Pop Music Review : Hiatt Offers New Tales of Heartbreak

Pop fans should recognize the songs of John Hiatt: the wry tales of heartbreak, the reflections on life’s everyday horrors, with scenes that linger long after the music has faded. They’ve been hits for a growing crowd of other artists (i.e., Bonnie Raitt, the Neville Brothers, Rosanne Cash).

But no one interprets Hiatt’s rough-hewn work better than the writer himself. That was obvious Thursday at the Wiltern Theater, where the Indiana-born singer-songwriter’s energetic 90-minute set included new material that ranks among the very best of his two-decade recording career.

Songs from the new “Walk On” album dominated the night with stories of romance, regret and ruined dreams. Supported by a tight backing trio (including multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck), Hiatt mostly played acoustic guitar and sung with a voice that was like a warm mix of gravel and honey, part Van Morrison, part Woody Guthrie.

Hiatt strapped on an electric guitar for the moving “Good as She Could Be,” a song of wasted youth and tragic misunderstanding. And he later sat behind a keyboard for the sly rumble of “Native Son.” A performance of the older “Some Time Other Than Now” (from 1988’s “Slow Turning”) lacked the same drive or melodic sophistication, in spite of some fine pedal steel accompaniment.

If anything, that contrast just indicated how far Hiatt, this deep into his career, continues to grow meaningfully as an artist.