John Hiatt – Feels Like Rain, by Ron Swanson

Underrated is a common enough term for artists we like that don’t end up selling millions of records and becoming household names. I think it is safe to call John Hiatt underrated, however. This is a guy who started out writing songs done by everyone from Three Dog Night (and Hard Labor was a big time seller back in ’74) to Iggy Pop, to Bonnie Raitt. He made himself an industry name as a great songwriter to start with.

His records never sold quite what they should have and he wasn’t “popular” until Bring the Family came out. That one got serious critical acclaim, as well as some decent sales. For my taste, the next record, Slow Turning, was the best. Hiatt cut loose a little more in general and the lyrics were extraordinary – total fun at times and extremely poignant at others.

While I love many songs from Slow Turning, “Feels Like Rain” is in a class by itself. The lyrics are awesome:

Down here the river meets the sea
And in the sticky heat I feel ya’ open up to me
Love comes out of nowhere baby, just like a hurricane
And it feels like rain

The mood is set so well that folks who’ve never been to New Orleans can feel it, and the vocal kills. John Hiatt has never put out a bad record – and his best should be owned by all.

– Ron Swanson

.

.

Here’s a fantastic live version of Memphis in the Meantime with great slide work from Cajun axe hero Sonny Landreth. The audio and video quality in this clip are amazingly and uncommonly good for Youtube. – Memphis in the Meantime

.