Little Village by Little Village

Little Village's one and only album came out on Reprise in 1992, the work of a supergroup that had already proven it could click: Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner had all played on Hiatt's 1987 album Bring the Family. They briefly joked about calling themselves Hiatus before settling on a name taken from a foul-mouthed studio rant by Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Every song is credited to all four, but it's mostly Hiatt's show: he sings everything except two Lowe numbers and one from Cooder. The groove is loose, swampy roots rock, Keltner's drums sitting deep in the pocket, Lowe's bass rolling, Cooder's guitar slinking around Hiatt's piano and guitar. "She Runs Hot", "Solar Sex Panel" and "Don't Go Away Mad" went out as singles, and the band picked up a Grammy nomination. The public mostly shrugged, though, and after touring the US and Europe they called it quits that same year. Lowe later reckoned the record itself was no good.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.