This past Wednesday legendary singer-songwriter Jackson Browne performed a career-spanning set at The Ferguson Center For The Arts in Newport News, Virginia and welcomed a local hero and a longtime friend/collaborator to help out at various points during the show – Bruce Hornsby.

Bruce first appeared with his mountain dulcimer and helped out on vocals for Browne’s I’m Alive and then switched over to the keys for the title track from Jackson’s 1996 LP Looking East. Later in the evening Hornsby – along with Val McCallum, Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins – teamed up with Jackson Browne for a riveting take on Take It Easy. Here’s a clip of Take It Easy…

Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby, Val McCallum, Sara and Sean Watkins – Take It Easy

[via Daily Press, Hat Tip - @gr8fulgolfer]

Bob Weir teamed up with former Grateful Dead band mate Bruce Hornsby and jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis for a pair of headlining gigs at the All Good Music Festival and Gathering Of The Vibes this weekend. Hornsby’s band, The Noisemakers, backed the trio for most of each set. We found three videos which give a good taste of the music Bruce, Bob and Branford offered festivalgoers.

[Photo by Andrew Bender]

Our pal LazyLightning55 captured a fantastic Dark Star at Gathering of the Vibes…

Bob Weir, Branford Marsalis and Bruce Hornsby – Dark Star

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For the past week or so, two HT faves have teamed up as Van Ghost opened for Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers on a brief tour that concludes tomorrow in Apple Valley, Minn. This past Thursday night, at Rochester, New York’s Party In The Park, the two acts co-mingled when Van Ghost’s Jennifer Hartswick guested on a song during the legendary keyboardist’s set.

[via @JHartswick]

Hartswick emerged towards the start of the show to help out the Noisemakers on Hornsby’s 1993 classic Rainbow’s Cadillac. Jennifer played trumpet and also sang on the Harbor Lights tune, while Bruce rocked the accordion. In other Bruuuuuce news, Hornsby’s upcoming June 22nd show has been moved from the Mishawaka Amphitheatre to the Boulder Theater, and to June 21st, due to the High Park fire.

Virginia native Bruce Hornsby has been performing The Way It Is for nearly 30 years at this point, yet he always keeps his biggest hit fresh in concert by screwing with the arrangement or bringing up special guests. Or sometimes both, as was the case during Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where the one-time Grateful Dead member brought out the horn section from local favorites Bonerama for a samba-fied take on the tune. Check it out…

Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers w/ Bonerama Horns – The Way It Is

Last night in Oakland, one-time Grateful Dead band mates Bob Weir (guitar) and Bruce Hornsby (piano) each played separate sets and then shared the stage for a joint set and encore at the Fox Theatre. Hornsby kicked off the evening with a solo piano set featuring material from throughout his illustrious career. Weir came on next and mixed songs from the his solo repertoire with Grateful Dead classics. Of particular note was the My Brother Esau opener, a tune Weir played for the first time since 1987 just one week earlier at The Bridge Session.

For the pair’s first-ever set as a duo, they opened up with Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business – a song Bruce released as a bonus track for Japan on 2009′s Levitate. From there, the two tackled Most of the Time by Bob Dylan – another tune Weir performed at The Bridge Session one week prior. After that came a medley of Grateful Dead compositions featuring Lady With A Fan from Terrapin Station, a verse a piece from Dark Star and The Other One plus Me and My Uncle.

Watch as Weir and Hornsby re-interpret Hell In A Bucket as the lone encore…

Bob Weir and Bruce Hornsby – Hell In A Bucket

Here’s the setlists from both solo sets and the joint set and encore…

Bruce Solo: (8:12 start time) Red Hook Summer>Sticks and Stones, Heir Gordon, Preacher in the Ring, Where’s the Bat?, Continents Drift, Valley Road, 20-20 Vision and I’m Walking Round Blind>A Night on the Town (9:06 end time)

Weir solo: (9:11 start time) My Brother Esau, The Music Never Stopped > KC Moan, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Peggy-O > Big Bad Blues > Ashes & Glass, Easy to Slip, Black Throated Wind>Cassidy, Sugar Magnolia (10:27 end time)

Joint Set:
(10:29 start time) Too Much Monkey Business, Most of the Time, Lady With A Fan >Dark Star v1>Other One v1>Me And My Uncle (11:10)

Joint Encore: Hell in a Bucket

[via Chez - Ratdog.org]

The pair team up for another “Alone and Together” performance tonight at the Fox.

Sometimes, you find love. Sometimes, love finds you. In the case of Bruce Hornsby’s solo shows, and how they eventually, and literally, led me to falling in love with my wife to be, Erin, you simply can’t make this stuff up. Having had one of our first dates at a solo Hornsby show in 2007 at the McCarter Theatre on the campus of Princeton University, I decided it would be a nice sneak away, date night to recapture the magic of five years ago this past Friday, with the same performer on the same stage.

If you’ve never seen Hornsby solo, let me just be crystal clear and say this: make sure you do so, immediately! The man is a true “talent,” to borrow the word used by my loving fiance at the show, a maestro of every genre from Americana to rock to blues to classical to anything and everything in between. Bruce solo shows feature just a man and his grand piano, playing anything he desires, while honoring the many requests scattered about the stage and yelled out by the audience, while inviting you in with his quick wit and humor that are as much a part of the show as his dancing digits.

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Former Grateful Dead band mates Bob Weir and Bruce Hornsby are teaming up for a co-bill performance at Oakland’s Fox Theater on March 31. Billed as “Bob Weir & Bruce Hornsby Alone and Together”  the show is sure to feature a solo set by each performer as well as a few choice tunes as a duet. The pair last performed together over Labor Day Weekend at Levon Helm’s Barn as part of a special Midnight Ramble and later that weekend at moe.down.

Alone and Together comes just a few weeks before Weir’s first-ever solo acoustic tour, which kicks off in Knoxville on April 24. Tickets go on sale through GDTSTOO on January 2 and through outlets on January 6.

Earlier this week there was question about whether last night’s Midnight Ramble at Levon Helm’s studio on Plochmann Lane in Woodstock, New York would be by candlelight after Hurricane Irene knocked power out at the famed barn. Luckily power was restored and yesterday’s very special Midnight Ramble with guests Bob Weir and Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers went on as planned, with electricity.

[Photo via Weir's Twitter account]

Bruce and Bobby teamed up for the first time in years, as Weir lent his talents to Jack Straw during Hornsby’s set and Bruce returned the favor for a duet version of Dark Star. Later, during the Levon Helm Band set, Hornsby and Weir emerged at various points to augment The Band drummer’s house band. Here’s a look at the setlists…

Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers: Funhouse, Valley Road*, Questions and Answers*, Rainbow’s Cadillac*, Jack Straw+
*-w/ Larry Campbell, +-w/ Bob Weir

Bob Solo Acoustic: Stranger, Maggie’s, Blackbird, Loose Lucy, Sailor/Saint, Me and My Uncle

Bob & Bruce: Dark Star

Levon Helm Band: This Wheel’s on Fire, Long Black Veil, Bourgeois, Ophelia, Cypress, Rainin’ in My Heart, Sweat of My Brow w/Sonny, Deep Elem w/Bob/Bruce/Bobby Reid/Sonny, Attics w/ just Bob/Larry Campbell/Teresa Williams/Fiona McBain, Mardi Gras w/Bruce/JT/Bobby Reid, Deep Feeling, Acapulco, Volver, T Jed w/Bob and Bruce, Ripple w/Bob, Saved w/JT and Bobby Reid, Lamps, When I Go Away, NFA w/everyone, The Weight w/everyone

[via Ratdog.org]

Levon has another Ramble tonight with Bobby Osborne, while Weir heads to the nearby Bearsville Theater for a solo show this evening and to moe.down to lend an extra pair of hands to Helm’s set on Sunday.

Our proud corporate parents at Glide Magazine have just published a revealing interview with keyboardist Bruce Hornsby in which the Virginia-bred musician talks about his new live album, his childhood and much more with freelancer Joanne Schenker.

One of the topics Schenker discussed with Hornsby was his relationship with Grateful Dead front man Jerry Garcia…

Did you ever think you’d end up close friends with Jerry Garcia?

No, who would ever imagine that?  And it was a beautiful time.  He was a great person and I, like many, many people miss him a lot.  I learned so much from him…he was a walking encyclopedia of folk music. It was an amazing moment for the old crowd who used to hang around The Octane Kids in ’74 to come up to Madison Square Garden 16 years later in September l990 and watch me just start wingin’ it with him on stage with no rehearsal.  It was like I was painting myself into the mural I was looking at when I was a kid.

Fans believe you were a major catalyst to their revival in the ‘90’s…

Well, I wouldn’t say that, really.  I came in the late ‘80’s and Garcia died in ’95.  I think that was a tough period for them.  One thing that seems to be generally thought was that when I played with The Dead, Garcia really enjoyed it.  We had a great connection.  Sometimes I would verbally pick him up when I felt he was flagging on stage.  I would be next to him on accordion sort of shouting (laughs)…

In watching videos and listening to tapes from the Dead’s Hornsby Era, there’s no doubt Jerry was energized by Bruce. Hornsby goes on to discuss his forthcoming musical and the possibility he’ll tour with Bob Weir again. Head over to GlideMagazine.com for the full interview.

Much like how Desmond Hume was Daniel Faraday’s constant, the same could be said about Bonnaroo and Widespread Panic. The Southern jam- titans have a long history with the fest, serving as its inaugural headliner back in 2002, and repeating as the anchor in ’03, ’05, ’07 and ’08. So when it came to celebrating Bonnaroo’s tenth anniversary, no one was surprised to see Panic’s name once again appear at the top of the lineup.

Let’s check out this twelve-plus minute take on Red Hot Mama from their marathon fest closing set on Sunday night, that featured both Bruce Hornsby on keyboard and the Megablasters horns…

Widespread Panic – Red Hot Mamma

You’ve got to give credit to the moe. camp for the diversity of acts they’ve brought to their moe.down festival over the years and that wide range of artists will continue at moe.down XII with the addition of TV on the Radio, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, Dangermuffin and The Ragbirds to this year’s lineup. Early-bird tickets are only available until tomorrow night, so purchase now if you want the $115 ducats.

Back in February, we told you about Bruce Hornsby’s interactive live chat with his fans through the keyboardist’s Facebook page. Hornsby will answer questions from his fans once again this evening starting at 7PM EDT. Be sure to leave your query on Bruce’s official Facebook page around that time and hopefully he’ll pick your question to answer.

While Howard Stern may have revolutionized how celebrities use Twitter over the weekend by tweeting commentary along with an HBO re-airing of his Private Parts film, Bruce Hornsby is aiming to do something similar on Facebook. From 7 to 8PM this past Monday night, Hornsby responded to dozens of questions posed by his fans on the Official Bruce Hornsby Facebook Page on a wide range of topics.

Hornsby’s page announced that Bruce will take part in a Facebook Chat and prompted fans to leave questions on his “wall.” Among the subjects the former Grateful Dead keyboardist tackled were his beginnings as part of a Steely Dan cover band, Robin Williams’ penchant for dirty jokes, the status of his Broadway musical and a potential supergroup featuring Bruce and Bobby McFerrin.  Bruce also shared some thoughts on the meaning behind his original songs The Chill, Continents Drift and Candy Mountain Run. The piano wiz even gave some love to Ben Folds.

All of Hornsby’s answers are scattered through his Facebook page, but many of them are contained within this thread. Bruce gained over a thousand “likes” during the session, showing that the exercise wasn’t one sided. Fans were thrilled for the opportunity to ask one of their favorite artists questions, while the artist in question gained plenty of followers who will now see the piano player’s news updates in their feed. We hope more performers follow in Bruce’s footsteps over the coming weeks and months.

Looking back on the early 1990s in Grateful Dead lore, it’s easy to understand why some folks view this as a less than heroic era for the band. Between the death of Brent Mydland in July of 1990, rumors of Phil quitting the band earlier that year and the transition into the Vince Welnick/Bruce Hornsby keyboard era not being met with entirely open arms, the bigger stories took precedent over the individual evenings.

However, when taken out of the broader context, some effortless digging uncovers countless gems from 1990 and 1991, as the band pulled out a lot of stops in the form of playful setlists, choice covers and impromptu jams. This edition of Bust Outs* hits on those high notes.

* Last Bust Outs [354 days]

It’s a Bullshit Lie! – Cal Expo, CA, 6/10/90

Let’s just clear one thing up right off the bat.

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Stir It Up Jam – Capital Centre, Landover, MD, 3/21/1991

This is quintessential Bruuuuuce. In lockstep with Phil, Hornsby leads the band through a festive, uplifting improvisation on Bob Marley’s household tune, which didn’t culminate in anybody taking a crack at the lyrics, but this works better as just a jam anyway.

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• Previously on HT: 10 Favorite Grateful Dead Bust Outs

READ ON for more Early ’90s Grateful Dead Bust Outs…

Last Week’s Sauce is a recurring column featuring recordings of shows from the previous week. Thanks to Kevin Browning for this week’s photo.

Artist & Title: Assembly Of Dust – Arc Of The Sun
Date & Venue: 2009-09-25 Port City Music Hall, Portland ME
Taper & Show Download: SmokinJoe

If you haven’t heard Assembly Of Dust’s 2009 release Some Assembly Required, what are you waiting for? It’s a great selection of tunes and the album overflows with collaborations from legendary musicians. Assembly of Dust plays tonight with the Emmitt-Nershi Band at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom.

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READ ON to hear tracks from the likes of Bruce Hornsby and Built To Spill