Electric Cadillac,” “Little Goodnight,” “Keen Rambler”) and haunted, tender ballads of love, loss, and life (“I’m In Asheville”) punctuated by Hiatt’s expressive, graveled vocals. Leftover Feelings is part hootenanny, part heartbreak. Hiatt fills the album with humor and satirical irony, as well as deep honesty and reflection, with songs referencing his troubled, hard-drinking days of yore (“Buddy Boy”), and another alluding to his eldest brother’s suicide that tore his family apart when Hiatt was just nine years old (“Light of the Burning Sun”).
“I’ve had a couple experiences with suicide in my life—my first wife, and my older brother. I thought the song was so dark, but Jerry told me, ‘No, people need to hear it, this is something people go through.’”
Born in Indianapolis, Hiatt, who turned 69 this month, has blossomed into one of America’s most prolific and hailed songwriters, with honors including the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2019, Hiatt became only the third songwriter to receive the BMI Troubadour Award, whose previous winners include the late John Prine, who attended the ceremony. Hiatt was feted with versions of his songs performed by several admiring devotees, including Elvis Costello and Lyle Lovett.
Hiatt has released more than 20 albums since 1974, and his songs have been recorded by hundreds of music’s most popular performers including Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Jewel, Keith Urban, Joan Baez, Rosanne Cash, and Willie Nelson. Perhaps Hiatt’s most identifiable and successful song, “Thing Called Love” from his stellar 1987 album Bring the Family, helped hurtle Raitt and her masterwork, 1989’s Nick of Time, to mainstream success and multiple Grammys.
When asked about this latest return to Ravinia, Hiatt fondly summons up previous visits. “Ravinia is a special gift. Every time I play there, it’s magic. I know it’s magic for me, I’m not sure how it is for the audience,” Hiatt humbly jokes. “We’re just looking forward to coming back and playing for folks. It’s what we live for.
“Jerry and I may do a couple of songs with just the two of us. This set-up with Jerry is a little different, but we’re excited about playing a good chunk of the new album, and I’m also interested in reworking some of my older material with Jerry’s unbelievable dobro playing and the band’s bluegrass instrumentation,” Hiatt says.
“James Taylor describes Jerry as the ‘Muhammad Ali of the dobro,’ ” he respectfully adds.
Douglas and Hiatt played Ravinia just two weeks apart in 2014, Hiatt with his four-piece combo and Douglas alongside Alison Krauss with Union Station, and the two consummate collaborators will share that stage on August 24.
Hiatt says he sent Douglas about 15 new songs to consider before they went into the studio to record Leftover Feelings. He credits Douglas with encouraging him to record “Light of the Burning Sun” despite its serious tone. “I’ve had a couple experiences with suicide in my life—my first wife, and my older brother,” Hiatt solemnly relates. “I thought the song was so dark, but Jerry told me, ‘No, people need to hear it, this is something people go through.’ I was grateful to get it out. I’ve chipped away at the emotional baggage of it all my life. It was cathartic to write it.”
Hiatt adds that the revealing “Buddy Boy” is among his favorites on the new album, also dealing with a heavy subject: his battle with the bottle. “I thought of it as a tender moment between an older guy and a younger guy, or a good talking-to-yourself. Like, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. I’ve always admired a man’s tenderness. It’s not something that came naturally in my parents’ generation.”
“It’s all there. John belongs in the highest class of American songwriters. Many of his songs are about things that happened to him. He’s good at writing about his personal experiences,” Douglas affirms.
Leftover Feelings also is packed with plenty of Hiatt’s patented wry wit and chugging grooves, like the bluesy “Mississippi Phone Booth.” Hiatt quips, “I really like that one. I wrote it so young people can give me that [quizzical ‘His Master’s Voice’] RCA dog look, like, ‘What the hell is a phone booth?”
In considering why the Midwest has produced such poetic, insightful songwriters including him (Indiana), Dylan (Minnesota), and Prine (Illinois), Hiatt took pause. “Just to be included in that company, forget it, that’s more than I can bear. I don’t know—maybe we don’t mind leaning into a hard wind.” ■
James Turano is a freelance writer and a former entertainment editor, feature writer, and columnist for national and local magazines and newspapers. He has written official programs for eight Elton John tours since 2003 and is also a Chicago radio personality and host on WGN 720AM.