Hangin' Around The Observatory

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ALBUM INFORMATION

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 37:44

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Hangin' Around With a Fine Songwriter

ttelep

Start to finish this is an enjoyable listen. "Hangin' Around the Observatory" is an album, a collection of songs that belong together, pleasing to listen to from soup to nuts as they say. Songwriters are everywhere these days, and many album releases contain a couple of gems, but a complete string of gems is rare. Although I am not a huge John Hiatt fan, I find listening pleasure everytime I listen to this collection. It is indeed a string of gems.

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They Say All Media Guide

John Hiatt mixed pop, folk, rock, R&B, country, and gospel on his debut album, immediately becoming an uncategorizable (and thus uncommercial) entity. Although this album was cut in Nashville, it owes more to Van Morrison than it does to Conway Twitty, and like the Belfast bluesman, Indianian Hiatt came to his influences somewhat secondhand, however sincerely he evoked them. What he really was, of course, was a singer/songwriter, albeit not in a style easily recognizable in 1974. The title indicates his position: Hiatt’s songs show him an acute observer. But the performances require him to dig in, and although he does so with alacrity, the result is too diffuse. Nevertheless, Hiatt earned critical kudos for this album, and Three Dog Night (who knew good songwriting when they heard it) covered “Sure As I’m Sittin’ Here,” getting a Top 40 single out of it. – William Ruhlmann

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