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John Hiatt Feted by Fellow Americana Stars in Splendid Troubadour Tribute Show: Concert Review
A John Hiatt tribute put on as a MusiCares benefit featured Los Lobos, Lyle Lovett, Tom Morello, Brandy Clark, Joe Bonamassa and Michael McDonald.
The once-and-future Doobie sat down at an electric keyboard to sing the number solo, sans the house band, and it was transfixing from moment one, as McDonald applied that not-quite-earthly, benevolent-alien voice to Hiatt’s most famous redemption anthem, throwing in a long gospel-piano outro that really made it feel like a faith-based song. The performances kicked off with another instance of the house band not being present on stage, in this case so that the full lineup of Little Feat could commence proceedings with “Slow Turning,” the title track of Hiatt’s “Bring the Family” followup in the late ’80s. After his cameo with Los Lobos, Hiatt was joined by the house band for a concluding four of his own, three of them pretty well-known (including the Ry Cooder-recorded cowrite “Across the Borderine”) plus one welcome deeper cut, “The Music Was Hot,” from a more recent album, representing not one of his own personal stories but his imagining of a less than completely fulfilled mother and housewife who lives for WSM.
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