Darren Watson - Darren Watson sings John Hiatt (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. All The Way Under
02. Damn This TownExplicit
03. Like A Freight Train
04. Lincoln Town
05. Mr. Stanley
06. Nothin’ I Love
07. Ride Along
08. Thing Called Love
09. Thirty Years Of Tears

I first became aware of John Hiatt in the middle of nowhere and the middle of 1988. I was a fresh-faced twenty one years old, living the dream, on the road with my blues band Chicago Smoke Shop. Our tour bus had stopped after a tyre blowout twenty minutes outside of Palmerston North, a provincial city in Aotearoa's Manawatu region. Resigned to an hour or two of stationary momentum while the tour manager located the jack and figured out how exactly one replaces a tyre on a big, old Bedford bus, I watched my buddy Dave Murphy insert a cassette into the player that fed Rob Morrison's black behemoth of a PA-hauling crawl-wagon's awesome stereo system. Hearing the opening bars of Memphis in the Meantime my ears did more than prick up! Bring The Family well and truly had it's hooks into me before John Hiatt even sang a note. By the time Learning How To Love You was over and the bus was moving again I already considered myself John Hiatt's biggest fan. As a songwriter there are few who can cut straight to the point with pathos and humour in equal measure, never mind the ability to make old chord sequences sound like they're brand new, and the soaring, biting vocals just burn.

This album is my tribute to one of my musical heroes, and as such I'm bound inevitably to fall short of his greatness. I have tried to do my own thing with these songs 'cause I really don't see any point in just doing 'em the same way John did. I really hope, if he gets to hear this album that he can appreciate how everything is done with love and deep respect for his immense talent.

And I hope you, be you a fan of my previous work, or a John Hiatt fan hearing me for the first time, enjoy my original interpretations of John's music.

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