Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers

One Liner:  Surprisingly jammy new tunes from the 80's piano soft-pop mastermind

Wikipedia Genre: Improvisational multi-genre, jam band, rock, gospel, heartland rock, jazz, bluegrass, blues rock
Home: Williamsburg, VA 

Poster Position: 9

Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Huh.  Who woulda thunk that Bruce Hornsby would turn his soft-rock piano stuff into a freak-jazz-jam-band style thing in his older age?  I'll readily admit that I enjoyed the classic Bruce Hornsby shit - the "Mandolin Rain" and "The Way It Is."  Wait, do you even remember that stuff?  Quick refresher - Bruce Hornsby and the Range brought the heat in 1986 with the album The Way It Is, which boasted the massively popular title track and several other great tracks.  57.5 million streams for that hit.

If you're a fan of rad late 90's hip hop, then you certainly recognize that lick and hook as co-opted by 2Pac in "Changes."  Which is a good track.  And the original is great as well.  But Hornsby's gig was jamming the piano - he was an unapologetic piano man.  Took home the 1987 Best New Artist Grammy for that initial album as well.

He's also jumped out and done some other weird things, like winning another Grammy for an album with Ricky Skaggs (for Best Bluegrass album) and then served as a member of the Grateful Dead from 1990 to 1992, playing over 100 shows with them.  

But this band, The Noisemakers, appears to have come about many years ago to serve as his touring band, but then they've made a handful of albums that are listed as being by Hornsby and the Noisemakers.  I have no clue what that means for the live show - are we getting a full career retrospective from Bruce, or will this only be those tracks that are on official Noisemaker albums?  

Taking a look at his setlist from a July 14 show in Ohio, it looks like this will be a full-on do-whatever-the-hell-they-want show.  His set includes multiple Bruce Hornsby & the Range tracks, a few Hornsby solo tracks, a 2Pac mashup (of Hornsby's "Sunflower Cat" + "California Love," which is wild), some Creedence, Staples Singers, Don Henley, and Robbie Robertson. So no clue what you'll hear in Austin, but I bet you get "The Way It Is."

Without any knowledge of what is coming, I'll just dig into his two most recent albums - 2016's Rehab Reunion (which is expressly with the Noisemakers) and 2019's Absolute Zero (which features all sorts of people, like Justin Vernon and somebody named yMusic).  The 2019 album is the one with the super strong jam band lean, although even the 2016 one has some of those aspects.  But they also have small pieces of folk, country, Irish traditionals, rock, jazz, and who knows what else.  But I think a lot of the jam-ish sound are the guitar solos.

And, it must be said, that his voice is still beautiful.  He's always had a wonderful voice, and time hasn't reduced his instrument any that I can tell.  He might not try as many of those top end notes, but when he jumps up and goes for it, they still sound tasty.

The final track of Rehab Reunion has the most streams, most likely because Mavis Staples is on it.  The track right before, "The Valley Road," has some of that Irish traditional sound, the jam-band guitar sound, and little to no featured piano parts.  But here is that Mavis track, "Celestial Railroad."

Nice little organ-fueled groove.  And its that mandolin solo-work that also sounds tight.

Absolute Zero is all over the place.  "Fractals" is like some freaky experimental jazz thing with his staccato piano angles bouncing up and down the keyboard.  The title song is more of a chill groove.  Sometimes, he almost sounds like solo Sting in some pieces, where Sting used to get worked up over a piano groove - like in "Meds."  "Voyager One" is a high energy one with more high hat than all the other tunes combined, until it goes into a rumbled little jam solo on some weird instrument for a minute.  But "Cast-Off," one of the tracks featuring Justin Vernon (Bon Iver for those of you who have slept) is the top streamer, at 484k.

Understated and lovely, with a distinctive sadness in the first minute or so before the drums and lyrics kick in.  Reminds me of some sad Peter Gabriel song I've heard before.  And the sax makes me think of Dave Matthews.

Random aside, Wikipedia says that he claims to have beaten Allen Iverson in one-on-one basketball three games in a row after helping Iverson get out of jail.  What in the hell is that all about?

I also found a live album back among the 20-something albums available from Hornsby on Spotify, that is called Here Comes the Noise Makers, so maybe that is a good indication of what they will sound like live (albeit from 1998, 1999, and 2000, so hopefully they will have some fresh material since then).  Still has a jam band feel, his great voice, and excellent piano playing.  A good sound.  And includes covers from Grateful Dead, Don Henley, Bob Dylan, and probably others I just can't identify.  Here is "Circus on the Moon," captured live last year by this whole posse, to give you a little flavor of what to expect.

A buncha gray haired dudes making nice tunes that would feel at home right in the middle of a String Cheese set.

I've been surprised at how much I have enjoyed these new BH albums.  Figured that this was just a nostalgia play for the old 80's heyday, but his new tunes are legitimately enjoyable stuff.  I could see doing this show.