★★★★★
I grew up in a household in rural Ontario during the late '80s with a satellite dish. This is owing to the fact that for most of my young life in that house, we only got three channels and one of them was rather fuzzy. So my parents capitulated around 1988 and got one of those jail broken dishes with a descrambler that would only last for a few years before the industry figured out a way around such blatant piracy. Anyhow...
- www.popmatters.com
2014-01-16
★★★★★
There are a few artists on the planet who can do almost no wrong. They might veer in a direction that's slightly less appealing than their usual output, or come up with a lyric now and then that doesn't quite hit its mark. But they're so good overall, you forgive the small imperfections and love them all the more because it makes them human, instead of untouchably distant. Elvis Costello and Lyle Lovett reside in that category. So does John Hiatt...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
Calling once again on producer Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley (Aerosmith, Joe Bonamassa), the man in the chair for last year's Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns, Hiatt continues to make eloquent inroads towards the vibrant hard rock country that distinguished his very best albums in the 80s. Mystic Pinball is populated by American everymen, some trying to get by and hold on to their women or their jobs, others with more sinister thoughts on their mind.....
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
John Hiatt's last two albums (The Open Road 2010, Dirty Jeans Mudslide Hymns 2011) are among the most memorable of his career, in large part because of the assertive yet sympathetic accompaniment of The Combo, a streamlined three-piece band consisting of guitarist Doug Lancio, bassist Patrick O'Hearn and drummer Kenneth Blevins...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2012-10-04
★★★★★
It's the words and images -- rather than the music -- that you remember after listening to John Hiatt's new record, Mystic Pinball. You remember the motorcyclist with no helmet who slams into a concrete drain pipe in the song "It All Comes Back Someday". You remember the note found in a dead lover's breast pocket in "Wood Chipper". You remember the alcoholic who turns to the bottle because he thought he saw his long-estranged wife across town in "One of Them Damn Days"...
- www.popmatters.com
2012-10-01
★★★★★
New West Records Mystic Pinball marks a hat trick of three solid albums in a row by John Hiatt and his latest band, The Combo. 2010's The Open Road was our introduction to stringmaster Doug Lancio and the killer rhythm section of Patrick O'Hearn (bass) and Kenneth Blevins (who also played drums with Hiatt's longtime backers The Goners)...
- www.jambands.com
2012-10-01
★★★★★
John Hiatt has been making albums for New West Records for nearly a decade now, and it's clear that the stint has rejuvenated a career that's quickly approaching the 40-year mark. Hiatt has made some of his most consistently great albums since 2003's Beneath This Gruff Exterior, including last year's The Open Road, but Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns is something of a mixed bag...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2011-10-11
★★★★★
Recording with The Combo makes all the difference in the world in the presentation of John Hiatt's songs. A craftsmanlike composer schooled in Nashville, Hiatt may forever skirt a pro-forma approach to songwriting, but the unified punch of this band brings realism to his material and his performance on Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns. As usual, Hiatt's songs run the gamut from character portraits such as "Til I Get My Lovin' Back" to the more tuneful self-expression "I Love That Girl...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2011-09-19
★★★★★
Hiatt's admirable work rate means he's up to his 20th album since his debut appeared in the mid-70s, rarely leaving a gap of more than 18 months between releases. While prolific by today's norm, he hasn't always been firing on all cylinders, his back catalogue littered with solid but hardly special records...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2011-09-12
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