Jonathan

Happy New Year everyone!!

I’m really hoping that the master of prestidigitation will cross the pond and play live for his European fans again this year. I hope even more that he can bring The Noisemakers with him so that we can all have a damn good party!

Failing that, might a return to the Tivoli Theater in Chattanooga be possible in 2007? I was at the show in 2005 and it was awesome, thanks in part to the great acoustics there.

Whatever happens, I intend seeing a show somewhere this year!!

Jonathan

Where am I? Here I am!

I’m a madman across the water living in Hadfield (aka Royston Vasey), Derbyshire, England.

Nearest large city is Manchester (don’t mention United).

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!

Damn you Si! In the best way possible of course.

I’m going to have to make every effort to get there now.

Allisa wrote:

My thought, although not too far out there, is that the bluegrass version of Jacob’s Ladder is very reminiscent (to me at least) of Paul Simon’s “Graceland”. It would be interesting to hear them quote from that – especially with a nice, meaty bass-line for JV!

“Graceland” is one of the all-time greatest records (in my opinion at least) and it would be great to hear JV trying to get the bass line from the title track going in “Jacob’s Ladder”. There’s even a sounding of “The Way It Is” in there too! 😆

Quit complaining. He’s not coming within 6-7 hours flying time of where I live.

Would love to see Bruce live again this year but don’t think I can get to the States to see him.

Sounds fantastic!

And it’s out just in time for my birthday.

How about making it a charity event? Si could have a quiet word with Bruce and ask him if he’ll waive his fee in return for us all donating to a charity of his choice. Then, we’d just need to hire a venue with good acoustics that can seat a couple of hundred people and wheel in a grand piano! Piece of cake. 😆

For when things get back to normal…

At the Biltmore show, Bruce and the band did some back-tracking at the end of Big Rumble to fulfil someone’s request for the minor key version of Mandolin Rain. Are there any previous recordings of this sequence done in full that we could have as a dose?

Thanks,
Jonathan

The Tivoli is a beautiful theater and as David says the acoustics are wonderful. When Bruce opened playing solo the sound from the piano was so rich. I’ve never heard anything like that. I was surprised that he’s not played there before. I bet he returns pretty soon.

The whole show was a scream – did anyone else see J.V. grabbing Sonny’s cymbals during one of the songs towards the end? Those guys all have such a blast on stage, J.V. grins constantly, and he’s always joking with Bruce. Glad the accordion made a couple of appearances too, particularly for Big Stick. I was so pleased that they played Cruise Control for the encore – it was great to get up and dance.

Looking forward to that download already!

I had the same problem, but there’s a way around it, although Si won’t like it because it probably means he loses the data on who is downloading what!