Less than a month after Ken Kesey’s funeral was held in the historic McDonald Theater (owned by Kesey’s family), John Hiatt held court there before a full house eager for his signature brand of soulful, bluesy roots rock.
The fans, somewhere just shy of 1,000 of them in the sold-out house, got what they came for. Hiatt and his Louisiana band the Goners — Dave Ranson on bass, Kenny Blevins on drums and Sonny Landreth on slide guitar — churned out a two-hour-plus set of fine music old and new.
Guitar whiz Landreth took turns with a Fender Strat and a sunburst Les Paul, calling forth suitable blues licks and wails from each in turn, and at one point during “Everybody Went Low” karate-chopping the strings with the side of his hand. Hiatt himself alternated between an acoustic and a white Telecaster on which he mostly played rhythm but occasionally traded licks with Landreth.
The show was understandably heavily weighted with numbers from 1988’s Slow Turning and this year’s The Tiki Bar is Open, the two albums he has cut with the Goners. Standouts included a very swampy and greasy turn on the title track, the raucous “Everybody Went Low,” and the warmly nostalgic “My Old Friend” from Tiki Bar, the lovely waltz-time ballad “River of Tears?” the gospel-tinged “Is Anybody There?” and the title track from Slow Turning.
But the highlights of the night were from other albums, including a scorching bluesy take on his old chestnut “Riding With the King,” which gained new life in 2000 as a cover by Eric Clapton and B.B. King.
A stretched-out encore version of “Thing Called Love,” a hit for Bonnie Raitt in 1990, included a chorus of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” that had the crowd singing along. Hiatt opened the encore seated at the keyboard, for a moving solo rendition of “Have a Little Faith in Me.” Both are from his breakthrough album, 1987’s *Bring the Family, as is the crowning glory of the night, the flat-out “Memphis in the Meantime.” Landreth’s soloing on “Memphis” reached the heights, as did Hiatt’s performance as a dancing, singing fool for rock ‘n’ roll.
A fully jacked-up “Lincoln Town,” the night’s only offering from 2000’s acoustic gem, Crossing Muddy Waters, was less than satisfying, but that was the only slightly off note of the performance. It was my first John Hiatt show, but with any luck it won’t be my last.
