Black&White&BlueMoon Town
Well-Known Member
My first thought on seeing Bruce's uncle was... just perhaps a slight resemblance to a one Rodney Dangerfield!? LOLThe Album Review Club
Spirit Trail – Bruce Hornsby (1998)
Selected by RobMCFC
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Nice you have those vivid memories of your first born around Christmas time. Our first (daughter, only 2 years older) for the longest time could only get to sleep to Al Stewart or the Stylistics and being held close to the lights on the tree during that first year. Amazing what a first time dad will remember!Introduction
Christmas 1998. I’d become a dad for the first time less than three months earlier. It was a time when I still treated myself to a few new albums to listen to over the festive period and beyond. That year’s purchases included Beck’s Mutations and Bruce Hornsby’s Spirit Trail.
I remember on Christmas morning, getting up in the early hours to sooth my 2-month-old daughter and when I’d got her settled, I stuck my headphones on and listened to Mutations and Spirit Trail whilst rocking the pram with my foot.
I also had his second, 1988's Scenes from the Southside, (refers to where he grew up in VA), but after that, you are correct.Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Hornsby hit the bigtime in 1986 with his first album, The Way It Is and the eponymous single from that album. I’m sure you know the tune, but I’ll bet most of you have taken your eyes and ears off him since.
Fantastic song and contribution, BTW.After a string of radio hits, including great songs for other artists (including “The End of the Innocence” with Don Henley),
PSA of the week for those that have Netflix: this just released is a "must see" behind the scenes of the making of "We Are The World", and how Huey Lewis got his solo on that song. I would have NEVER guessed who he replaced (the link below gives it away). Huey lived up to the down to earth guy just as Fog has described him here. Musical gold footage and storylines. I was riveted for every minute...Bruce and Me, Live on Stage!
I saw Bruce Hornsby live three times, all at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester, in 1986, 1988, and 1990.
The first occasion was at the first concert I ever went to, where Bruce Hornsby & The Range were the support act for Huey Lewis & The News.
“We Are the World” Assembled Some of the Most Iconic Moments in Music History
“By 7 o’clock in the morning, we became a family,” says The Greatest Night in Pop producer Lionel Richie.
www.netflix.com
Very nice!On the second occasion, I was one of about 20 people who got to join him on-stage for the chorus of “The Valley Road”. I shook his hand and said, “Nice concert, Bruce”, as I left the stage.
Final Thoughts
You may notice that my review of the album’s songs stops about halfway through: this is because I’m giving the listeners a choice.
This has come about because the UK version of Spirit Trail that I have on CD mixes up the order and loses some of the songs from the double-CD US release. To be fair, most of the good songs are on the single disk and appear in the first 10 tracks of the full album on Spotify. There are some gems on the “second disk”: “Line in the Dust” and “Sunflower Cat”, the latter a reworking of a Grateful Dead song, are worth a listen.
But if you feel that the full album is too much, I’m happy for you to judge it on the first 10 tracks, which is around the 45-minute mark.
If you are listening to the 2023 remaster, the album ends at the 90-minute mark with “Variations On Swan Song & Song D”.
Looking forward to hearing this for the first time. I'm intrigued.
I'll only end this in saying how funny it is that some of our musical inspirations as noted here exist across each other's ponds. ;-)