Ep. 233 - BRUCE HORNSBY ("The Way It Is")

Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

Three-time GRAMMY winner and musical omnivore Bruce Hornsby chats about his wide-ranging career, from pop to bluegrass to jazz!
PART ONE:
Paul and Scott talk about their Instagram, a wild Genesis fact, and more.
PART TWO:
Our in-depth conversation with Bruce Hornsby
ABOUT BRUCE HORNSBY:
Thirteen-time Grammy nominee and three-time winner Bruce Hornsby has built one of the most diverse, collaborative, and adventurous careers in contemporary music. In the early 1980s Bruce was writing songs, playing sessions as a musician, and touring as member of Ambrosia and, later, Sheena Easton’s backing band. By the middle of the decade he’d formed the group Bruce Hornsby and the Range, signed a deal with RCA Records, and released his debut album, which spawned the hit singles “The Way It Is,” “Mandolin Rain,” and “Every Little Kiss.” As a result, Bruce and the band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1987. Their sophomore album, Scenes from the Southside, spawned the hit single “The Valley Road” and included Bruce’s own version of “Jacob’s Ladder,” a song he co-wrote that became a #1 hit for Huey Lewis. In addition to his own artist career, Bruce began collaborating extensively in that era, including producing Leon Russell, co-writing Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence,” playing piano on Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” and appearing on albums by everyone from Bob Dylan to Stevie Nicks to Willie Nelson.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s Bruce increasingly began incorporating elements of bluegrass and jazz into his music. He disbanded the Range to pursue other projects, including becoming a staple of the Grateful Dead’s touring lineup. His debut solo album, Harbor Lights, was released in 1993, and he won another Grammy that year, for Best Pop Instrumental, for composing “Barcelona Mona” with Branford Marsalis for the Barcelona Olympics. He released two additional solo studio albums in the 1990s before forming a new band, The Noisemakers, which released four studio albums between 2002 and 2016.
In that same period, he collaborated with bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs to release one studio album and one live album, and with bassist Christian McBride and drummer Jack DeJohnette to release a jazz album called Camp Meeting. Bruce's 2014 album Solo Concerts showcased a sampling of his one-man performances. In 2019 Bruce returned to releasing studio albums as a solo artist with Absolute Zero, an album included collaborations with Blake Mills, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and others. Among Bruce's many collaborations includes a longstanding partnership scoring films for director Spike Lee.
Earlier this year, Bruce released Deep Sea Vents, a water-themed collaborative album with the band yMusic that was released under the name Brhym.