Musician and songwriter John Hiatt : “I tell young musicians, you’ve got to develop what you have, because that’s what you can give to the world.”

AP / Donn Jones

Same Old Man, the latest record from John Hiatt, shows the singer and songwriter tackling the stuff of real life with the clear eyes and flashes of humor that have typified his oeuvre since his start in the mid-’70s. And it’s a mostly acoustic, country-based record that has a natural, back-porch swing to it, so that’s another musical form to chalk up to Hiatt, who has been positioned as a New Wave answer to Elvis Costello, a rock star, a roots-rocker, an acoustic bluesman and more in his long career.

“I think I’m going to make a death metal record next,” Hiatt cracks. You never know.”

The mixing and trying on of different styles has never been conscious, Hiatt says; it’s just a matter of what sounds good when the song comes out.

“It tends to come out one way or the other. The baby comes out with its own style of clothes on, so to speak. I just like all kinds of music, you know. I like to mix it up. I like both rock and roll. And wherever all that comes from.”

Hiatt’s recent releases show a new attitude toward his voice, as the singer has given up the pinched delivery of, say, 1980’s Two Bit Monsters or even the relatively successful 1987 album Slow Turning and let it rip, howling and hollering with abandon.

“Hunting and pecking, sure,” Hiatt says of his early singing. “Impressionable youth. I was signed to labels and being produced. I was aiming to please and I wasn’t too sure how I was artistically. And that’s how you grow.”

Hiatt’s been working without a record contract since 2000, paying for the production of his own records and leasing them to whoever wants to release them (since then, it’s been New West Records). “It’s taking responsibility, and everything’s done up front. It’s real nice.”

Labels, it’s suggested, have never quite known what to do with him anyway. “Maybe not. But it’s OK. I don’t fit a particular mold, and that’s what labels are most comfortable with. There are plenty of other artists who labels don’t know what to do with either.”

Hiatt’s had more commercial success as a songwriter than as a performer of his own stuff. Bonnie Raitt had a hit with “A Thing Called Love”; “Have a Little Faith in Me” has been done by everyone from Kenny Rogers to Delbert McClinton to Mandy Moore to Bon Jovi; “It Hasn’t Happened Yet” and “Pink Bedroom” were done by Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello did “She Loves the Jerk,” and the list goes on.

Yet Hiatt continues to view that as a secondary thing.

“It’s a wonderful thing to hear your song on the radio, and of course it’s always been an extra added bonus to have that kind of ability to make some extra dough, and through the years it’s always been an extra plus that I never really expected.

“I never set out to write for other people; it just happened that people started recording my songs. Still, the cycle for me is write the songs, make the record, go out and play. I still enjoy all three aspects of that, so I don’t see quitting any of them any time soon.”

And yet, his first big musical gig was as a songwriter for the Tree International publishing house, in Nashville, in the early ’70s. “Tree paid me a few bucks a week to keep me around, figuring ‘Maybe the kid’ll make a record or something.’ They never really expected me to get country covers — I was probably the furthest thing from a country writer they had. I was writing these weird, personal, not-very-good songs.”

He did, however, get his first songwriting hit, when “Sure As I’m Sitting Here,” from his 1974 debut album Hanging Around the Observatory, became a top-20 hit for Three Dog Night. More importantly, he says, he got to hang around some of the masters of the game, such as Red Laine, Bobby Braddock and Curly Putnam, “which turned out to be a really wonderful experience. ‘Green Green Grass of Home,’ ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today,’ ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E,’ all these classics.” It was a hit-making factory, where songs would go from rough ideas to being on the radio in about a week. “It was cool to be around that.”

Hiatt’s critical acclaim has always outstripped his popularity as a performer, but the gap between his own success and the success of some of his songs doesn’t bother him.

“I’m delighted with where I’m at career-wise; I’m thrilled to go out there and have an audience. A lot of people who have had hits don’t…. So I’m thrilled with where I’m at.”

He alludes to his past struggles with drugs and alcohol as he describes his feelings on fame.

“I guess maybe when I was younger I wondered, ‘What’s the deal?’ but I got over it and I realized, on a lot of different levels, that what I thought I wanted probably wouldn’t have been good for me. Huge success, certainly at certain times in my life, probably would have killed me. In fact, I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. So what I wanted wasn’t necessarily what I needed at certain times in my life, so things worked out really well, actually.

“And what I was able to do was focus on the music. And indeed, that’s been the payoff for me. I mean, I always want a bigger audience, just because you want more people to hear your music, so I’m always hoping more people will pick up on it. But that’s not my focus. My focus is making better music . . . something that’s more compelling to people. I tell young musicians, you’ve got to develop what you have, because that’s what you can give to the world.”

Hiatt has always had plenty of young collaborators willing to work on his songs, most recently Jim Dickinson from The North Mississippi All-Stars. Again, Hiatt says it’s nothing conscious.

“I really never know what I’m working for. I just seem to stumble along and stuff happens. I left the big plans out of the picture a long time ago. I just keep the focus on the work, and whatever else happens, it seems to fall into place like it’s supposed to.”

With 30 years of songs to choose from, it’s getting harder and harder to pick out a set list every night, Hiatt says. “People want to hear the older songs, and that’s OK with me. I’ve never been ‘Hey man, you’ve got to listen to the new stuff.’ I’m more like, ‘Thank you for coming out.’ ”

He does his old material in different ways these days, and with different casts of backing bands and collaborators every few years, “different musicians show you different aspects of the songs that you didn’t know were there.…

“I’ve never been one of these guys who does it exactly like the record anyway. Once you record a song, I figure, that’s just the first blush of what the song’s about. You learn it as you go down the road, really, over the years.”

John Hiatt and the Ageless Beauties close the Snapple Sunset Music Series tonight at the Newport Yachting Center, off America’s Cup Avenue, in Newport. The show starts at 6, with Kevin Montgomery and Marc Douglas Berardo opening. Tickets are $35 at the door. Call (401) 846-1600, ext. 2, or go to www.newportfestivals.com.

Greg Piccolo and Heavy Juice go big Saturday night at Chan’s with the debut of Greg Piccolo’s Heavy Juice Expansion Pac. Four extra horn players, Greg? Now that’s heavy. The show’s at 8 p.m. and admission is $15. Chan’s is at 267 Main St., Woonsocket; call (401) 765-1900.

rmassimo@projo.com