Known for a distinctively gruff voice that masks his deft touch with a pen, John Hiatt is probably Indiana’s third most famous native-born rocker after John Mellencamp and Axl Rose. He’s got plenty of mailbox money from songs he wrote for folks like Bonnie Raitt (“Thing Called Love”) and Bon Jovi (“Have a Little Faith in Me”) but has built up a respectable following for his own solo albums, which can be pricklier and more exposed than the artists who cover him. Hiatt’s latest is 2012’s Mystic Pinball (New West), which mingles cantankerous wisdom with feelings that can bruise as easily as any younger man’s.
This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2013.
