Announcing the Bonnie Raitt-Jackson- Browne Shawn Colvin -Bruce Hornsby Tour. More from the Bruce Hornsby newsletter archive, sent by Melissa Reagan direct from Bruce’s office in the 1990s/early 2000s. Links have been added where appropriate to add context.
Spring-Summer Tour
Bruce and the Band (Spankula? Pantload? Bumbee Read & The Svengalis of Weed? The Phlegm System?) start their tour April 3 in Wallingford, CT, and will continue through the months of April and May, adding one week in June, then picking up again for the month of August. The tour has the group playing over 50 dates, revisiting many familiar haunts and trying out some new venues. The April run is fairly close to being sold-out; the May shows are just coming on sale.
Highlights include a return date with the Atlanta Symphony, two jazz festivals (where the band will be among the few aggregations to actually play some jazz), and a night in Schenectady, NY, special to Bruce because he used to be in a band call Schenectady (where if you knew how to play an instrument you weren’t allowed to play it, and where they performed such originals as “Man Is The Animal That Uses Tools” and “There’s More To Doing Homework Than Doing Work At Home”). Dates are listed above.
Bonnie-Jackson-Shawn-Bruce Tour
Starting August 26, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin and Bruce will come together to play 20-25 concerts across the U.S. The shows will feature mini-sets from each singer-songwriter to be followed by a lengthy “band set” with everyone playing together. The exact dates for this special tour will be announced soon, and all parties look forward to this coming together of kindred spirits.
Austin City Limits
Bruce and the Band taped the Austin City Limits PBS television show in December, and it will be aired during the week of April 17, so check your local listings, or call your local PBS affiliate and work them about it. The show features an especially sprightly, spirited and not spotless version of “King Of The Hill.”
Spike Lee Documentary
Spike Lee has asked Bruce and Branford Marsalis to write and perform the musical score for an upcoming documentary on the Atlanta child murders. Scoring for this movie should take place in the fall, and Bruce has promised to “take it out” in the score.
Other Ones CD
The Other Ones CD, The Strange Remain was released in February on Grateful Dead records to varying degrees of acclaim and moderate sales. This post-Grateful Dead aggregation’s collection features Mickey Hart on “Baba Jingo” and “Only The Strange Remain” (featuring wolf-howling attempts), a rare recording of the classic “St. Stephen-The Eleven,” Phil Lesh invoking the highlands on “Mountains Of The Moon,” Bob Weir singing new Robert Hunter lyrics on “Banyan Tree,” and Bruce recalling strains of his December 28, 1973 appearance at the Denbigh, VA Women’s Club on “Sugaree.”
New Year’s Eve w/Roanoke Symphony
CANCELLED
This & That
The band will return to play for the second year in a row at the Rex Hudler Team-Up for Down Syndrome event on July 8 in Malvern, PA. Hopefully this year the irate 70-year-old neighbor who stormed the bandstand during the set insisting on a halt to the noisy proceedings (Bruce gave him the microphone so all could hear his rantings) will make a return appearance for great stage drama and guffaws and toasts from all.
Bruce played on Clint Black’s new record in Los Angeles on March 21, recording a version of Leon Russell’s “Dixie Lullaby” with the ever-affable Clint, with L.A. studio greats John Robinson, Abe Laboriel and Dean Parks undulating nearby.
Bruce will go to New Orleans to record with a brass band for the Keith Jarrett tribute record, hopefully in early June.
The Spirit Trail song “Shadow Hand” will be featured in an upcoming Hugh Grant – Julia Roberts vehicle “Notting Hill,” release date unknown.
Tupac Shakur’s reworking of Bruce’s song “The Way It Is,” entitled “Changes” is a major hit around the world, selling millions of copies in most of the same countries where “Way It Is” was a hit thirteen years ago. It is the first single from the 2Pac’s Greatest Hits collection, also a hugely successful release.
The book Learn From The Legends: Rock Keyboards was just released by Alfred Publishing Co. Written by Karen Ann Krieger and Stephan Foust, the book features interviews and musical transcriptions from Steve Winwood, Billy Joel, Felix Cavaliere, Michael McDonald and Bruce. It can be obtained through any sheet music store (ISBN 0-7390-0078-0) or through the publisher’s web site: www.alfredpub.com