Ravinia 2021 - Issue 3

PATRICK SHEEHAN Douglas and Hiatt in the reverb room in RCA Studio B LAST OCTOBER , Hiatt and Douglas met up in the collaborative atmo- sphere of Nashville’s historic RCA Victor Studio B to record Leftover Feelings with Douglas’s band. The project was originally scheduled to begin that April, but the pandemic delayed it. “As the months rolled on, Nashville got better at testing. By the fall, we felt we could go in,” Hiatt recalls. “We set up about 10 feet apart in the studio and wore masks in the control booth. We were all tested, safe, and mindful of everyone’s health.” RCA’s Studio B has been used to record some of the greatest music of the last six decades. Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Willie Nelson, Way- lon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Roy Orbison, and many other country and pop hitmakers have graced its acoustically vibrant walls. “All those ghosts come to visit when you’re there. There’s an ‘X’ on the floor where Elvis stood,” Douglas observes. “They come out of the woodwork. The room is an extra musician helping to make the sound,” Hiatt adds. “ ‘All The Lilacs In Ohio’ was the first song we recorded. We did it in three takes,” Hiatt continues. “When we went into the control room for the playback, you could tell everyone was grinning under their masks. You could see it in their eyes. Everyone was so happy to be making music again, and music of this caliber. We had a sneaking suspicion we were making something really cool. We were delighted with the racket we were making.” “John didn’t know what he was get- ting into until we played the first song there. He kept saying, ‘Wow, I didn’t know it could sound like this!’ He was a cheerleader for what was happening. The songs came alive,” Douglas re- members of making Leftover Feelings , which took just four days to record. The result is a stunning synthesis of Hiatt’s emotionally delving, raspy recollections filled with wit, wisdom, whimsy, and well-crafted rhymes, and Douglas’s sliding, muscular instru- mental twang. With the addition of Jerry Douglas Band members Christian Sedelmyer on fiddle, Daniel Kimbro on bass, and Mike Seal on guitar—but no drums— Douglas says he and his band aimed to put focus on Hiatt’s strong set of songs. “We brought sensibilities of our own, but our main goal was to frame them and give them the appropriate treatment and respect these great songs deserve. Don’t play too much; perform as a band. “We’re painting around John with the right colors. Not too many, just what each song needs. It’s something you learn as a studio musician. We didn’t want to get in the way of John’s lyrics—accent them and support what John is saying. I think we pulled it off,” Douglas says with a proud chuckle. Released in May to enthusiastic, glowing reviews, the album’s crisp, stripped-down, natural vibe is filled with a mix of up-tempo, fun, frisky country rockers (“Long Black Electric Cadillac,” “Little Goodnight,” “Keen Rambler”) and haunted, tender ballads of love, loss, and life (“I’m In Asheville”) punctuated by Hiatt’s expressive, graveled vocals. Leftover Feelings is part hootenanny, part heartbreak. Hiatt fills the album with humor and satirical irony, as well as deep honesty and reflection, with songs referencing his troubled, hard-drinking days of yore (“Buddy Boy”), and another alluding to his eldest brother’s suicide that tore his family apart when Hiatt was just nine years old (“Light of the Burning Sun”). BORN IN INDIANAPOLIS , Hiatt, who turned 69 this month, has blossomed into one of America’s most prolific and hailed songwriters, with honors including the Nashville Song- writers Hall of Fame. In 2019, Hiatt became only the third songwriter to receive the BMI Troubadour Award, whose previous winners include the late John Prine, who attended “John didn’t know what he was getting into until we played the first song at studio B. the songs came alive.” RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 18 – SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 8