Track Listing

1. Cry Love
2. You Must Go On
3. Walk On
4. Good As She Could Be
5. River Knows Your Name
6. Native Son
7. Dust Down A Country Road
8. Ethylene
9. I Can't Wait
10. Shredding The Document
11. Wrote It Down And Burned It
12. Your Love Is My Rest
13. Friend Of Mine
14. Mile High

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19738 in Music
• Released on: 1995-10-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

CD Description
WALK ON is Indiana native John Hiatt's musical trip to the Deep South. Fellow Hoosier John Mellencamp's incorporation of mandolins and fiddles into arrangements on LONESOME JUBILEE springs quickly to mind as a valid comparison; multi-instrumentalist David Immergluck even plays the part of Hiatt's own Lisa Germano, Mellencamp's string-playing foil. Immergluck's mandolin permeates "Cry Love" and "Dust Down A Country Road", giving life to an imaginary farm in the latter song; and Hiatt weaves images of Tennessee Williams and summertime New Orleans on the title track. Memphis too gets paid a visit, via the Hi Records groove of "Native Son".
Elsewhere on WALK ON, Hiatt's ability to critique the disfunctionality of '90s American culture seems as sharply honed as his descriptions of rustic scenarios. The songwriter's sardonic side shows up most clearly on "Shredding The Document", where he rips the hypocrisy behind the Eagles' reunion tour, and touches upon Larry King and the approaching millenium, in a riposte to trashy TV talk shows.

Customer Reviews

A worthy addition to the catalogue of a great songwriter
This 1995 album is not one of John Hiatt's best-known releases, but it is actually a very solid record.
The musical backing is often sparse, mostly acoustic (although not drum-less), and Hiatt sings about absent friends and lovers, loss, longing and resentment and about reflecting on the past.

The highlights include the mandolin-driven (but not at all soft) "Cry Love", the slow, reflective ballad "The River Knows Your Name", the country-flavoured, folkish shuffle "Dust Down A Country Road", and the hard, cynical rockers "Shredding The Document" and "Good As She Could Be" ("she was not born to run"....).

Not everything is great, but almost everything is good, and John Hiatt remains one of the best, most mature lyricists in popular music.
"Walk On" may not have quite as many hooks or as many truly memorable songs as "Slow Turning", "Bring The Family" or "Riding With The King", and it is somewhat introvert and not as accessible as Hiatt's most succesful albums. But it is also a thoroughly solid, professional effort from a great singer-songwriter, and it has some really fine moments along the way.

One of my favourite albums of 1997
Just don't label it as Country ! The range of styles sounds flows effortlessly between rock bluegrass, r'n'b, country blues

Criminally Underestimated
I'm a big fan of John Hiatt, and could never understand the total downplaying of this record. Maybe it wasn't in the right vogue at the time, maybe it doesn't have many great catchy tunes, but I always thought that this was a better album than his more high profile (and excellent) 'Stolen Moments' & 'Bring The Family'. River Knows Your Name, Shredding The Documents, Ethylene & Wrote It Down And Burned It are probably my favourites - but it's all pretty darned great.