Bruce Hornsby
1996-05-21
Pearl Street Grill
Northampton, MA
Soundboard Recording
320 kbps
Artwork Included
01. Spider Fingers
02. China Doll >
03. Night In Tunisia
04. Introductions
05. The Changes
06. Night On The Town #
07. Mystery Train #
08. Drunken Hiccups >
09. Western Skyline
10. When I Paint, My Masterpiece >
11. Not Fade Away
12. Terrapin Jam >
13. I Know You Rider
14. Mandolin Rain
15. That Would Be Something >
16. Brokedown Palace
17. Rainbow’s Cadillac
18. Talk Of The Town ^
19. The Way It Is ^
20. Down The Road Tonight
21. Cruise Control > # *
22. (Harbor Lights) >
23. Dark Star
Encore:
24. White Wheeled Limousine
# with Jimmy Herring
^ with Kofi Burbridge
* with John Molo
For Bruce Hornsby, the year 1996 marked the 10th anniversary of the release of his Grammy Award winning debut album, The Way It Is. Rather than look backward, however, Hornsby continued to find ways to push his musical style forward. The cover of his recently released album, Hot House, featured an imagined jam session between bluegrass legend Bill Monroe and jazz legend Charlie Parker, two genres of music that Hornsby incorporated into the songs on that disc. The album also featured guest appearances by such diverse artists as Bela Fleck, Pat Metheney and the late Jerry Garcia. During this period, Hornsby's concerts took on a more improvisational tone, as he often took requests from the audience, rather than work from a set list. He would challenge himself to find ways to seamlessly string together diverse requests, turning the album versions of songs into more complex arrangements. As he says on his website, "I think of my songs as living beings that evolve and change and grow through the years." In his continuing quest to grow and evolve his music, Hornsby also participated in the Furthur Festival in the summer of 1996, one of the many Grateful Dead family endeavors launched in the wake of the death of Jerry Garcia. His band played along with Bob Weir & Ratdog, Mickey Hart's Mystery Box, Hot Tuna, Los Lobos and others. This soundboard recordinmg captures Hornsby a few weeks before th Furthur tour, in Northampton on May 21, 1996, 3 decades ago today. His focus on collaborating with diverse artists is evident as he gets some help from Jimmy Herring, Kofi Burbridge and John Molo during the show.

