Lilly Hiatt - Let Down

We're pleased to report that the singing and songwriting gene has once again emerged intact with Lilly Hiatt and her band The Dropped Ponies. The daughter of master songcraftsman John Hiatt, the Nashville-based 28-year-old has been honing her own particular brand of countrified folk/rock and Americana the past few years with guitarist Beth Finney and now with the addition Jon Radford (Drew Holcombe Band) on drums and Jake Bradley (Over the Rhine) on bass, she's assembled a potent and promising outfit to flesh out her songs. The Doug Lancio-produced debut album Let Down has, says Hiatt, a distinctive "self-loathing theme" (hence the title) as well as what she terms a "spacey country" aesthetic. But there's also an edge to even her quietest moments and when things open up with a Crazy Horse kick, as on "Angry Momma", you realize that Hiatt's influences, like her dad's, may begin with the alt-country classic lineage but there's still plenty rock and roll roots not far underground ready to be tapped.

Lilly Hiatt & The Dropped Ponies - "Championship Fighter" (from Let Down)

Lilly Hiatt & The Dropped Ponies - "Young Black Rose"