Liner Notes

John Hiatt - Demos III early 1980's - unknown cassette > cdr(0) > eac > cd wave > flac

Here we go for the last time. For those of you new to this, the other two volumes are still on the tracker as of today, 1/18.

These are all pre-Bring The Family songs, good to Very Good quality. You can hear the eramark of early Hiatt: he is trying to sound like he's black (sometimes way too much). Great variety in the songwriting quality: A really bad Waits attempt (Here's To You), and way too many acoustic numbers that sound like Mississippi John Hurt retreads (he even dedicates #6 to him)--now I see why he was on the tribute lp. You Never Told Her--easily one of the best songs Hiatt ever wrote, period; it's fully orchestrated. Also great: Dave Edmunds' Something's Happening is here, as is Conway Twitty' Heavy Tears. Marti Jones' version of If I Could Love Somebody unfortunately blows Hiatt's away, he does not connect with the song.

80% of this is acoustic solo--it gives things like Radio Girl and Washable Ink some interesting turns, but you wish for a band on stuff like Follow the Dolphin and I'll get Out of This.

This is all I have; I guess no one is going to upgrade this stuff.

shared via DimeADozen by lilpanda - a BIG thank you!