Crossing Muddy Waters

by Heather Joslyn

October 2000, Baltimore City Paper

Hard-core fans of singer/ songwriter John Hiatt--the ones who fell in love with his humble, rootsy late-'80s albums--have found their patience tried in recent years. While his '90s albums have all contained a few gems, they often found him straining too hard to rock, sounding too much like other self-consciously aging baby-boomer bards.

Finally, Hiatt has quit cursing the dying of the light, sparking his best set of tunes in a decade. Crossing Muddy Waters, his first album for the venerable folk label Vanguard, finds Hiatt unplugging his ax and unburdening his heart. The 11 tunes draw most heavily from country blues and gospel, and many of the songs work themes of romantic ruin and death, sometimes both at once. "Do we call the kids/ or call the cops?" the narrator of "What Do We Do Now" asks his lover. The stately, mandolin-sprinkled title track finds a man mourning the loss of his wife, and the language Hiatt uses is so wedded to Appalachian death ballads ("in a rush of wind and a river song/ I can hear my true love moaning") that we're not certain whether she simply abandoned her family or drowned.

With assists from guitarist/mandolinist David Immerglück and bassist Davey Faragher, Crossing Muddy Waters finds Hiatt's musical muse loose as a goose. "Lincoln Town" is a hittin'-the-road anthem in the tradition of Hiatt's "Memphis in the Meantime," but with a relaxed, front-porch-hootenanny feel. "Mr. Stanley" stares down the grim reaper with spine-chilling slide-guitar work and an otherworldly blues vocal. "Lift Up Every Stone," a hand-clapping spiritual about a lurid murder, is so atmospheric that you can picture pews filled with women in their Sunday finery.

You'll be hearing plenty of covers of these songs on country and adult-contemporary radio in the next few years, so as a preemptive strike, let's make a few suggestions. Bonnie Raitt, may we direct your attention to "What Do We Do Now"? Aretha Franklin, check out "Lift Up Every Stone." Aaron Neville, "God's Golden Eyes" awaits you. Ray Charles--get "Gone." Johnny Cash, please swing by "Lincoln Town."