The Action In Frisco

One of the musical highlights of the 1980s was John Hiatt's Bring The Family, the '87 album which introduced the veteran minstrel to a new generation of fans. Full to capacity with supreme compositions, it was an exciting prospect too because the of its lineup; Hiatt of course doing most of the singing and strumming a sad acoustic, the mighty Ry Cooder handling electric guitar and a little sitar on one number, Nick Lowe on his signature bass and, as the only Brit in the line-up, presumably on joke cracking duties too, and the man who banged the drum for everyone from Bob Dylan to Manhattan Transfer, the wholly underrated Jim Keltner. The easy way the individual members clicked was what led to Little Village in 1992, but the group's one and only album did not take off though the classic guitar rock sound, replete with songs of a quite staggering hue, certainly hasn't dated. One can also guess that the supergroup format meant that the focus and the pressure wasn't directed solely at any one person, certainly each member was already very much a star in his own right. In the album's wake the Villagers hit the road; veterans to a man of the live circuit, the shows were a magnificent spectacle. And when the tour bus pulled up in San Fran and the fancy gear was unloaded into the Fox Warfield Theatre, the whole affair was broadcast across the greater Frisco area by local FM radio. The resulting broadcast can be heard in all its magnificence on this CD, as tracks from the sole LV record rub shoulders with a triumvirate of numbers from Bring The Family, and a further brace from the pen of Monsieur Lowe - including the hilarious (told you) 'Half A Boy & Half A Man'. 'Little Sister' a la the splendid late-70s Ry Cooder version makes an appearance too, although the highlight for the author of these brief notes is the near perfect ballad 'Don't Think About Her When You're Trying to Drive', succulent in its studio form but even better here!