A personal favorite of mine
Musician, singer, songwriter - born in Indianapolis Indiana in 1952.
It can probably be said that the sales that John Hiatt has generated in his recording career have never quite matched his reputation as an artist. He began his solo career in 1974 and over the next decade ran through a series of styles ranging from rock & roll to new wave pop. He finally settled on a mixture of rock, country, blues and folk music.
In 1991, Hiatt teamed up with Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner to form a group that went by the name of Little Village. Expectations for the group were quite high but they never took off. They recorded only one album by the same name . They subsequently broke up, citing conflicting ego's and artistic differences.
Who has recorded Hiatt tunes? Well, here's a partial listing of some of the folks who have recognized his talent for songwriting and interpreted some of his work:
Bob Dylan
The Everly Brothers
Joe Cocker
Three Dog Night
Iggy Pop
Conway Twitty
The Neville Brothers
Jewel
Emmylou Harris
Paula Abdul
Don Henley
Bonnie Raitt
Jeff Healey
Most recently, B.B. King and Eric Clapton were awarded a Grammy for their album Riding with the King in the Best Traditional Blues album category - largely on the strenght of their cover of the title tune of the same name - penned by John Hiatt.
Some of my personal favorites that could serve as a Hiatt primer for anybody interested in the man and his body of work would include:
Y'All Caught? - The Ones That Got Away 1979-85 - a compilation released by Geffen records of some of his best stuff from that time period.
Perfectly Good Guitar - released in 1993 with a band comprised of members of the "alternative" rock bands School of Fish and Wire Train
Walk On - released (I believe) in 1995 - it included some guest appearances by the Jayhawks and Bonnie Raitt.