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little head |
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1997, july 1, Capitol |
CD. 8 54672 2 | |||||||||||
CAS. 8 54672 4 |
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1 | Little head | 3:45 | ||||||||||
2 | Pirate radio | 4:27 | ||||||||||
3 | My sweet girl | 4:04 | ||||||||||
4 | Feelin again | 3:45 | ||||||||||
5 | Graduated | 4:38 | ||||||||||
6 | Sure Pinocchio | 4:16 | ||||||||||
7 | Runaway | 5:53 | ||||||||||
8 | Woman sawed in half | 4:31 | ||||||||||
9 | Far as we go | 4:15 | ||||||||||
10 | After all this time | 3:24 | ||||||||||
(bonus track on japanese release) | ||||||||||||
11 | the trouble with blood | 3:57 | ||||||||||
Total running time: |
46:56 | |||||||||||
Musicians |
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John Hiatt: |
Guitar Piano Vocals |
the nashville queens |
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David Immerglück: |
Guitar Pedal steel Dobro Sitar Background Vocals |
Davey Faragher: |
Bass Background Vocals |
Gary Ferguson: |
Drums Background Vocals |
additional musicians | |
Michael Urbano: | Drums (5, 7) |
Peter Holsapple: |
Organ Piano Background Vocals |
Efrain Toro: |
Percussion Background Vocals |
Tower of power: | Horns |
Bill Churchville: |
Trumpet Flugelhorn |
Barry Danielian: |
Trumpet Flugelhorn |
Stephen Kupka: | Baritone Sax |
John Scarpulla: |
Tenor & Alt Sax Flute |
Emilio Castillo: | Tenor Sax |
Benmont Tench: | organ |
Kevin Buck: | Cello |
Jon Brion: |
Chamberlain Vibes |
Matt Ferguson: | Background Vocals |
Billy Valentine: | Background Vocals |
Jeff Scornavacca: | Background Vocals |
Bob Joyce: | Background Vocals |
Jim Gilstrap: | Background Vocals |
Jean McClain: | Background Vocals |
Laura Creamer: | Background Vocals |
Credits |
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Produced: |
Davey Faragher John Hiatt |
Engineered andmixed: | David Lohr |
Assistant engineerd: |
Tom Winsow David Nottinhham Okhee Kimm |
Horn arrangements: |
Steve Bartek Davey Faragher |
Guitar technician: | Matt Furguson |
Mastered: | Robert Vosgien |
Project coördination: |
Maggi Sikkens Bridget Nolan Jeff Scornavacca |
management: |
the metropolitan entertainment group |
Mastered: | Eddie Schreyer |
agency: |
rob prinz creative artist agency |
business management: |
larry cherry money management |
art direction: | steele & fey |
photography: | Neal preston |
design: | jeffrey fey |
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thanks to | |
larry fishman, larry dalton & joe barbieri at fishman transducers. greg romano at d'addario strings. t.j. baden at taylor guitars. ken hensly, mary ann yaeger & sean brown at ampeg. fletcher at mercenary audio. john foss & scott thompson at rockIt cargo. scott at naschville cartage. capitol thanks: gary gersh | |
Note |
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press photo
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capitol biography |
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Time
comes now for LITTLE HEAD -- Hiatt's 14th album -- only now the times have
changed. Following his widely hailed 1995 Capitol label debut disc "Walk
On" (a year-end Top 10 for many critics who lauded it as his best since
his 1987 landmark "Bring The Family"), the Indiana native and Tennessee
resident is not only being rightly acknowledged as a top recording artist
in his own right, but thanks to an in-concert manner that is as
marvelously comical as it is riveting, one of rock's most striking stage
performers as well. That
album, and the "Little Village" one-shot super group set starring Hiatt,
Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder, and Jim Keltner, followed three late '80s solo
albums: "Bring the Family," "Slow Turning," and "Stolen Moments." "I look
back at 'Stolen Moments' as my 'studio record,'" he notes with an amused
chuckle, "playing with different players -- that kind of approach. But I
got it out of my system and was hungry for a rock combo again -- and
Little Village was as wacked-out a rock combo as I've ever been a part of!
But it got me back to my natural element: working with a good garage band,
basically, with a lot of cool ideas. A primitive, ass-backward kind of
approach that wasn't terribly educated in terms of style. Definitely not
Dutch Masters, more like 'outsider' art!" "Graduated," which concerns a guy who realizes forlornly that he and
his girl have "graduated" out of their youthful passion, has a second life
outside the song. Hiatt, it turns out, never finished high school; his
wife is now going to night school to study veterinary science -- and is in
turn challenging him to get his GED. " 'My Sweet Girl' is all about her,"
he said. "But really, all the songs are!"
All in all, the breadth of material on LITTLE HEAD buttresses its
writer's description of himself as "the Sybil of rock 'n roll." Meanwhile,
the multi-faceted writer-artist has recently generated two more covers:
"Through Your Hands," which was previously covered by David Crosby and
Joan Baez, has now been reprised by Don Henley on the "Michael" movie
soundtrack, while "Have a Little Faith In Me," once covered by Jo-El
Sonnier and Joe Cocker, provided new fodder for Jewel on another John
Travolta-starring film soundtrack, "Phenomenon."
But a bigger honor came this year when Hiatt, the Nashville Music Award
winner for artist songwriter of the year, was twice nominated for a Grammy
for "Cry Love" (for best male rock vocal and best rock song) his big first
single from "Walk On." "That's something I never could say before!" he
told his "Hard Rock Live" audience, then promptly stumbled over the word
"Grammy!" Then again, the esteemed John Hiatt is the kind of artist who
reverently covers the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" and counts amongst his
proudest moments his landmark appearance on "Hee Haw."
"I'm just a guy from the Midwest who feels like Dobie Gray singing "I'm
in with the "in" crowd,' " Hiatt later said of his Grammy nominations. "It
just kind of feels cool, like if I won one of those little 25-lap
'Legends' races!" Yes, Hiatt drives a 5/8-sized classic race car, and has
set up shop at his 1910 farmhouse situated 30 miles outside Nashville. His
car's number, incidentally, is 61, for the highway intersecting Highway
49, the fabled "crossroads" where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his
soul to the devil. His racing motto? "Hell Hounds On My Trail," after the
Johnson blues classic.
"I grew up in Indianapolis, where my heroes were Dylan, Hendrix, Muddy
Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and racers like A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Tony
Bettenhausen," said Hiatt. "They were every bit the gods."
Of course, Hiatt himself, to his peers and fans, long ago entered the
music side of his pantheon, and his new album further certifies his
position as one of the most important artists of his generation. In this
regard, one other song merits mention: "Pirate Radio," is a heartfelt
anthem to the good old rock 'n roll of Hiatt's youth, a vital style of
rock which these days seems hard to find. On LITTLE HEAD, however, classic
rock 'n roll, thanks to John Hiatt, has suddenly been rediscovered.
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allmusic.com By attempting to loosen up on Little Head, John Hiatt only accentuates his songwriting slump. Hiatt tentatively backs away from pure Americana, trying to make the rhythms looser and the lyrics funnier. It's supposed to be a lighthearted record, but the humor is so labored and the music so forced that it largely falls flat. But the real problem is Hiatt's shockingly listless songwriting. Although he's recycled past ideas on Perfectly Good Guitar and Walk On, his craftsmanship made those two efforts at least marginally entertaining. On Little Head, his skill has abandoned him — there's no spark to the music, no bite to the lyrics, no hooks in the melodies. "Pirate Radio" comes close to rocking, and "Graduated" is an affecting ballad, yet they pale next to the finest moments not only on Bring the Family and Slow Turning, but also Walk On. Which means it's arguably his weakest album to date. |