Track Listing

1. Everybody Went Low
2. Hangin' Round Here
3. All the Lilacs in Ohio
4. My Old Friend
5. I Know a Place
6. Something Broken
7. Rock of Your Love
8. I'll Never Get Over You
9. Tiki Bar Is Open
10. Come Home to You
11. Farther Stars

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46730 in Music
• Published on: 2001
• Released on: 2001-09-11
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
For much of this album, his 16th in 26 years, Hiatt reunites with his best band, the Goners, and takes a giant leap back to his still-hungry days as a jag-edged, Costello-esque rocker while hewing to the soulful, blues-based songwriting he perfected on 1987's Bring the Family. The withering pub rock of 1979's Slug Line--as well as a nod to fallen hero Dale Earnhardt--seeps into the title track, while the roaring guitar, courtesy of the brilliant Sonny Landreth, and tight rhymes of "All the Lilacs in Ohio" suggest the streetwise edge of 1983's Riding with the King. But it's with ballads such as "Something Broken" and "Come Home to You" that Hiatt's musicianship, songwriting, and deeply soulful vocals truly convince and offer the most moving moments on this, his most memorable album in many years. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews

Happy Hour at Hiatt's Tiki Bar
Following on the heels of "Crossing Muddy Waters," "Tiki Bar" signals John Hiatt's return to the electric guitar. Recorded with The Goners (his old band), Hiatt's new album is joyfully noisy and genuinely peremeated with bluesy soul. From the boisterous opener, "Everybody Went Low" to the thoughtful closer, "Farther Stars," it is clear that Hiatt has crossed his muddy waters and landed on the shore of straight ahead rock. Featuring his usual quirky, yet brilliant, lyrics, "Tiki" shows that Hiatt is having a helluva lot of fun as he grows older. Solid from top to bottom, this album ranks up there with Hiatt's best work ("Bring The Family," "Stolen Moments," "Slow Turning," and "Walk On), and it should garner the maestro quite a few new fans. It's about time Hiatt got the recognition he deserved. There is no filler here; Hiatt delivers the goods just like he has always done.

Wonderful.
Last year, I fell in love with "Crossing Muddy Waters". It was a very different John Hiatt album with a very simple, stripped down feel to it. It made for great listening while enjoying my coffee every morning and it was great to drink too on those lazy evenings. In that one, he came across sounding more like George Jones than the John Hiatt that all his long-time fans had come to know and love. It was a nice change of pace, but I'm so glad that he made a "return to form".

From the opening of "Everybody Went Low", we know we're in for something great, then the song kicks in with almost a garage-rock sound and the band is rocking out. I bought "The Tiki Bar is Open" about five hours ago, and it's all i've been listening too. Every single track on here is great. There are no highlights here. The whole damn thing shines. It's really hard to believe how good it is. I know, right now, I'm barely scratching the surface. There is a lot of structure to songs like "Hangin' Round Here", "Rock of Your Love", and "My Old Friend".

I almost don't want to go to work tonight. I just want to stay home and listen to this all night. Up until a year ago, I was only a casual John Hiatt fan, but after picking up "Crossing Muddy Waters" on a reccomendation, I began to dig a little deeper and explore a lot of his other stuff. It's amazing to me that he is so underrated. He's got a voice that is all his own and fans of Steve Earle, Tom Waits, and Neil Young should really check into him.

Hiatt is Simple Rock With a Complex Heart
This is a John Hiatt record that sounds like much less on first listen than it really is. You think the man has just reverted to solid, simple rock to grab back the audience lost to his last acoustic outing, "Crossing Muddy Waters." But there is so much more to "The Tiki Bar is Open." Take, for example, this classically revealing and gut-wrenching Hiatt follow up lyric to the description of a child left alone by drug wasted parents in "Come Home to You": And I've been that kid, yeah it's true. . .and I've been both those parents, too." There are so few songwriters like Hiatt capable of capturing the dichotomies and ironies in life so well. It is a record filled not only with Hiatt's effortlessly complex and clever lyrics, but also beautiful guitar work by both Hiatt and the masterful Sonny Landreth. Hiatt harkens back to his musical roots with Dylanesque cuts like the harmonica driven "My Old Friend" and the startling "Farther Stars," a George Harrison meets Ravi Shankar jam worthy of "Revolver". Finally, as always with Hiatt, there are beautiful melodies and the scorched heart depths of his ballads, as in "I'll Never Get Over You." While not Hiatt at his zenith, "The Tiki Bar Is Open" is filled with musical pleasures.