These People Richard Ashcroft

• 1 Out of My Body 04:31
• 2 This Is How It Feels 05:06
• 3 They Don't Own Me 05:49
• 4 Hold On 05:40
• 5 These People 04:50
• 6 Everybody Needs Somebody to Hurt 04:40
• 7 Picture of You 04:47
• 8 Black Lines 05:10
• 9 Ain't the Future so Bright 04:47
• 10 Songs of Experience 05:48
• Total Runtime 51:08

Info for These People

Accomplished blues man Darren Watson returns with a new release this month, a complete album of John Hiatt songs reinterpreted – Darren Watson Sings John Hiatt. Watson has been pushing out quality material for the best part of 40 years, beginning in the 80s as frontman of Chicago Smoke Shop (which supported the Robert Cray Band, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds), and continuing since the early 2000s as a solo artist with six albums released to great acclaim, including a bunch of NZ Music Award nominations.

I first became aware of John Hiatt in the middle of nowhere and the middle of 1988. I was a fresh-faced twenty one years old, living the dream, on the road with my blues band Chicago Smoke Shop. Our tour bus had stopped after a tyre blowout twenty minutes outside of Palmerston North, a provincial city in Aotearoa's Manawatu region. Resigned to an hour or two of stationary momentum while the tour manager located the jack and figured out how exactly one replaces a tyre on a big, old Bedford bus, I watched my buddy Dave Murphy insert a cassette into the player that fed Rob Morrison's black behemoth of a PA-hauling crawl-wagon's awesome stereo system. Hearing the opening bars of Memphis in the Meantime my ears did more than prick up! Bring The Family well and truly had it's hooks into me before John Hiatt even sang a note. By the time Learning How To Love You was over and the bus was moving again I already considered myself John Hiatt's biggest fan. As a songwriter there are few who can cut straight to the point with pathos and humour in equal measure, never mind the ability to make old chord sequences sound like they're brand new, and the soaring, biting vocals just burn.

This album is my tribute to one of my musical heroes, and as such I'm bound inevitably to fall short of his greatness. I have tried to do my own thing with these songs 'cause I really don't see any point in just doing 'em the same way John did. I really hope, if he gets to hear this album that he can appreciate how everything is done with love and deep respect for his immense talent.

And I hope you, be you a fan of my previous work, or a John Hiatt fan hearing me for the first time, enjoy my original interpretations of John's music. (Darren Watson, Pōneke, Aotearoa, September 2025)

Darren Watson, vocals, acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, bass guitar, percussion, pump organ, melodica, Hammond organ
Steve Moodie, double bass
Chris Armour, electric guitar
Delia Shanly, drums, percussion
Matt Hay, harmonica

Recorded and mixed at Lamington Recording, Pōneke, Aotearoa
Mastered by Josh Llewellyn at Downbeat Mastering, Aotearoa
Produced, recorded, and mixed by Darren Watson

Richard Ashcroft
is an English singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of the alternative rock band The Verve. Born on September 11, 1971, in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, Ashcroft rose to prominence in the 1990s during the height of the Britpop movement.

He formed The Verve in 1990 alongside guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. The band garnered attention with their early psychedelic rock sounds and later evolved into a more anthemic style, culminating in the release of their critically acclaimed 1997 album *Urban Hymns*. The album included hits such as "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and "The Drugs Don't Work", which helped propel The Verve to international fame.

Ashcroft was widely recognized for his expressive voice and introspective lyrics. Following The Verve's initial breakup in 1999, he embarked on a solo career, releasing his debut solo album *Alone with Everybody* in 2000. This was followed by several more solo efforts, including *Human Conditions* and *Keys to the World*, showcasing his continued evolution as a songwriter.

Despite reuniting with The Verve multiple times, most notably in 2007 for the album *Forth*, Ashcroft has primarily focused on his solo career in recent years. He remains celebrated as one of the defining voices of 1990s British rock, with a legacy marked by poetic songwriting and a passionate performance style.

This album contains no booklet.