I made a Hiatt mix tape for my fiancee's father for Christmas. It's a 90-minute tape, and it was really hard to winnow my faves down to 90 minutes. So many great tunes, so little time!

What are the names of some of the better tunes?

Funny you should ask--I was going to include a list but for some reason decided not to. Hiatt is best known for writing songs that become hits for other people. He wrote one of Bonnie Raitt's big one, "Thing Called Love." Buddy Guy did pretty well with "Feels Like Rain," and Don Henley just released a version of "Through Your Hands." Those are all on the tape. Plus, not in this order: Buffalo River Home, Stolen Moments, Tennessee Plates (I think someone covered this one for the Thelma and Louise soundtrack), Angel, Is Anybody There, Lipstick Sunset, Perfectly Good Guitar, Blue Telescope, Slow Turning, Memphis in the Meantime, and a few others that escape me at the moment. In other words, I can't name just a few good ones of his. Also, Hootie and the Blowfish stole a line from one of his songs for the title of their first major-label album, Cracked Rear View. Don't hold this against him.

I'm pretty sure I saw him at a concert in Austin, but it was a while back.

I love John Hiatt's music. My favorite is "Like Something Wild". My albums have long since dissapeared into my teen-age daughter's mania for CD's, but I bought the first for a song named (something like) "Smashing a Perfectly Good Guitar"

Yeah, that'd be "Perfectly Good Guitar": He threw one down from the top of the stairs, Beautiful women were standing everywhere. They all got wet when smashed that thing, But off in the dark you could hear somebody sing "Oh, it breaks my heart To see those stars Smashing a perfectly good guitar I dont' know who They think they are Smashing a perfectly good guitar." It started back in 1963 His momma wouldn't buy him that new red Harmony He settled for a Sunburst with a crack But he's still trying to break his momma's back... and so on.

Have you ever heard him in concert?

No, sadly. But I do have an *excellent* live record of his, *Live at the Budokhan?* And he has done at least one performance on Austin City Limits, which gets replayed every once in a while. Looks like a great show.