MUSIC REVIEWS
JOHN HIATT AND THE GONERS
BENEATH THIS GRUFF EXTERIOR
By R. A. Pearson

John Hiatt has released a new CD with his long time band The Goners entitled Beneath This Gruff Exterior. Once again Hiatt relies on his blues roots to create a unique and impassioned CD that epitomizes the modern blues sound. The CD contains 12 cuts from a wide selection of blues genres and features great sounds from The Goners and sax man Bobby Keys.

The first song on the CD, "Uncommon Connection" contains a Cajun beat and sound. A listener could almost swear they hear a zydeco and smell the crayfish and Cayenne pepper boiling in the background while listing to this ditty. The songs "Window on the World" and "My Dog and Me" are reminiscent of Hiatt's 2000 release, Crossing Muddy Water (a personal favorite of mine). The CD features a lot of great instrumentation including terrific slide guitar on such songs as "How Bad's the Coffee" and "The Nagging Dark." Other good tunes on the CD include "My Baby Blue," "Fly Back Home," and "The Most Unoriginal Sin," a cover of a Willie Nelson tune originally recorded in 1993. The CD contains a lot of energy and may be one of Hiatt's most rock-influenced releases to date.

Beneath This Gruff Exterior was produced by Don Smith, John Hiatt and the Goners. The Goners are: Dave Ranson on Bass, Kenneth Blevins on drums, and Sonny Landreth on electric and slide guitars, and the dobro. This is a great CD.

A more traditional blues CD is Robert Cray's Time Will Tell released on July 1st of this year. Time Will Tell was produced by Jim Pugh, the bands keyboard player, and Robert Cray who plays the guitars and does the vocals for the band. Other members of the group include Kevin Hayes on drum and Karl Sevareis on the bass. Cray brings in several guest musicians including Evan Price and David Balakrishnan on violins, Mark Summer on cello, and Jerry Martin on sax.

The CD contains 10 cuts. Some of the songs that caught my attention were "Survivor," "Back Door Slam," "I Don't Know," and "Distant Shore." The CD contains great blues guitar work and the other instruments blend in to make this CD a terrific blues compilation.

John Hiatt and Robert Cray began a long tour this spring that will end in the Deep South in October. The blues duo will play the historic Florida Theater in Jacksonville, Florida, on Tuesday October 14th. So if you want to hear Hiatt's "Riding With the King," or "Angel Eyes," and Cray's "Forecast Calls For Rain," or 'Smoking Gun" you will want to be in the Florida Theater on October 14th. I certainly have my tickets for this event, and if you do not have yours, ticket information can be obtained by calling the ticket office at the Florida Theater.

Both Robert Cray and John Hiatt have "Best of …" CDs for those of you that may need to refresh your blues memory.

The Clarion Issue expresses condolences to the family, friends, and fans of Eric Brann, who died in Los Angeles, California, on July 25th at the age of 52 from cardiac arrest. Eric Brann was the lead guitarist of Iron Butterfly in 1968 at the time the group recorded their legendary, 17-minute, psychedelic classic, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. He was only 17-years-old at the time. Brann had been trained as a concert violinist before he learned guitar. He was considered by many to be a music prodigy. On the jacket to the original LP (and I wore out three of them) he listed his main concerns as the Iron Butterfly, turtleneck sweaters, and members of the fairer sex. However, the touring and pressure got to the young artist. In 1988 Brann recalled that, after the success of the LP, he took his first vacation. He stated "I bought a car, a Jaguar, and parked it outside the hospital where I spent two weeks for ulcers and gastroenteritis."

Brann left the band and went on to become a songwriter, studio musician and producer. Iron Butterfly bassist, Lee Dorman, said, " I remember him growing up with the band. It was a pretty tight-knit group ... he left everyone (and he) just sort of drifted." However, the success of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida secured Eric Brann's place in music history.

Also deceased Sun Record's Sam Phillips, who died at age 80 on July 30th. Sam Phillips discovered Elvis Presley and launched the careers of Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich, and B.B. King. He was the first to record the blues legend Howlin' Wolf. He died of respiratory failure at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis after a year of declining health. The music world mourns the loss of this musical pioneer.