‘I’m an old bastard looking back’: the bizarre renaissance of piano-jammer Bruce Hornsby

The AOR jazzer behind smash hit The Way It Is veered off into the avant garde. But he’s having sudden mainstream acclaim. ‘Well,’ he says as he releases yet another album, ‘it’s nicer than being ignored’ When people tell you they remember exactly where they were when JFK was shot, they don’t often add that the room erupted in cheers and shouts of: “Hooray! Nixon can take over!” Speaking via Zoom from his home in Williamsburg, Virginia, one of the oldest towns in the US, Bruce Hornsby shrugs and says: “Well, that was my experience!” It was the day before his ninth birthday and the whoops of delight came from his classmates, all of which is recalled on an impressionistic track from his new album Indigo Park: “I was really alarmed and confused / Watching the children parroting parents’ views.” Until now, Hornsby has rarely written autobiographical lyrics, so people don’t know all that much about him. His biggest song, The Way It Is, was a piece of social commentary, the product of a liberal upbringing in the segregated south. His aunt campaigned against the likes of Senator Harry F Byrd, who opposed the desegregation of Virginia’s schools in the 1950s. Continue reading...

Go to News Site