New in 2017

Bdp,

IIRC, Sheryl Crow opened for John Hiatt on the Pefectly Good Guitar tour. I saw the show at Irving Plaza in NYC. I, too, hadn’t heard of Crow and, when she took the stage, I laughed at this little lady who was barely visible behind a big dreadnought guitar. I wasn’t laughing after the first notes, tho - she was great. I was instantly a fan.

BTW, Hiatt tore the roof off the place that night. He’s always had great bands, but that one was almost a punk feeling group. I think the lead player was called Matt Ward and he was almost 180 degrees from Sonny Landreth (Hiatt’s awesomely talented sometimes lead guitar player). It was all sharp, angular barks vs Sonny’s slithery, winding honk.

That was one of the better rock n roll shows that I ever recall seeing.

Right Marty, Hiatt's Perfectly Good Guitar album tour. That album was a radical change from the previous two, Bring The Family and Slow Turning, both of which I loved (still do, of course!). I had mixed feelings about PGG upon it's release, but heard live I better understood what John was trying with it. Matt Ward's Gibson 335 was cranked way up, with lots of sustain and distortion, not my favorite electric guitar tone. But it worked with the material. And you're again right, the band rocked real hard, very exciting. I still prefer the material and musician's on BTF and ST (how ya gonna top Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, Jim Keltner, and Sonny Landreth?!), but John couldn't keep making the same album over and over. John Hiatt, one of our best living songwriters and singers!

I wish that I could have seen Sheryl Crow/John Hiatt bill on tour.

Looking forward to Laura Marling's new album due in March.  I have all her cd's and they are fabulous!  

BDP,

Actually,. I agree with you across the board - Bring the Family, Stolen Moments, and Slow Turning was an astounding triple header from  Hiatt.  PPG wasn't quite in the same league.  However....

That PPG tour was just a startling live show.  Still my favorite concert from Hiatt and, before that tour....

I'd already seen Hiatt many, many times.  During his earliest performing years, Hiatt used to play at The Bottom Line in NYC when I lived three blocks from the place.  I never missed a show.  These went all the way back to the Observatory and Slug Line years, when a John Hiatt show was often just JH and an acoustic guitar.

The Sonny Landreth bands may have been more skilled (and probably were more nuanced, as well), but that PPG band rocked like mad.  Relative quality of the material notwithstanding, that was my favorite John Hiatt concert.