JOHN HIATT : TERMS OF MY SURRENDER

 

Disc One (42:38)

  1. Long Time Comin'
  2. Face Of God
  3. Marlene
  4. Wind Don't Have To Hurry
  5. Nobody Knew His Name
  6. Baby's Gonna Kick
  7. Nothin' I Love
  8. Terms Of My Surrender
  9. Here To Stay
  10. Old People
  11. Come Back Home

Disc Two : Live From The Franklin Theatre (49:56)

  1. Drive South
  2. Tennessee Plates
  3. Crossing Muddy Waters
  4. Nothin' I Love
  5. Terms Of My Surrender
  6. Perfectly Good Guitar
  7. Feels Like Rain
  8. Thing Called Love
  9. Slow Turning
  10. Have A Little Faith In Me

Label : New West Records

Venue (DVD) : The Franklin Theatre, Franklin, Tennessee, USA

Recording Date (DVD) : October 9 & 10, 2013

Release Date : July 14, 2014

Review (AllMusic) : John Hiatt has always had one foot in the blues, and he's decided to wade waist deep into the music on 2014's Terms of my Surrender. There isn't a lot of 12-bar on this album if you're a purist about such things, but the tone of this music is smoky and rich like a Deep South BBQ joint, which suits the gruff texture of Hiatt's voice just fine, and the rootsy mood of the songs is reinforced by the production and arrangements. Hiatt primarily plays acoustic guitar on Terms of my Surrender, which cuts back the volume of these performances but adds a lot to the slinky middle-of-the-night groove of the music; Doug Lancio, lead guitarist with Hiatt's road band the Combo, produced this album, and the results sound organic and spontaneous, more so than his previous albums with producer Kevin Shirley, without obscuring the easy precision of Hiatt and his bandmates. The interplay of the band is solid, with Nathan Gehri's bass and Kenneth Blevins' drums resting comfortably in the pocket as Hiatt and Lancio conjure ghostly melodies with their guitars. "Here to Stay" and "Nothing I Love" are simple but effective blues-based numbers that deal with the tough side of love, while "Marlene" and "Come Back Home" are more cheerful variations on similar themes, and the quality of the songwriting here once again serves as a reminder of just how good Hiatt is - this is a guy who can crank out an album of new material every couple years, and he always delivers a handful of real gems without sounding rote, whether he's sounding ominous on "The Wind Don't Have to Hurry" or offering snarky humor on "Old People." On Terms of My Surrender, Hiatt has the blues, and he's got the goods, and this is another solid chapter in a recording career that's drifted into an unexpected but pleasing renaissance.

Review (Louder Than War) : Terms of My Surrender is probably his bluesiest effort since 2001's Crossing Muddy Waters and it has the hard task of following one his best albums Mystic Pinball. The mood is a rather mellow one and numerous songs see Hiatt ruminating on friendships (Long Time Coming), love (Marlene) and religion (Face God). It's far from being his most optimistic album and the sense of humour that usually permeates his songwriting (think of Wintertime Blues on his 2005 album Master Of Disaster) is absent from this set. The album was recorded with his touring band The Combo in a small studio in Nashville and most of the songs were cut in a couple of takes with the band playing live in the studio. Hiatt's voice and acoustic guitar take centre stage and the tone is very bluesy. The blues has always been a core component of Hiatt's style but while he usually manages to couple that with melody, here everything gets a bit formulaic (Nothing I Love being a perfect example of that) and the hooks are few and far between. It's not a bad record by all means because Hiatt is such a good songwriter that even a slightly off albums has good songs on it and that "Terms Of My Surrender" is no exception. It's just when you finish listening no song has really grabbed your attention. You keep waiting for something of the calibre of Slow Turning or Master of Disaster to come up but apart from a slight spark on Baby's Gonna Kick nothing happens. A perfectly listenable album but not one of his best especially when compared to all the records he has put out since the turn of the millennium.

Review (Blues Magazine) : De 62-jarige Amerikaanse gitarist, zanger en songwriter John Hiatt draait inmiddels al 40 jaar mee en heeft in al die jaren een bijzonder fraai oeuvre opgebouwd. Hij begon zijn solocarrière in 1974 en beoefende een groot aantal stijlen, van rock & roll tot new wave en folk, blues en country. Hij werd bij het grote publiek vooral bekend door zijn monsterhit “Have A Little Faith In Me”, dat door tal van topartiesten werd gecoverd. Vers van de pers is het grotendeels akoestische album, “Terms of My Surrender”. Een gevarieerde en verrassend sterke cd waarin Hiatt met zijn akoestische gitaar de show steelt en zijn naam als een van de beste songwriters meer dan waar maakt. Mijn persoonlijke favorieten van het album zijn het bluesy “Baby’s Gonna Kick”, “Marlene” en Stevie Ray Vaughan achtige “Nothing I Love”. Erg sterk is ook het jazzy en tevens titeltrack, “Terms of My Surrender” en de Delta blues, shuffle “Face Of God”.