Lilly Hiatt seems so grounded and modest that she might object to being described as courageous. But I don’t know what else to call it when, as a second-generation talent, she’s chosen the hardest path of all, walking very much in her father John’s footsteps as a purveyor of smart, earthy, sharply witty Americana/roots-rock songs that blend and sift influences ranging from country-folk to New Wave.
Hiatt has chosen that difficult path and flourished at it through a combination of talent, hard work, and maybe just a pinch of genetic predisposition. As usual, the songs on her sixth studio album Forever are full of both craft and the sort of quirky insights that would mark her as a John Hiatt acolyte even if her DNA wasn’t half his.
Other than its opening track, the album is mostly a collaboration between Hiatt and her producer/multi-instrumentalist husband Coley Hinson, with Steven Hinson adding pedal steel on a pair of tracks. The sound is burnished and shimmery, like an image observed through heat haze.
Outlier “Hidden Day,” co-written and performed with Scot Sax, kicks things off with a rather cinematic rock number with a hallucinatory quality that fits the lyric, about an extra day of the week that “they” keep hidden from the world, a quirky conceit. Next, “Shouldn’t Be” gives off a turn-of-the-’80s New Wave vibe with pushing drums and bass, resonant harmonies and exuberantly fuzzy lead guitar (Declan would approve). 
“Ghost Ship” finds Hiatt in search mode over lilting lead guitar; “I’m lookin’ for something / And you are too.” Her gaze turns inward on the wistful “Somewhere” as she sings “This place is killin’ me / It’s dark at 5:30” over shimmery guitars and slow, steady drums. “Evelyn’s House” ups the tempo with a chime-y number that unfortunately puts a “vintage” filter on her vocals that doesn’t add value on an otherwise lovely, sunny salute to the joys and therapeutic value of creation.
The second half opens with the chunky, muscular guitars of “Forever” contrasting with Hiatt’s fragile vocals. “Wine stained lips kiss your forehead / You always loved me in red,” she sings before this pumping rocker wraps up in a resonant hail of feedback. “And I would never ask anyone / To tell me where we stand / I just know that you’re my man,” she sings on the twangy, languorous “Man.”
Near the close, “Kwik-E-Mart” delivers a pulsing backbeat, ominous chords and breathy vocals for a hypnotic backdrop as Hiatt declares that “Everybody else disappears / When you’re in a room.” Closer and first single “Thoughts” shapes up like a mid-’60s British Invasion number, drenched in echo, high harmonies and bells a la The Hollies. This riffy, nostalgic number about how time moves on finishes with a warm flourish: a sweet voicemail message left by her dad.
A quick listen at nine songs and 30 minutes, Forever nonetheless feels packed with ideas, emotions, and moments. The one real misstep is the way Hinson and Hiatt choose to mask her vocals with filters and reverb on tracks like “Ghost Ship,” “Evelyn’s House” and “Kwik-E-Mart”; rather than enhancing the songs, these affectations serve mostly to put distance between performer and audience.
That single caveat aside, Forever is another strong outing from gifted singer-songwriter Hiatt, musically rangy and adventurous, with her big, beautiful heart always beating right there on her sleeve.