John Hiatt has long occupied a singular place among American singer-songwriters. Over a 35-year career, his rootsy fusion of rock ‘n’ roll, soul and blues, and R&B has produced 23 albums, including his latest Dirty Jeans & Mudslide Hymns (2011). A Nashville icon and musical storyteller par excellence, he has been a frequent visitor to McCarter, both with his own band and with his colleague Lyle Lovett. But the best way to describe him is simply to rattle off the names of some of the songs that everybody under the sun has covered, and now you know who actually  wrote them: Tennessee Plates, Thing Called Love, Cry Love, Have a Little Faith in Me, Perfectly Good Guitar, Crossing Muddy Waters, Slow Turning, Riding with the King, Memphis in the Meantime, etc. At 60, Hiatt might be considered an elder statesman, but as he himself says, “There’s really nothing to it. You just don’t die and you hang around