Bride of the Noisemakers

Release date

May 2 2011

Track listing

Disc 1

1. Cyclone
2. Country Doctor
3. Funhouse
4. This Too Shall Pass
5. Circus on the Moon
6. Defenders of the Flag
7. Intro > (Catenaires)
8. Talk of the Town > Charlie, Woody and You
9. What the Hell Happened
10. Fortunate Son > Comfortably Numb
11. Levitate
12. Little Sadie > White-Wheeled Limousine > Just One More

Disc 2

1. The Wind Up > Big Rock Candy Mountain > Candy Mountain Run
2. Line in the Dust
3. Shadow Hand
4. Tango King
5. Resting Place
6. Michael Raphael
7. Sonata, Movement IV
8. Gonna Be Some Changes Made
9. Dreamland
10. The Good Life
11. Cartoons and Candy
12. Swan Song
13. Standing on the Moon > Halcyon Days

Personnel

Bruce Hornsby (piano, accordion, dulcimer, vocals), J.T. Thomas (organ, keyboards, vocals), Bobby Read (saxophone, bass-clarinet, EWI, vocals), J.V. Collier (bass), Doug Derryberry (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Sonny Emory (drums)

Audio clips

Fan reaction

Bride of the Noisemakers is discussed at length in this thread on the Bruuuce.com Board.

Bride of the Noisemakers reviews

Swampland: “Needless to say, Hornsby has covered a lot of ground in the past decade giving context to his latest live album, Bride Of The Noisemakers. Although it has become commonplace for strong touring artists to frequently (or perhaps too frequently) release live albums, this latest by Hornsby serves an important purpose in the same way Here Come The Noisemakers did in 1990 as it focused on the Noisemakers re-interpeting some of Hornsby’s biggest hits. Hornsby explains “I think of my songs as living beings that evolve and change and grow through the years.”

“Bride Of The Noisemakers takes an even more challenging route as it eschews all of Hornsby’s “hits” in favor of drawing equally from his trio of 90s studio releases and the studio trio of this past decade. The most recent trio – Big Swing Face, Halcyon Days, and Levitate – provide some of the most interesting moments since those albums were studio-dependent creations. 2002’s Big Swing Face featured funky synth sounds and none of Hornsby’s trademark piano. 2004’s Halycon Days delivered a plethora of superstar guests (Sting, Eric Clapton, Elton John) and mixed different Hornsby style eras. By 2009’s Levitate, Hornsby again experimented by splitting the difference between Big Swing Face’s synths and his other piano-driven jazzier recordings.

“On Bride Of The Noisemakers Hornsby gets a chance to re-present many of the songs from these albums in a style closer to his 90s recordings. The Noisemakers are a tight, sinewy band of players, and this album provides an intimate, club-like sound. These live versions of his recent studio songs reveal their underlying strengths”.

Pop Matters: “Forget your preconceived notions, or the fact that there’s a good chance you could mistake one of his songs for something you heard on the Weather Channel. Hornsby is simply a good player. And fortunately for listeners and music fans alike, the band he has assembled around him is positively filled with even better masters of their own particular crafts”.

Relix: “What Bride of the Noisemakers – a compilation of performances recorded at various gigs from 2007 through 2009 – documents quite well is the fact that the band can gracefully jump into a song, tether the melody to its original template and then fly off in another exuberant direction. Hornsby’s ability to move a song with either a soft touch or percussive force on the piano is also breathtaking here. On tracks like “Talk of the Town/Charlie, Woody, N’ You” and “Fortunate Son/Comfortably Numb,” the Noisemakers blend inspired melody with improvisational moments filled with hope and promise”.

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