Night on the Town (album)

Release date

June 8 1990

Highest chart position

#20 US

Awards

• RIAA gold
• BPI silver

Track listing

1. A Night on the Town 4:27
2. Carry the Water 5:08
3. Fire on the Cross 4:38
4. Barren Ground 5:29
5. Across the River 5:10
6. Stranded on Easy Street 3:54
7. Stander on the Mountain  6:09
8. Lost Soul 5:45
9. Another Day 4:23
10. Special Night 4:10
11. These Arms of Mine 5:54

Personnel

Bruce Hornsby (piano, accordion, synthesizer, vocals), George Marinelli (guitar, mandolin., vocals), Joe Puerta (bass, vocals), John Molo (drums, percussion), Laura Creamer (vocals), Shaun Murphy (vocals), Bela Fleck (banjo), Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Jerry Garcia (guitar), David Mansfield (guitar, violin), Jimmie Wood (harmonica), Charlie Haden (bass), Arnold McCuller (vocals), David Lasley (vocals), Fred White (vocals), Bridgette Bryant (vocals),

Audio clips

Fan reaction

This is Bruce’s third record, and final outing with The Range. Of all of Bruce’s records, this one has probably the fewest tracks still in rotation at the live shows, but of course that’s liable to change at any time!

The highest rated track is Across the River, by some margin, and compares favourably to all but one on the previous record also (Valley Road). It scores marginally higher on collaborations, after guest appearances by Jerry Garcia, Charlie Haden and Béla Fleck.

A Night on the Town reviews

Rolling Stone: “A while back, who could have predicted that a musician from Williamsburg, Virginia, would sit at his piano and coax jazz, rock, country and gospel into a vibrant, instantly recognizable sound that would inhabit the lives of millions of people? That’s what Bruce Hornsby and the Range did with The Way It Is, in 1986, and the even more fluent and assured Scenes From the Southside, in 1988. Mirroring the rural region that inspired his music’s melodic expanse, Hornsby’s sound emerged so natural in its know-how that yuppies and punks alike mistook it for mere elegance.”

AllMusic: “Bruce Hornsby’s hardest-rocking album, A Night on the Town announces that he is heading into a different direction in its first few notes. John Mellencamp’s producer Don Gehman gives the sound, especially John Molo’s drums, a feel reminiscent of Mellencamp’s best work. The material here is among Hornsby’s best, and guest players include Jerry Garcia, tenor saxman Wayne Shorter, banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, vocalist Shawn Colvin (before she was known), and jazz bass legend Charlie Haden.

“The arrangements still include the mix of synthesized and real percussion, and the trademark piano licks are sprinkled abundantly throughout, but the overall feel is much more rock & roll than anything before or since. The songs are great, with a political edge to “Fire on the Cross” and “Barren Ground.” The latter features Garcia’s lead guitar, the former a fine Shorter sax solo. “Stander on the Mountain” is a perceptive reflection on a former BMOC, straight out of Hornsby’s own attendance at a high school reunion, and “Lost Soul” is one of the most profound ballads he has composed, sung as a duet with Colvin.

“The single, “Across the River,” is a powerful look at the pursuit of one’s dreams in the face of local naysayers, and the subsequent return to one’s hometown with the resultant “I-told-you-so’s.” With A Night on the Town, Bruce Hornsby achieves a mix of mostly up-tempo rock music, adult lyrical themes, and crisp production values that has seldom been matched by other popular musicians of his generation. Though it only peaked at number 20 (his first two albums had reached the Top Five), it is an artistic high point. – Jim Newsom

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