Bruce Hornsby has worn many hats over the years: He's been a ringleader for the Range; a songwriter for pals Don Henley and Robbie Robertson; and even a keyboardist for the Grateful Dead. Now, thirteen years after his commercial peak with "The Way It Is" and "Mandolin Rain" and three years after his last album Hot House, the 43-year old pianist is ready to wear the hat tailored just for him. And it's a big one. |

For the double-disc Spirit Trail, out this week, Hornsby was a solo artist in the true sense. Whereas Harbor Lights (1993) and Hot House were peppered with incremental star power -- Jerry Garcia, Phil Collins and Bonnie Raitt among them -- Hornsby declined to call in any favors this time around. Instead, he's focused on his own piano prowess to create an album that delves deep into his own life below the Mason-Dixon line.

"I've recommitted myself to the study of piano," he said backstage during the East Troy, Wisc., stop on this summer's Furthur Festival. "I've taken my playing to a whole new level. It's not something you'd hear with a band."

The latest creation from the three-time Grammy winner started out as a single disc, but quickly mushroomed into a twenty-song collection of music themed around how Hornsby perceives life in the former Confederacy.

"The record is very Southern so there's a lot of songs about race, religion, judgment and tolerance," he said. "And sort of my own personal struggles with some of these issues -- or observing others with the issues."

While Spirit Trail is packaged as one solid aggregation of music, it's better absorbed as two separate albums. Before heading out on 1997's Furthur Fest, Hornsby had one disc ready for release, but when he went on tour, his creative juices got flowing again. "When I got off the road, I had a bunch of songs started and I thought 'I want to cut these, too,'" he explained. "The songs were different from the others. They didn't go together well, and I couldn't just take five songs from each."

Instead, Hornsby created a package ranging between the upbeat spirituality of the nearly ten-minute opus "Preacher in the Ring, parts I & II," the infectious "Sad Moon" and the staccatoed tempo of "Sunflower Cat (Some Dour Cat) (Down With That)", which samples the Grateful Dead's "China Cat Sunflower." However, it's songs like "Resting Place" and "Fortunate Son" that reverberate on a more personal level.

For the soul-searching "Resting Place," Hornsby takes the listener down his road to enlightenment: "I'm on a long sojourn/I'm sitting here shedding my skin/Don't know about inside, ugly on the outside/They're all messing with me for the shape I'm in/I'm looking for a clean slate/Just need a new mind state." His introspective journey continues with the somber "Fortunate Son," a song that grapples with issues of success and defeat: "I've stared down the devil and had to look away/Called out to angels but no one ever came/Laid down odd and even but double zero played/That's alright I'm a lucky one, such a fortunate son."

For all the diversity that seeps out of Spirit Trail, Hornsby always returns to the theme of independence. "The last three records all had the same cast of characters, and I just thought I'd done this enough," Hornsby said. "That's not what [Spirit Trail] was about, it was about me. So I thought I would be the ball hog this time."

ARI BENDERSKY(October 15, 1998)