Slow Turning

 (30 customer reviews)

If you want to explore John Hiatt -- and you should -- start here. If you're a fan without this CD, what in the world are you waiting for? It just doesn't get a whole lot better than this.John Hiatt writes about real life. There are no sappy teenage love songs, but there is a great song, "Drive South," about two lovers with "heads in the clouds, just a little off-course" and one more chance to make it work."Trudy and Dave" aren't your average couple, but their descriptions (and the baby's) are laugh-out-loud funny. "Tennessee Plates" has a great, catchy guitar riff and an even better storyline: a lonely, desperate man; a female Elvis fan who's "been living in-between" and a car theft in Memphis."Georgia Rae" is a song about Hiatt's daughter and fits in well with everything else here. The title song is Hiatt's view of the world: unbowed, but realistic. "Is Anybody There?" will put chills down your spine with...Read more

Slow turning generally gets less critical acclaim than Bring the Family.In my own opinion though, this is a far superior record: the bounce, enthusiasm and joy of the songs being driven along by a band that sounds as though it's having the time of its life and sung by a man who seems to have seen an extremely bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel put into the shade the more antiseptic sound of the previous record. Of his subsequent albums only Walk On consistently matches the high quality of this one.

I've been listening to this CD for over ten years and it stays fresh. John Hiatt has a talent for expressing insight on experiences and emotions seldom expressed in songwriting and this CD is one of his best examples. It runs a range of hard driving guitars and vocals to solo and soulful piano ballads. If you're not completely familiar with Hiatt's work and are looking for a CD that demonstrates his full range of talent, this is it.