A conversation with John Hiatt
John Hiatt plays Saint Rocke Sept. 4. Photo by Jack Spencer When you think of the top tier of truly great soul singers, the names that come quickly to mind are Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Sam and Dave. The list has two qualities that are immediately striking: everyone is black, and all came from the same generation, one that started singing sometime in the 1950s. John Hiatt is a great soul singer. Though he is somewhat younger and considerably whiter, Hiatt, along with Van Morrison, is one of a mysteriously fading breed: the white soul singer. Hiatt possesses one of those sawdust and smoke kind of voices seemingly anointed to sing soul. “I don’t know about anointed,” said Hiatt, with a rich chuckle in an interview this week. “I think if you want to call it fate, or whatever the hell – I just feel like it was something I was kind of born to do. I don’t mean it to sound like I am some kind of brilliant genius. I just mean I would be doing this, whether it was professionally or not – I’d be writing songs and singing, even if it was just in my backyard to my friends or just to my family. I love it.” His songwriting…
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