John Hiatt Needed for the ‘Country Bear’ Necessities

John Hiatt’s had his songs recorded by Bonnie Raitt and B.B. King.

But he’s never had anything sung by bears.

Until recently, that is.

Hiatt’s written the songs at the heart of “The Country Bears,” a live-action movie coming next summer from Disney that transforms the ursine animatronics from Disneyland’s hayseed Country Bear Jamboree into an influential country-rock act overcoming tensions (and one member’s debilitating honey addiction) for a long-awaited reunion to save the legendary concert hall where they launched their careers.

“It’s Spinal Tap with paws and fur,” says Hiatt. “The Country Bears [in the movie] are a band of some influence to many generations of musicians, and I had to come up with stuff that musically had a little weight to it.”

To add to the authenticity, Disney recruited Don Henley to sing one of the bear character’s parts, with Raitt doing the singing for his girlfriend/backup vocalist, and Colin Hay as a third bear. Hiatt handles the vocals for Tennessee Bear, not only on two of the songs he wrote, but on a wedding-band rendition of the Tom Jones hit “It’s Not Unusual.”

Henley and Raitt also make cameo appearances in the movie as themselves, as do Willie Nelson and Elton John, while actors providing bear speaking voices include Haley Joel Osment (as the young fan who spurs the reunion), Brad Garrett, Stephen Root and Richard Kind.

Producing the music is Glyn Johns, whose lengthy credits include albums by the Rolling Stones and Hiatt.

“In Glyn Johns, they got the right guy,” Hiatt says. “He made it less of a country band and more of a ‘70s band like the Band or the Eagles that mixed genres and had such impact on the rock community.”

To help Hiatt out, the Disney folks provided a full “history” of the group--which includes Ted and Fred Bedderhead, Tennessee O’Neal and Zeb Zoober--and highlighted such classic releases as “The Brown Furry Album” and “Pawsative Vibrations,” and the triumphant Hiber Nation Tour. But they also gave him just two months to write the songs as production was on a tight schedule in view of the industry strikes looming earlier this year.

“The songs had to reveal something about where the characters are at,” says Hiatt, whose own new album, “The Tiki Bar Is Open,” is due Sept. 11. “The love song that Don and Bonnie sing together, ‘Could Love Stand the Test,’ goes over their broken love affair.

“But I had to come up with these quickly,” he says. “I’m not really good at writing on demand. This was special circumstances, what with the bears waiting. Wouldn’t want to get them mad--or the mouse, I understand.”

*

GOING WITH THE FLOW: Elektra Records intended to keep Bjork’s “Vespertine” album, not due in stores until Aug. 28, under pretty tight security, limiting access to advance copies to keep the music out of the post-Napster world of unauthorized Internet-file sharing.

So much for plans. Several of the “Vespertine” tracks, featuring the Icelandic singer in eerie, hypnotic settings crafted by Bay Area computer-music duo Matmos, are readily available for download via such services as BearShare, KaZaA and others that are rising while legally beleaguered Napster remains dormant.

Rather than fight it, though, Elektra executives supervising the album’s roll-out are putting a positive spin on the free access fans can have.

“It wasn’t completely to our plans,” says Dana Brandwein, Elektra vice president of marketing and artist development. “But it certainly proves just how substantial Bjork fans are and how enthusiastic they are about her music.”

In addition, she acknowledges, the exposure can be seen as a positive given that the music’s distinctive character makes it unlikely to get much mainstream radio play.

The unauthorized availability can complement other elements of the official “awareness strategy” for the album that includes a “syndicate” of Web sites--from major brand-name portals to tiny fan pages--through which video excerpts, contests and other promotional activities will be presented. Her core fans, the belief is, will buy the CD regardless of its free Internet status, while anything that may draw the attention of others is a positive.

“We felt a lot of people know her now from fashion magazines and for her movie [‘Dancer in the Dark’] and Oscar appearance, but not necessarily for her current music,” says Camille Hackney, Elektra vice president of multimedia marketing. “There are so many aspects to her we wanted people to experience that we couldn’t convey through MTV and certainly not on radio.”

*

PRIME REAL ESTATE: For young singer Lindsay Pagano, it was all about location in the making of her debut album, “Love & Faith & Inspiration,” due Sept. 4 from Warner Bros. Records. Her producer, Jude Cole, operates out of the same Los Angeles studio facility--on the former A&M; Records lot--where Paul McCartney has been making his next album with producer David Kahne.

After the two met in the hallway, McCartney became a regular visitor to her studio to hear new songs. He happened to be there when Cole mentioned that Pagano needed one more song for her album. McCartney suggested his 1983 song “So Bad.” But the biggest treat for her was when McCartney later surprised her by offering to sing background on the track with her.

*

SMALL FACES: Cypress Hill’s Muggs has signed to Epitaph Records’s Anti label, with a solo album due in spring. Half of the album, expected to mix hip-hop with rock and electronica, will feature collaborations with artists yet to be determined (Bjork and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke have both been approached), while Muggs is looking for a new female singer to anchor the rest....

Breaking from the groundbreaking loops-and-samples style of his recent albums, veteran Mississippi bluesman R.L. Burnside will release a live album, “Burnside on Burnside,” showcasing his stripped-down, gritty electric sound and rural storytelling. It’s due Oct. 23....

Daft Punk’s new video, for the song “Harder, Bigger, Faster, Stronger,” will debut not on MTV, but on the Cartoon Network. It will be featured in an hourlong animated music video special on a date to be set in late August along with the previous three Daft Punk videos, all done by Japanese anime director Leiji Matsumoto (who has completed clips for all 12 of the French duo’s latest album), and three animated videos for English cartoon band Gorillaz....

TCP, the colorful dance quartet featured in OutKast’s “Rosa Parks” video, has moved into rapping too, with an album coming in the fall from OutKast’s Elektra-distributed Aquemini label and production by OutKast deejay Cutmaster Swiff.