Prior to Bring the Family John Hiatt had put out a procession of solid albums that had gained a low key cultish following. Known to some as the US's answer to Elvis Costello (something he played up to on the video of this remake of the Spinners Living a Little Laughing a Little (an actual duet with Costello)). When he released this in 1987 it was at a low point in his career and personal life. He had been dropped by three labels after more than half a dozen albums that received great reviews and poor sales. In that time he had recorded and played occasionally with Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder and Jim Keltner.
So with what must have been a fair degree of anxiety he entered a small studio in LA with the three veterans and a great bunch of originals and recorded this classic album. It was the start of a purple patch for Hiatt when he seemed to be writing songs for everyone from Iggy Pop to Joe Cocker. Around 1990 when we lived in Taupo the soundtrack to many of our drives was a C90 mix tape of Hiatt songs that never seemed to have a bad song.
However it is this album and its bunch of songs that I probably come back to this most. Kicking off with Memphis in the Meantime the album really never lets up with Alone in the Dark, Lipstick Sunset, Tip of my Tongue and Your Dad Did. The latter song had a particular resonance at the time as our kids were at an age when I could really relate to the song.
However it is probably the much covered Have a Little Faith in Me which really stamps the album's raison d'etre solidly.
The band reconvened a few years later for another album under the name Little Village. However by that stage democracy seemed to be ruling things and as a result the songs were not as consistently good and the overall vision was not as strong. Hiatt however has continued to record solid and occassionally great albums which I will cover later.
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