Search - Kevin Hiatt :: Strange Ships On a Blue Horizon

For Immediate Release: August 8, 2005 Fort Wayne, Ind. Guitarist/Composer Kevin Hiatt releases his 2nd cd recording- Strange Ships on a Blue Horizon Fort Wayne based composer and guitarist Kevin Hiatt is releasing his 2nd cd recording ?Strange Ships on a Blue Horizon? on the Shabda Recordings label. Since moving to Fort Wayne in 2001 and releasing his initial recording "Another Look at the Sunrise?, Hiatt has become a fixture on the Fort Wayne musical scene as well as in the Indianapolis-Muncie region . Primarily known for his highly virtuosic instrumentals on six, seven and twelve string guitars his music straddles the boundaries of classical, folk, and what used to be termed new age. Fellow guitarists marvel at the wall of sound he creates by slapping, tapping, and plucking on his lushly amplified acoustic guitars at his frequent live gigs in the area. Stylistically its hard to categorize his music which draws harmonic and formal complexities from classical music, but is also influenced by well known guitar heroes such as Michael Hedges and Leo Kottke. On this new release Hiatt stretches the previous conceptions of fingerstyle guitar music on the title track "Strange Ships?, and on ?Another Day at the Office, Part Two?. Both tracks time in at close to seven minutes in length and while ?Strange Ships? offers an impressionistic pseudo primitive soundscape, ?Another Day? is a melodic, sensitive slice of contemporary musical life. Hiatt?s playing bristles with the currently en vogue techniques of two handed tapping on the guitars? neck to banjo style frailing. The ear and mind both boggle at the realization that what you hear is one guitar and one! take with no overdubs. To its benefit ?Strange Ships on a Blue Horizon? also features a host of other instruments not often found on primarily solo guitar releases. Cellist Joseph Kalisman guests on the ballad like ?To Dance Beside a Whispering Sea?. Pedal steel guitarist Gary Martin contributes liquid quick silver licks on two tragic vocal tunes ?Queen of the Red Lion?, and ?Daddy?s Little Girl?. Both tunes one can readily deduce from the lyrics are based on real life experiences and sung by Hiatt whose world weary voice delivers the bittersweet emotional goods. Other vocal tunes on the cd include the pop oriented ?You Know Who to Call?, a song which could become an anthem for lonely female singles in the world. The passing celebrity of Julia Butterfly Hill (song similarly titled) is celebrated in the form of a twelve string driven rocker which details the misadventures of a young woman protecting a giant redwood tree by living in it for a year! Hiatt shows more than the passing influence of his admitted main guitar hero Leo Kottke on ?Pennsylvanian Satyr Dance?. The influence is not so much in the hilarious liner note as in the chugging baritone tuned arpeggios that recall the early 70?s ?6&12 String Guitar? era of Kottke?s playing. The recording closes with another Kottke influenced piece ?Roadside Crosses? which finds Hiatt sardonically narrating about the desolate dangers of a country highway to the twanging jam of a classic garage band. With the release of this second recording Kevin Hiatt has at least done what most artists hope to on a second effort, i.e. trump the first record in terms of production, and make no obvious mistakes. But in many ways he?s gone further than just that by giving us truly complex and substantial solo guitar music contrasted with songs that celebrate real people with lyrics that linger and haunt the mind and heart. For More Information: kevinhiattmusic.com email:kevrayhiya@yahoo.com 260-441-0871 Recording available at CDBaby.com and Amazon.com on the web. Local Availabilityin Fort Wayne, In. : Borders, Barnes and Nobles, Wooden Nickel Mitchell Books