Review: John Hiatt at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton MA

Date of concert: Friday September 24, 2010

On Friday night in Northampton MA, John Hiatt performed. And man, did he perform. But first the show opened with Holly Williams, granddaughter of Hank Williams Sr. and daughter of Hank Williams Jr. She played a simple, rather soothing set of country-folk material. Nothing really spectacular to me, although I did enjoy her cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery." She has a decent voice and was a pretty good opener for Hiatt, setting the mood well.

An intermission followed, and then came Hiatt. He played an excellent "Drive South" before going into the classic "Perfectly Good Guitar" with some great harmonica added. Hiatt was solo, switching up between two guitars throughout the show and playing a few songs on a keyboard. Hiatt was consistently hilarious throughout the whole show as well, with his answers to a member of the audience shouting for "Barbie Ferrari" (which Hiatt did play), and with his hilarious story in the middle of "Your Dad Did" about his father and February 1964, when the Beatles performed on the Ed Sullivan Show. Seriously, it rivaled anything I've heard from a stand-up comedian in a long time.


Hiatt playing "The Open Road" with a full band on Letterman:


Hiatt also played a handful of songs from his March 2010 release The Open Road, my favorite of which was the title track. Other highlights- but you know, really the whole show was a highlight- included renditions of "Feels Like Rain", "Crossing Muddy Waters", and "Master Of Disaster". I can honestly say I've never been so entertained with a solo performance in my concert going experiences so far. Really, not only is Hiatt one of the most excellent songwriters ever, he's also one of the funniest and down to earth performers I've seen. When he encored with "Have A Little Faith In Me" you know he's one of the greatest, because despite being covered by artists like Joe Cocker and Jewel, Hiatt does it the best, and it's because you know from his performance that he's lived it. Excellent show.