Intersections reviews

OK Si & Fans – Just posted to the BruceHornsby.com site is the Intersections page with snippets from all 4 music disks. Keep in mind, the snippets are not super high quality (sampled @ 40Kbps so our dial-up fans can hear them in a semi-reasonable amount of time).

If I get the be the first to comment on this set…I’ll say fans will love the variety on this disk. Also, the DVD is superb, following a fruitful career of a top-notch artist.

Also, let me pass on the same thing I said to Si – note that the booklet and the cardboard flap point folks to the https://bruuuce.com site and that Si is mentioned in the credits. Si – you do a fantastic job and everyone, from myself to visitors of the site and even Bruce and his team give you a sincere ‘Thank you’!

Here’s a link to the page…if you are not seeing it just by visiting BruceHornsby.com, make sure you hit your refresh in your browser!

http://www.brucehornsby.com/album_intersections.htm

Intersections

Amazon shipped pre-orders on Monday. It should arrive between Wednesday and Friday…

Just got myAmazon ordered Intersections in the mail this morning ( on release day) and sat down and listened to disc 1 and 2 . This is so much more exciting than I thought it was going to be. Not the typical box set format to be sure. I always feel as if box sets are the record company way of rehasing the artists material. This is so artistically done . Just the way it begins with the live solo version of The Way It Is from Copenhagen lets you know to expect the unexpected . It is kind of a look back at Bruces career by looking forward. I love hearing the piano songs A -H in order, not to mention all the videos and unique performances in his career. It is an awesome collection. I can’t wait to see and hear the rest of it. A great day to be a Hornsby fan.

Seeing Bruuuce.com in the credits was also exciting. I somehow felt included. Thanks, Si, for giving us this place to go.

Intersections from an English perspective

I pre-ordered my copy of Intersections from Amazon.com (using my $20 gift voucher – Thanks Si!) and they did a great job, despatching it last Thursday. It arrived in the post at work yesterday and I couldn’t wait to get home and start listening to it.

The box itself is very-well presented, although the size will make it difficult to sit it on my CD shelf, it being twice the height of a standard CD case. The sturdy card box opens out to reveal the 4 CDs on the inside of the cover with the accompanying book in the middle. When the book is removed from its pocket the DVD is found behind it. The book contains notes about all the tracks, giving recording details, artists involved etc.. This is followed by notes about the songs themselves, where they were written, the thoughts behind the lyrics, and other information about them and the people involved in their recording. Then there is a collection of media reviews of albums and concerts, photos and album covers. No matter how big a Hornsby fan you are, you’ll learn something new from this!

So, what’s the music like? Well, it’s Bruce Hornsby. It’s brilliant. What else would you expect? CD1 begins with the song that started it all, “The Way It Is”, but with a twist – a great solo version recorded in Copenhagen. It continues with live versions of other hits such as “Mandolin Rain”, “Jacob’s Ladder”, “The End Of The Innocence” and the more recent “Gonna Be Some Changes Made”. For me though the highlight is a new recording of “Lost Soul” with Shawn Colvin.

CD2 features the instrumental lettered songs (A-D, F and H) as well as several covers, collaborations, movie songs, plus two alternate versions of “The Valley Road”. I’d never heard Songs B and H before listening to this CD – “Song H” is very good – and “Love Me Still” is new to me too.

CD3 is the first of the “favorites and best songs” and includes live, feature-length versions of songs like “A Night On The Town” (solo), “Spider Fingers”, “White-Wheeled Limousine” and “King Of The Hill”. The concert-lovers won’t want to miss these – even with my fairly large collection of BruceHornsbyLive.com and etree.org downloads, I’ve not heard these before. If you’re like me you’ll be dancing in your seat! Also on this disc is the original version of “Rainbow’s Cadillac” and it’s interesting to note how much it’s grown when you compare it with the most recent live versions.

CD4 continues on the same theme as CD3 and includes the ever-popular “Fortunate Son > Comfortably Numb” and “Sneaking Up On Boo Radley” recorded in the summer of last year, as well as a superb live “Shadowhand” also from 2005. A couple of tracks from “Big Swing Face” and “Halcyon Days” give the latter half of this disc a Greatest Radio Hits vol.2 feel.

The DVD is, for me, the real gem of the set. I’ve only seen one of the early Bruce Hornsby videos courtesy of Si’s recent Daily Dose Day, so to see The Range as they originally were is quite a revelation. I like Bruce’s note for “The Valley Road” video which describes it as an excuse to get his friends on MTV. Later videos of Chaka Khan singing “Love Me Still” and Bruce performing John Lennon’s “Imagine” are both superb, and the much-mentioned “Comfortably Numb” from Seville in 1991 is awesome. I’ve heard an mp3 of it before but it doesn’t do justice for the guitar solos. The DVD finishes off with a taster of “Three Nights On The Town”, the live DVD released last year.

Intersections is a wonderful collection of 20 years of work from the great Mr. Spider Fingers. It shows once again that Bruce really appreciates his fans support and it makes this box set a priviledge to own.

Thank you, Bruce. Here’s to the next 20 years!

my Intersections review

I can never understand when I read a lackluster review of Bruce in the media. But the two reviews from the New York Times — written almost 20 years apart and included in the box set’s booklet (one of which seems to have inspired the “Intersections” name) — shed some light on the subject. Those two critics are knowledgeable enough to review Bruce.

Some music critics are simply enthusiasts who follow the whims of societal tastes, whereas others are educated musicians themselves who speak the musical language and understand the rarity of someone like Bruce. As an individual, I fall into the former group; just a mild music enthusiast — but even as a novice, I’m lucky to have been able to readily see Bruce’s genius, and I’m able to appreciate the way he moves “at the speed of music,” as Doug Derryberry says so eloquently on the “Three Nights” DVD.

“Intersections” is a remarkable testament to one man’s career. To many others, this would be three lifetimes’ worth of quality material; for Bruce, it’s just the first 20 years. To be specific, the second disc is my favorite, as I knew it would be, with all the solo piano arranged in order, the bluegrass and the jazzy pieces. It whets the appetite for Ricky+Bruce and the jazz trio albums to come.

The box set is great for people like me who aren’t really into taping; it’s the “Best of Bruce Live” plus some of the best of his studio work, plus all these disparate, wonderful side projects grouped into one place for the first time. Some of the DVD videos are wonderfully dated and bring back a lot of memories — I’d forgotten what an impressive “rat tail” Bruce was sporting back in the day!

Though I must say, Jonathan should have his TrueBruceFan license revoked for having never heard “Love Me Still” — one of the all-time great ballads. 😮 My only complaint is with the binding of the box set’s booklet. As I tore through it, the book fell to pieces; so I have a series of pamphlets now, rather than a booklet.

It was the first time I’d seen or heard Bruce’s performance of “Imagine” — it was so perfect that, if I’d been him, I would have just quit and retired on the spot; doesn’t get any better. A lot of people in the world would like to hear that song right about now. Maybe Bruce can play it again soon.

I especially enjoy the review of Spirit Trail contained in the Intersections booklet in which the reviewer states that Bruce is too smart for his own good & could profit from dumbing things down…

a) I’m glad he doesn’t dumb it down; and
b) This can only mean that Bruce’s fans some of the smartest in the world!