Album Review - Bruce Hornsby & Ricky Skaggs - self-titled
Although he never has faltered in concert -- where he fully is able to
put his freewheeling, adventurous nature to good use -- Bruce Hornsby's
recorded output, particularly over the past decade, often has exuded the
air of an artist searching for direction. On Harbor Lights, his last
indisputably great album, he enveloped his cleverly crafted pop songs
with sophisticated, jazz-inflected arrangements. His studio works since
then, however, have been terribly uneven. Spirit Trail, for example, was
a sprawling, double-disc affair that lacked a focus, despite the lyrical
threads that coursed through it. While Hot House and Halcyon Days had
their moments, they also felt largely like lesser, odds-and-sods sets.
Big Swing Face fared better in that it was more musically cohesive, but
Hornsby's experimentations with stream-of-consciousness lyrics and
electronica-based grooves were so foreign to his fans that they
completely were misunderstood. Consequently, he abandoned the groundwork
he had laid, and as a result, the effort now sounds like a strange
diversion rather than a bold, new beginning.
Hornsby's latest project, the aptly titled Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby,
ought to be better received. Having grown from the cover of Darlin' Cory
that he lent to Big Mon, a tribute to Bill Monroe that Skaggs championed
in 2000, the collection has been a long time coming. While
bluegrass-hued music hardly is new to Hornsby's repertoire, he never
before has devoted a full-fledged endeavor to exploring the genre.
Throughout the eponymous effort, Hornsby is backed by Skaggs and his
longstanding outfit Kentucky Thunder as well as by fiddler Stuart Duncan
and dobro player Jerry Douglas. Nevertheless, although the set's title
indicates that it was a fully collaborative undertaking, the imprint
that has been placed upon the material largely bears Hornsby's mark.
Strip away the bluegrass accoutrements, and the songs would fit
comfortably among any of his other albums.
This is an excerpt. To read the complete review, please visit:
http://www.musicbox-online.com/reviews-2007/ricky-skaggs-bruce-hornsby.html
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