This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
No, I haven’t completely lost my freaking mind.
I know this is the soundtrack to that creepy Disney movie about bears that walk upright and sing country music. But it’s also, for all intents and purposes, the new John Hiatt album — the veteran roots-rocker wrote and/or performs more than half the songs here with members of his band The Goners. A few, like Let It Ride and Where Nobody Knows My Name, even rock just as much as anything off his last album, and avoid the sort of tooth-rotting treacle Randy Newman vomits up on his kid-flick soundtracks. Other high points include a family-friendly rockabilly barnburner from Brian Setzer (I’m Only In It For The Honey — get it?) and a bluegrass workout from banjo god Bela Fleck. Of course, you also have to sit through the sappy Don Henley–Bonnie Raitt duet Can Love Stand The Test, some cruddy score material and other junk like that. But if you just listen to the Hiatt cuts, this sucker is pretty, er, bearable.
