Concert Review—

Hangin’ With Hornsby: Audience And Performer Give And Take

By Shannon Hicks

WALLINGFORD — No one should have walked away from Bruce Hornsby’s concert last week at the Oakdale Theatre disappointed. The singer-songwriter-pianist-accordion player, etc, played for nearly three hours, performing songs dating back to his debut album of 1983 and everything in between, and enchanted everyone in the house with his back-and-forth banter. He and his five-member band also segued into songs by everyone from Harry Belafonte to Pink Floyd.

At the end of the night, it was a happy Hornsby who mentioned backstage that his audience had just been treated to “a great show… we were really creative out there.”

Hornsby has, by the time of this review’s printing, wrapped up an abbreviated but extremely popular tour to support his latest release. Here Come the Noise Makers, released in late October, is the musician’s first live album and second consecutive double-length release.

The Noise Makers Tour was a three-week stint for Hornsby and bandmates John “J.T.” Thomas (organ/keyboard, vocals), Bobby Read (sax, bass clarinet, and vocals), bass player J.V. Collier, Doug Derryberry (guitar, mandolin and vocals), and drummer Michael Baker. The current lineup has been performing together since 1998, so it is the same musicians heard during the live recordings that span the length of one year who were on the road in November with Bruce Hornsby.

The stage set was non-existent and the dress code was very casual, but the music was tight and professional. Hornsby and crew enjoyed themselves, entertained the audience, and made it all look very easy.

Among the highlights of the show was not only the banter from Hornsby, but his direct interaction with the audience. Unlike many performers who mumble a sentence or two after a song and then plunge into the next song on a set light (which, like a formal stage set, also seemed to be missing on this tour — everything was very off-the-cuff and casual), Hornsby still listens to and responds to his audience.

One of the most apparent treatments of this performer-audience give-and-take is the continued acceptance by Hornsby of song requests. Before the concert began at the Oakdale, the front of the stage was littered with pieces of paper with requests hastily written on them. Fans know of this practice, and Hornsby continues to honor it. There were a few times during Wednesday evening’s concert when the performer read a request and then worked the song into the performance.

A few songs before closing the first set of the evening, Hornsby followed another of his traditions in opening the stage up to any female audience members who wanted to join him and the band to dance. He told the audience with a laugh, “For any of you men out there who want to complain about this separation I have one thing to say: You’d do the same thing too if you were me.”

Minutes later the stage was full, and even the aisles were populated by a number of people, as Hornsby and his band worked through “Rainbow’s Cadillac.”

Bruce Hornsby worked through his library of songs during the concert, but never presented any of them exactly as they are heard on his albums. The performer likes to expand his songs, jazz them up or slow them down — whatever he feels like at that particular moment.

You never know what you’re going to hear at Hornsby’s concerts, either. Midway through “Every Little Kiss,” he took a short drive into Van Morrison land and then Harry Belafonte territory. On Belafonte’s “Man Smart, Woman Smarter,” Hornsby first made it jazzy and then picked up his accordion so that the song switched gears yet again and became absolutely Zydeco.

The treatment was similar — a stray from the straight-on approach — for “Preacher in the Ring Part II,” “Walk in the Sun,” “Long Tall Cool One,” “The Way it Is,” “Harbor Lights,” “Talk of the Town,” and every other song that was performed. “Jacob’s Ladder,” which was written by Hornsby but popularized a few years ago by Huey Lewis & the News, was nearly unrecognizable back in the hands of its father.

Hornsby’s plan once he got off the road was to head back into the studio to complete album number eight. Although the Noise Makers Tour was a short one (the Wallingford show was the second-to-last date on a nine-date run), Connecticut fans were among the lucky ones to enjoy a performance by a fantastic musician who was able to show off his best while still being relaxed and comfortable.