Levitate (album)

Release date

September 15 2009

Highest chart position

#116 US Billboard 200

Track listing

1. The Black Rats of London
2. Prairie Dog Town
3. Cyclone
4. Continents Drift
5. Paperboy
6. Invisible
7. Levitate
8. Here We Are Again
9. Space is the Place
10. Michael Raphael
11. Simple Prayer
12. In The Low Country

Dedicated to R.S. Hornsby.

Personnel

Bruce Hornsby (piano, vocals, keyboards, dulcimer), R.S. Hornsby (guitar), J.V. Collier (bass), Sonny Emory (drums), J.T. Thomas (organ, keyboards, guitar), Bobby Read (reeds), Doug Derryberry (guitar), Eric Clapton (guitar), Blake Mills (guitar), Keefus Ciancia (new sounds), Andy Leftwich (fiddle), Z Berg (vocals), Floyd Hill (vocals), Tim Smith (vocals), Eric Jackson (vocals), Russell Hornsby (vocals), Keith Hornsby (vocals)

Audio clips

Fan reaction

Thanks to so many of you for rating this album. Cyclone topped your scores,, narrowly beating out Continents Drift. There’s a huge disparity between those and the lower ranked songs, more so than on any other record we’ve looked at so far.

Surprises: the title track Levitate was ranked 7th out of 12. That song, more than any other on the record, received mainstream attention after being featured in Spike Lee’s Kobe Doin’ Work.

Thoughts from the Bruuuce.com Board:

molomolomolo: “Just finished listening to “Levitate”. What an oustanding collection of songs! I agree with Vic, I don’t think anything will knock “Spirit Trail” off the perch at #1, but this one is in the running for sure!

“There is so much to sink your teeth into on this record, I’ll probably listen to it 3 more times tonight. I definitely hear a resemblance to “Funhouse” on “Prairie Dog Town”. That would be a great combo in concert!

“I have more to add about “Levitate” but it is going to have to wait for some other time. I have to go listen again. I can’t wait to have this record in my hands!!

Trent: “This is the Bruce album I’ve been waiting for. This is the closest a studio album has ever come to capturing what Bruce does live. The 4 opening songs are absolutely killer!

“I hear traces of the great James McMurtry in Prairie Dog Town… you know… if he did hip hop.

“CYCLONE!!! WOW! Bruce rehearsed this with The Other Ones (how long ago was that??). I guess this song needed some time to grow and mature. IT WAS WORTH IT!!!

“Something from BSF needs to be played with Space is the Place… Place in the Sun??

Levitate reviews

New York Times: “History meets hoedowns, and modernism visits the roadhouse in Bruce Hornsby’s music, which treats Americana as the broadest possible canvas. The songs on his new album “Levitate,” can be as rootsy as Mr. Hornsby’s accordion and dulcimer and as contemporary as a programmed drumbeat. Material from “Levitate” is the basis for a prospective Broadway show, “SCKBSTD,” that will have to be pretty cosmic to match the album.”

Pop Dose: “This batch is up to the task, at once highlighting both the unbridled live energy of the Noisemakers and the fearless studio experimentation that has enlivened some of Hornsby’s finest late-period work.”

Eat Sleep Drink Music: “The focus here is on the songs, which Hornsby pares down to their most essential parts without robbing the arrangements of any of their robust vitality.”

American Songwriter: “Levitate is a staggeringly great collection of songs by one of our most gifted songwriters and instrumentalists playing at the top of his game.”

AllMusic Guide: “Old-time Hornsby fans who fell away over the years might want to give this one a listen; it’s closer to his singer/songwriter self than he’s been in many years.”

Purchase Levitate

Amazon Levitate purchase page (commission goes to Bruuuce.com)