Back when singer-songwriter John Hiatt was passing through towns in the early '80s, cracking wise on small club tours, the last thing fans wanted to see were signs that he was growing up. In some ways, that still holds true. Of course, Hiatt has become one of the most highly acclaimed and widely covered tunesmiths in pop, but success hasn't dulled his wit or cooled his rock and blues passions. On his new album, 'The Open Road,' Hiatt combines vivid lyrics with the thumping rhythms that stirred his Indiana adolescence. With a blast of guitar distortion and ghostly harmonies, the title and opening cut introduces a Southern gothic tale that comes into focus instantly ('Shrunken head and Mardi Gras beads/ Hanging on a rearview mirror that bleeds'). Then comes 'Haulin',' a free-spirited travelogue reminiscent of Chuck Berry's 'Promised Land,' followed by 'Like a Freight Train' and 'My Baby,' a pair of slide guitar blues songs that are by turns haunting and boisterous. The album's most memorable lyric, however, is also the most ominous. 'What Kind of Man' is a noirish portrait of duplicity: 'You see the man who loves you/ You see the man you love/ But I have hidden claws/ Inside these gloves.' Restlessness, in one form or another, inspires the album's best tunes, as does a band that amplifies Hiatt's personality and soul. Grown up? Fired up is more like it. 