Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
The music industry needs a triple bypass, he says, and the Web's performing the surgery. Straight talk from the veteran musician, whose new album will be released this week both online and in stores.
Sep 25, 2000 | John Hiatt has a voice you can swim in -- deep, warm, a little gritty. It moves slowly in spots, pools up, muddies into a thick groove, then hits a snag and runs clear.
You probably know Hiatt's voice. Songs off his 1987 breakthrough record "Bring the Family," 1988's "Slow Turning," 1990's "Stolen Moments," 1993's "Perfectly Good Guitar," 1995's "Walk On" and 1997's "Little Head" made their way up the charts, got their share of AAA radio play and helped build him a dedicated following.
You definitely know his songs. They've been covered by Bonnie Raitt ("Thing Called Love"), Ronnie Milsap ("Old Habits [Are Hard to Break]"), the Neville Brothers ("Washable Ink"), Bob Dylan ("Across the Borderline," "The Usual") and, just this summer, Eric Clapton and B.B. King ("Ridin' With the King").
He is, they say, a musician's musician. But his lyrics are often so personal -- drawing on his struggle with alcoholism, the breakdown of his first marriage (which ended in his wife's suicide), the joy of bringing home his brand-new daughter, to name just a few -- it's hard to believe anyone can inhabit them quite like he can. Yet he says he's "tickled" by all the big names who've sought out his music. Hearing his songs covered by his idols, he says, is "just too cool for words."
After 26 years of recording, this week Hiatt is simultaneously releasing his first acoustic album, "Crossing Muddy Waters," in both a pay-per-download format on EMusic.com and in "hardware" form by Vanguard Records. Relaxing on his Tennessee farm before heading out on tour, Hiatt took some time to share his thoughts on Napster, songwriting, success and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
How did a guy like you, who doesn't even have an e-mail address, decide to release an album on the Web?
It just happened. We spent a lot of time over the last year getting out of our deal with Capitol Records and being able to take the record we were making with us. And we were successful in doing that as of about Jan. 1 of this year.
Then this interest just suddenly sprung up from EMusic.com. They said, "How would you like to put something out with us?" Initially, they wanted to put out some demos that Dave Immergl|ck, the mandolin player, and I had, and it just turned into this record. And then Vanguard got involved after we'd already made this recording.
Does releasing the album on the Web give you more control? What's the allure?
Well, it's a new way to get your music out. And it's a way of doing it without a middleman, i.e. a big corporate record company. I call the Internet "Willy Loman's revenge," from "Death of a Salesman." Willy Loman actually gets to bring his wares right to the customer, direct. That's exciting.
It's also cool that it's a new frontier -- nothing's settled. You have all this great technology exploding. It's created all this great controversy with Napster, and I think that's wonderful. I'm glad to be a little dinky part of it.
But you're also releasing it the old-fashioned way.
Yeah, Vanguard Records is releasing it simultaneously, working in conjunction with EMusic, which is not something the other major corporate labels are willing to do, judging from their reaction to Napster.
What happened with Capitol? It sounds like things got unpleasant.
You know, it wasn't unpleasant. It's like a broken record, no pun intended, but it was the same old story: The guy who signed me left. So I had to reenthuse a new regime, and, to put it simply, they didn't like the record we were making as much as we did, so we figured, you know what, they probably shouldn't put it out. So that was that.
Are you going to release it?
Yes. We're going to finish it in January. We own it. We got out of the label deal with the record, which was no small feat. We had to jump through a few flaming hoops and train poodles and God knows what else. But we got out with the record, and we're going to put it out.
We're shooting for May 2001. I'm going to start touring for "Crossing Muddy Waters" at the end of September, solo initially. I've got about a month's worth of solo acoustic dates and then the two Daveys are going to join me in November and December. And then I'll probably tour a little bit into the new year, January or February. Meanwhile, we're going to finish the rock record with the Goners [Hiatt's backing band], and hopefully put that out in May or June 2001, and then tour next summer again with the Goners.
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