John Hiatt. (Sound Recording Reviews).(The Tiki Bar Is Open)(Sound Recording Review)

John Hiatt. The Tiki Bar Is Open. Vanguard 79593, 2001.

A complete list of the pop and country artists who have had commercial success with versions of songs by John Hiatt would be long and impressive, and would include such diverse names as Ronnie Milsap, Iggy Pop, Dr. Feelgood, Three Dog Night, the Neville Brothers, and, perhaps most famously, Bonnie Raitt (whose version of Hiatt's "Thing Called Love" was a huge hit for her in 1989 and a major factor in her belated emergence as a mainstream pop music figure). Unfortunately, a complete list of the people who have bought Hiatt's own albums over the past twenty-five years would not be much longer, and while he has gained enough of a cult following to keep him recording fairly steadily over those years, one rather suspects that the bulk of his income comes in the form of royalty payments from other artists. Part of the explanation lies in his ...