John Hiatt
Bring the Family

THE REVIEW

Bring the Family: a tribute to love. Not the love that loses itself in vain romanticisms, or the one that demands to be described by idyllic poems. Here, there is only room for straightforward love, told with simple practicality and raw truth.
And if Bring is accompanied by deep, melodic, and even raw music, the result is well worthy: John Hiatt, the white man with a black voice, offers in 1987 a small Southern gem.

John Hiatt, was and is a renowned American singer-songwriter, who gained some popularity in the early '80s, and whose life and artistic career have often been marked by his strange and gloomy personality, typical of a Southerner, angry and embittered by his own failures and the end of his dreams, always distant and unattainable. These deep emotions can be captured in the records of the first wave. Later, the anger gives way to a small glimmer of happiness, only to transform into infinite disorientation. Bring The Family is born of all these emotions.

Accompanied by a strategic Southern quartet, the Goners, Hiatt makes his deep voice the fifth instrument, which, I bet, would manage to move even the coldest man on this earth! A prime example is "Have A Little Faith In Me", absolutely the most touching piece of the record, where the impressive and passionate voice is accompanied only by a sequence of grand piano chords. Other captivating moments of emotion can be found in the intense "Lipstick Sunset", the very sad "Stood Up" and the final acoustic strummed "Learning How To Love You".

Bring The Family also features more lively pieces, almost swinging, and "Memphis In The Meantime" is the most vibrant example: the hymn to his beloved dirty city, delightfully dirty and pleasantly violent. The same violence that is sought and pursued in "Alone In The Dark", where Hiatt seems able to spit out all the bitterness of a broken heart, always delivering everything with vigorous vocal strength.

Bring The Family: tales of virile love.