Singer Hiatt Hosts New Season of ‘Sessions’

“TV or not TV?” muses singer-songwriter John Hiatt.

It’s the question he had to ponder earlier this year when the producers of “Sessions at West 54th,” the PBS performance and interview showcase featuring an eclectic array of musicians, approached him about taking over as host for the series’ third season.

Hiatt had been a fan of the show, and had even been a guest last season when Talking Heads founder David Byrne was in the host’s seat. But he had a lot of trouble picturing himself succeeding the arty Byrne, who himself had taken over for inaugural host Chris Douridas. At that time Douridas was a key music taste-maker as host of “Morning Becomes Eclectic” on Santa Monica public radio station KCRW-FM (89.9).

“I said, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Hiatt recalls. “It’s like asking a recluse to come out and be sociable.”

As a TV guest or a concert performer, Hiatt has earned a reputation as an outgoing, witty entertainer in the course of his 25-year career. But he says he’s never been too comfortable in other public roles.

Then he saw the roster of guests that was being lined up for the season--jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Panamanian salsa pioneer and politician Ruben Blades, pop-rock star Sheryl Crow, emerging country queens the Dixie Chicks, punk poet Henry Rollins, electronica philosopher Moby, Cape Verdean cafe singer Cesaria Evora, Japanese-New York pop artists Cibo Matto and an all-star tribute to late country-rock rebel Gram Parsons, led by Emmylou Harris among them. And he realized these were people he wanted to talk to, even with cameras rolling.

So here he is, debuting on the New York-taped show tonight, airing locally on KCET-TV at 12:30 a.m., with a special episode featuring Blades and his band for the full hour.

“I figured, ‘What the hell? Try something new,’ ” Hiatt says, taking a break from a grueling schedule of taping 20 shows in eight days. “What they gonna do [if I fail]--put me in TV jail?”

Frankly, it’s just a variation of the reaction the show’s creators try to elicit from viewers. Much of the music that’s been highlighted by the series is not typical PBS fare and is intended to draw people who are not typical PBS viewers.

“Public television says we’re bringing in a viewer demographic that is foreign to them, a loyal core of [ages] 24 to 49,” says executive producer Jeb Brien, who created the show with producer Monica Hardiman, who is primarily responsible for bringing in the acts. “You’re raised with ‘Barney’ or ‘Sesame Street,’ and later you come back for other programming. But we’re trying to get people in the meantime.”

Jackie Kain, director of broadcasting and program development at KCET, can’t quantify the amount of new viewers “Sessions” brings, but she values the show for broadening the horizons of public television and appealing to many tastes without sacrificing quality and depth.

“This is really the only place you can see these artists and this range of music on a regular basis on our schedule,” she says. “I love the eclecticism, having Cibo Matto and [seminal funk group] Funkadelic, all that is really quite unusual for us. And I would hope it brings in new viewers and younger viewers. You’re never going to bring in younger viewers if you don’t have fare that brings them in. But this is all over the place in terms of age--one minute [Los Angeles Latin-flavored group] Ozomatli, next the Afro-Cuban All-Stars and next Sheryl Crow. It’s an anthology show with the theme of really cool music.”

It’s exactly that quality that attracted Hiatt to the host’s seat, where he says he’s reveled in being able to pick the brains of such a range of musicians.

“I’ve been blown away,” Hiatt says. “Yesterday I had Branford Marsalis doing ‘Requiem’ in the morning--brilliant, not only as an artist, but as a person. His mind is nonstop. Then in the evening we had Henry Rollins, who equally blew me away. The guy’s a genius. On paper you go, ‘Branford Marsalis in the morning, Henry Rollins in the evening--couldn’t be more different.’ And then you talk to them and hear their music and they’ve got a lot in common. These are inspirational people.”

And that, he says, is the key to attracting viewers who, having grown up with the inspirational music of such seekers as the Beatles and Bob Dylan, may not be connecting with the current crop of artists on the radio.

“There’s a lot of correlation between the new rock and the big-time wrestling,” Hiatt says. “The audience knows it’s fake, so everyone does a wink and a nod. But the lifers among us--and I consider myself one--are people who did because it’s what we do. That’s the kind of artists we have on ‘Sessions.’ It’s not about the results, it’s about the work.”

And this new work?

“Look out, Bill Moyers, that’s all I’ve got to say,” he quips. “Look out, Charlie Rose.”

* “Sessions at West 54th” airs tonight at 12:30 a.m. on KCET-TV.