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John Hiatt & The Combo at The Birchmere

Photo Courtesy: Dyer Design

John Hiatt & The Combo
The Legendary Birchmere Music Hall
Alexandria, Virginia
September 21

A musician recently griped that everyone calls themselves songwriters these days, no matter their capability.

Clearly, she has a point.

Truly gifted songwriters are almost as rare as shooting stars and those that bring true beauty to their songs – - the kind of beauty that makes shivers run up a listener’s spine – are rarer still.

Anyone that attended John Hiatt’s recent Washington, D.C.-area show behind his latest release “Mystic Pinball” will undoubtedly agree that he is one of the few who can truly lay claim to the singer/songwriter title.

Right from the moment Hiatt and his band took the stage and played the opening notes to “Master of Disaster,” off his 2005 release that had the North Mississippi Allstar as his backing band, it was clear the audience was in for a special evening.
Wearing a straw hat, tie, plaid shirt, and a sport coat – which he shed partway through the evening – Hiatt and his band made the intricate artistry of their music look easy as they swerved through his massive catalog during the two-plus hour show.

“I’ve heard this crap for years,” he said with a chuckle after announcing that he’d recently celebrated his 60th birthday. “That 40 is the new 30, 50 is the new 40. That’s said by people who obviously haven’t been that age or they wouldn’t feel like that. But I know that 60 is the new 12!”

Hiatt clearly beamed like a kid as he ran through his set that included such “Adios to California,” from the 2001 album Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns, “Blues Can’t Even Find Me,” from Mystic Pinball, and ‘Thing Called Love,” recorded by Hiatt on his 1987 album Bring the Family and was covered with great success by Bonnie Raitt on her 1989 album Nick of Time.

Although Hiatt was a man of few words on the stage, the infrequent and humorous stories he did share gave a glimpse into his life on the road that included such long absences from home that his wife met him in a hotel lobby and screamed that she refused to raise their children alone.

In a previous Relix interview, Hiatt told how miraculous it seemed to him that his marriage had survived 25+ years. Although he said each year the road gets more difficult, he said he couldn’t imagine not touring.

“I still love playing so much,” he said. “It’s like the three legs of a stool for me, songwriting, recording and performing. I will do this as long as I’m able to.”
If Hiatt was feeling road weary on this night, it certainly didn’t show.

Although he and his band didn’t offer what could truly be called surprises in their set, their instrumental mastery sparkled, enchanting the exuberant audience.

While the Indiana-born Hiatt has plenty of rock cred dating back to the ‘80s when he played in Ry Cooder’s backing band, his set was pure Americana with enough blues and rock woven through the songs to keep it shaking. Indeed, it seems the rendition of “Perfectly Good Guitar,” originally released in 1993, was a virtuoso performance.

Clearly, John Hiatt’s star has never shined more bright.