‘It’s really simple for me’
John Hiatt’s daughter Lilly follows her own musical path
Dad’s great and all, but if you really want to get singer Lilly Hiatt excited, put her onstage next to Eddie Vedder.
Meeting the Pearl Jam lead singer is a bucket list item for the 33-year-old daughter of songwriter John Hiatt, and a reminder that even with the strong musical bloodlines, she’s got her own style and influences.
A confessional songwriter who rocks out with a twang, Lilly Hiatt is getting a push into the spotlight by the influential Americana label New West Rec- ords. The CD “Trinity Lane,’’ named for the street she lives on in Nashville, Tennessee, is out Friday.
Hiatt seems born with a musical temperament: She bares her soul through her songs onstage, yet is freaked out by the idea of someone hearing when she’s practising guitar at home.
Her songs are blunt and emotional. The memorable “The Night David Bowie Died,’’ written the day after that event, quickly becomes a plea for forgiveness from a lover. “I’m sorry I was such a bitch that night in the city,’’ she sings. “Baby, I want ya back.’’
“Songs are so important to me because I best communicate in that way, I feel,’’ she said. “I’m not the best communicator in a two-way conversation. I’ve made a lot of apologies to people via song — ‘here, listen to this!’’’
Her song “Imposter’’ is a tender message of thanks to her father. Lilly’s mother died by suicide when she was one, a tragedy referenced in John Hiatt’s own heartbreaking composition “Crossing Muddy Waters.’’
The pain never fully goes away. “It’s definitely been a mysterious part of my life,’’ she said. “It’s hard to get close to people when you’ve been through something like that. You put up walls with people. The trust doesn’t come easily. But I have such a deep sense of trust with my dad because of all that we went through together.’’
That’s precisely what she sings in the song: “After what we both went through, I count on you, I count on you.’’ When she was finished with “Imposter,’’ she emailed a recording to her father.
“It made me cry,’’ he said. “Still makes me cry. Feels good to cry.’’
With a daughter in the business, Hiatt has to weigh when to offer wisdom and when to let her go her own way, even if it’s something he wouldn’t do.