''Perfectly Good Guitar'' is singer-songwriter

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New wave music, new wave, blues, and country music, country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Gramm ...

's eleventh album, released in 1993. It was his last studio album with

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

, despite it being Hiatt's highest-charting album in the US (No. 47), Canada (No. 34), the UK (No. 67), the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

(No. 13), and Sweden (No. 11). The European edition of the album contains the bonus track "I'll Never Get Over You."

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, actor and radio broadcaster. He was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band the Stooges, who were formed in 1 ...

first issued the song "Something Wild" on his 1990 album, ''

Brick by Brick ''Brick by Brick'' is the ninth studio album by American singer Iggy Pop, released in June 1990 by Virgin Records. Production and content After attracting mixed reviews for much of his 1980s output, Pop hired producer Don Was, who was a lo ...

''. Hiatt toured in support of the album. The tour lasted 13 months.

Recording and release

The album was recorded in two weeks at the

Conway Studios Conway may refer to: Places United States * Conway, Arkansas * Conway County, Arkansas * Lake Conway, Arkansas * Conway, Florida * Conway, Iowa * Conway, Kansas * Conway, Louisiana * Conway, Massachusetts * Conway, Michigan * Conway To ...

, and Ocean Way Recording Studios, both in

Hollywood, CA Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

. It was produced by Matt Wallace. ''Perfectly Good Guitar'' was released by

on September 7, 1993. The album debuted and peaked at No. 47 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. "Perfectly Good Guitar" was the first single released. The song was inspired by a televised performance by

Nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

, where the band's bassist

Krist Novoselic Krist Anthony Novoselic (; ; born May 16, 1965) is an American musician, politician and activist. Novoselic co-founded and played bass on every album for the rock music, rock band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Novoselic and Kurt Cobain formed the ban ...

threw his bass into the air, intending for it to fall and shatter on the ground, but instead, the instrument ended up hitting him on the head. The single debuted at No. 37, and peaked at No. 16 on the

Mainstream Rock chart Mainstream Rock is a music chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the " active rock" and " heritage rock" fo ...

. The second single was "Something Wild," it debuted and peaked at No. 31 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The third single was "Buffalo River Home." The single failed to chart, but a music video was made for it, directed by Paula Greif.

Critical reception

Troy J. Augusto of ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' calls the album a "loose, windswept and jumping affair that sees Hiatt kick out an assortment of musicals jams, making for his most satisfying album in many a moon."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's Stewart Mason writes that producer Matt Wallace gives a "

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

-style guitar crunch to most of the songs," and that Hiatt "seems to borrow not only Young's guitar sound, but also his sloppy, inconsistent songwriting for this album," adding "John Hiatt has released far worse albums than ''Perfectly Good Guitar'', but given how terrific about a third of the songs are, this album's one of his more frustrating efforts."

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Hiatt, except where noted.

Charts

Personnel

– guitar, vocals, piano, organ * Brian MacLeod – drums, percussion *John Pierce – bass guitar * Dennis Locorriere – harmony vocals * Michael Ward – guitar * Ravi Oli –

electric sitar An electric sitar is a type of electric string instrument designed to mimic the sound of the sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instru ...

avi Oli is a pseudonym of David Immerglück

References

1993 albums John Hiatt albums Albums produced by Matt Wallace A&M Records albums {{1990s-rock-album-stub