SHORT TAKES : Under-30s Impress Rock Singer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter John Hiatt says he admires the optimism of the under-30 crowd and has tried to appeal to them with his music.

“I’m telling you, I have not been so impressed with a generation of people as I am with this batch of 19- to 26- or 27-year olds,” the 38-year-old Nashville native said in an interview Thursday in the Nashville Banner.

“All the ones I’ve met are very enthusiastic about the possibilities before us as a country and a world, and they seem to be possessed of a real ‘Let’s roll up our sleeves and get on with it’ kind of attitude, and I really like that.”