John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band - Leftover Feelings

Having fun listening to a new release from singer-songwriter John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band that just came out called Leftover Feelings. The cool thing about this 11-song set is that it was recorded at the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee.

This meeting of two Americana music giants in a legendary setting is neither a bluegrass album nor a return to Hiatt’s 1980s days with slide guitar greats Ry Cooder and Sonny Landreth. There’s no drummer, yet these grooves are deep and true. And while the up-tempo songs are, as ever, filled with delightful internal rhyme and sly aggression, The Jerry Douglas Band’s empathetic musicianship nudges Hiatt to performances that are startlingly vulnerable.

While I’m enjoying the entire record, the stand-out track here seems to be the tune “All the Lilacs in Ohio”. A lively uptempo tune driven by the multi-instrumental genius Douglas’ lyrical Dobro licks and soaring fiddle, “All the Lilacs in Ohio” tells of a love that never quite happened and the powerful memory that still lingers. “You met her there on a New York City stair/You were throwing up on your shoes,” Hiatt sings, his gruff vocals setting the scene for this fleeting encounter. His protagonist is left with a handkerchief that smells like springtime and he carries the item with him, dreaming of what might have been. The musicians come together for a rousing group sing-along in the chorus, “All the lilacs in Ohio, there ya go/In city streets and dirty winter snow,” they sing... Wow!

The historic RCA Studio B was one of the cradles of the “Nashville Sound” in the 1950s and 60s. A sophisticated style characterized by background vocals and strings, the Nashville Sound and Studio B played major roles in establishing Nashville’s identity as an international recording center. Hitmakers in Studio B included Country Music Hall of Fame members Eddy Arnold, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Ronnie Milsap, and more. Songs recorded within its walls span decades, genres and emotions, with Presley’s forlorn “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” and Parton’s autobiographical “Coat of Many Colors” among them.

Now, new music like this is being produced within those four hallowed walls & it continues to sound as great as it ever was - Highly recommend that you give it a listen if you have the chance!