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Bruce Hornsby: Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Sony Music / BMG
Released: 2007.03.20
Time:
 48:52
Category: Bluegrass, Country
Producer(s): Bruce Hornsby, Ricky Skaggs
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.brucehornsby.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] The Dreaded Spoon (B.Hornsby) - 3:02
[2] Gulf of Mexico Fishing Boat Blues (B.Hornsby) - 3:36
[3] Across the Rocky Mountain (Traditional) - 6:05
[4] Mandolin Rain (J.Hornsby/B.Hornsby) - 6:09
[5] Stubb (R.Skaggs) - 4:39
[6] Come on Out (G.Kennedy/Ph.Madeira) - 3:26
[7] A Night on the Town (J.Hornsby/B.Hornsby) - 5:14
[8] Sheep Shell Corn (Traditional) - 2:26
[9] Hills of Mexico (Traditional) - 3:50
[10] Crown of Jewels (B.Hornsby) - 6:21
[11] Super Freak (B,Johnson/A.Miller) - 4:04

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Bruce Hornsby - Piano, Organ, Accordion on [5], Vocals, Producer
Ricky Skaggs - Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Percussion, Vocals, Arrangements, Liner Notes, Producer

Jerry Douglas - Dobro
Stuart Duncan - Fiddle
Gordon Kennedy - Guitar, Resonator
Cody Kilby - Banjo, Guitar
Andy Leftwich - Fiddle, Mandolin
Jim Mills - Banjo
Mark Fain - Bass
Sonny Emory - Drums
Paul Brewster - Harmony Vocals

Brent King - Engineer, Mixing
Andrew Mendelson - Engineer
Wayne Pooley - Engineer
Erick Anderson - Design, Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Bruce Hornsby's ninth studio album, a collaboration with bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs titled Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, marks the debut release for the duo's new musical project. The album features reworkings of Hornsby originals as bluegrass tunes, as well as a number of traditional songs and a Skaggs original composition. Worthy of note is the cover of "Super Freak" (the Rick James song), here turned into a bluegrass version.



Although Ricky Skaggs gets top billing, it's 1980s adult contemporary star Bruce Hornsby who does most of the work on their bluegrass-themed duet album, RICKY SKAGGS AND BRUCE HORNSBY. Hornsby wrote five of the album's eleven songs, including a remake of his early hit "Mandolin Rain," and his jazz-influenced piano playing is at the heart of these largely acoustic tunes. The duo shines, though, on the handful of traditional folk and bluegrass songs, such as "Hills of Mexico" and "Across the Rocky Mountain," but it's a giggly reworking of Rick James's "Super Freak" that reveals the casual looseness and good humor of the session as a whole.

All Music Guide



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.

While this isn’t in and of itself the problem with Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby, it does provide an indication regarding why the outing is such a mixed bag. On the one hand, there’s a playfulness that exists outside the self-titled collection’s opening and closing tracks — a twang-inflected tale of pilfered food dubbed The Dreaded Spoon and a surprisingly functional but completely corny cover of Rick James’ Super Freak that features guest vocalist John Anderson. Similarly, some genuine chemistry did develop among the participants as they blurred the line between bluegrass and jazz. Although the evocative re-imaginations of Mandolin Rain and A Night on the Town might be only slight improvements upon the original renditions of the songs, they do succeed in casting them in a new light.

On the other hand, there’s a tentativeness to Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby that is difficult to shake. As much as the musicians push the driving, determined groove of Across the Rocky Mountain and sail in a stirring fashion through the instrumental Stubb, other cuts, such as Sheep Shell Corn and Hills of Mexico feel like filler. While the musicianship frequently is impeccable — which, considering the ensemble that was assembled, undeniably is an expected outcome — it also feels, at times, as if Hornsby, Skaggs, and company are holding something back. Consequently, they rarely realize their full potential, and every time they do, they quickly retreat to their comfort zone, which is why the set sounds so much like Hornsby’s songs merely have been adorned with bluegrass textures. The good news, however, is that at least Hornsby is more centered, focused, and inspired than he has been in ages. This, alone, is worth savoring. starstarstar ½

John Metzger
The Music Box, April 2007, Volume 14, #4
 

 L y r i c s


THE DREADED SPOON

Here we go to the Tasty Freeze
Or maybe Dairy Queen
If so, then better lock the glove
There's something in there the old man loves
To break it out with a muffled shout
A shout of glee and it comes out

The dreaded spoon, the dreaded spoon
Lord help us, it's the dreaded spoon

Well, hide your cookies and hide your cakes
What he giveths, away he takes
He keep on scoopin' till you taste just great
So better not turn your head away

It's gone, gone, gone
They're gone, gone, gone
To the dreaded spoon

Says he doesn't want a thing
He's not hungry, he says with a tiny wink
We come back with a big ol' cone
And he makes his move and we all moan
Wearing out your ice cream cake
Spilling sprinkles in his wake

The dreaded spoon, the dreaded spoon
Lord help us, the dreaded spoon

Well, hide your cakes and Sunday pies
Apple fritters and curly fries
Nuts and cherries piled so high
Just one swipe and it's say goodbye

Yes, bye, bye, bye
They're gone, gone, gone
Gone, gone, gone
To the dreaded spoon

Well, hide your cakes and sunday pies
Apple fritters and curly fries
Nuts and cherries piled so high
Just one swipe and it's say goodbye

Yes, bye, bye, bye
They're gone, gone, gone
Gone, gone, gone
To the dreaded spoon


GULF OF MEXICO FISHING BOAT BLUES

I'm in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico
Working on a fishing boat, how long I don't know
Trouble behind me, yes I'm hoping so
Finger on my back, make me say
"Whoa, whoa, whoa"

I'm in the saddle taking a little ride
Swinging with my partner side to side
C'mon Joe, c'mon Lee
Let's go down to the Jamboree
Make a new start, change my name
No more ducking my head in shame
I did run and yes, I hid

Running from the trouble for something I did
Thousand miles away from my home
Five states over, oh I did roam
Right eye peeled on the worker so near
Nobody would think to look for me here
My arms getting so strong working long days
If they find me I'll be better at fighting my way
Out and then I'd swim ashore
Dare 'em all to look for me some more

What I did I can't tell you
I can't believe it was me
In the flash of a light you can lose your sense of right
Change your luck and change your life


ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Across the rocky mountain I walked for miles and miles
Across the rocky mountain I walked for miles and miles
I'll ne'er forget my mother, God bless her sweetly smile

There was a rich old farmer who lived in a town nearby
He had one lovely daughter, on her I cast my eye
She was most tall and handsome, blue eyes and curly hair
There's no other girl in this world with her I could compare

She was courted by three squires, so well they did agree
She's courted by three squires, so well they did agree
But her heart with with the sailor who crossed the deep blue sea

Well your cheeks they are too rosy, your fingers are too small
Your cheeks they are too rosy, your fingers are too small
Oh, your cheeks they are too rosy to face the cannonball

No, my cheeks are not too rosy, nor fingers aren't too small
My cheeks are not too rosy, nor fingers aren't too small
It would not change my conscience to see ten thousand fall

She was walking through the battlefield, searching up and down
She's walking through the battlefield, searching up and down
All among the dead and wounded, her darling Jack she found


MANDOLIN RAIN

The song came and went
Like the times that we spent
Hiding out from the rain under the carnival tent
I laughed and she'd smile
It would last for awhile
You don't know what you've got till you lose it all again

Listen to the mandolin rain
Listen to the music on the lake
Oh, listen to my heart break every time she runs away
Oh, listen to the banjo wind
A sad song drifting low
Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go

A cool evening dance
Listenin' to the bluegrass band takes the chill
From the air until they play the last song
I'll do my time
Oh, keeping you off my mind but there's moments
That I find, I'm not feeling so strong

Listen to the mandolin rain
Listen to the music on the lake
Ah, listen to my heart break every time she runs away
Oh, listen to the banjo wind
A sad song drifting low
Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go

Runnin' down by the lakeshore
She did love the sound of a summer storm
It played on the lake like a mandolin
Now it's washing her away once again...whoa, again

The boat's steaming in
Oh, I watch the sidewheel spin
And I think about her when I hear that whistle blow
I can't change my mind
Oh, I knew all the time that she'd go
But that's a choice I made long ago

Listen to the mandolin rain
Listen to the music on the lake
Ah, listen to my heart break every time she runs away
Oh, listen to the banjo wind
A sad song drifting low
Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go
As she turns to go
Listen to the...listen to the mandolin rain

Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go
Listen to the tears roll
Down my face as she turns to go

Listen to the mandolin rain.


STUBB

Instrumental.


COME ON OUT

[Chorus]
Come on out with your hands up
There's still time before you die
Come on out with your hands up
Put your hands up and reach for the sky

Them bones are your hide out
Nobody sees you laying low
Crawlin' 'round with the light out
You're on your knees - it's time to go

[Chorus]

You're gonna wait till you're older
Leave your fate in the devil's hands
But that voice on your other shoulder
You better listen to it while you can

[Chorus]

So I'll just sit here playin' hambone
Lord knows there's nothing better to do
Pretty soon you're gonna run out of ammo
Empty shells, just like you

[Chorus]

Put your hands up and reach for the sky


A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Van and Willie went out one night
Once they get out on the road
Well then everything is alright
Had to get away from the kids and the wives
Well they ran into some city boys that didn't walk just right
And the line was drawn for another showdown
Like they'd always seen it done
And when the lights came up on the little woods town
There was an old man bailing out a son

Going out for a night on the town
Going out to the smoke and trees
Going out for a night on the town
Going out for a look and see
Said do what your daddy told you
Well I just went out and did that
Van and willie went out one night

There's a green table down at the midway
Where they rack up the balls for the games
And reputations are made
There's a green forest full of oaks and pines
Where they cleared a cleared a space in the middle
Where secret scores are settled
And the claim was made round the table that night
And they rode off through the trees
And the young boys tell how the city boys tried
And how one man fell to his knees

Going out for a night on the town
Going out to the smoke and trees
Going out for a night on the town
Going out for a look and see
Said what made you go and do that
Well we were just having a little fun
Van and Willie went out one night

And the line was drawn for another showdown
Like they'd always seen and done
And one mans night for a drunken old time
Left a scar on on another one

Going out for a night on the town
Going out to the smoke and trees
Going out for a night on the town
Going out for a look and see
Said do what your daddy told you
Well I just went out and did that
Van and willie went out one night


SHEEP SHELL CORN

Never seen the likes since I've been born
Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn

Bowls in the cupboard and butter in the churn
Never seen the likes since I've been "burn"

Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Never seen the likes since I've been born

Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Never seen the likes since I've been born

Sheep shell corn by the rattlin' of his horn
Swing that girl with the red dress on


HILLS OF MEXICO

When I's in old Fort Worth in eighteen and eighty-three
Saw a Mexican cowboy come ridin' up to me
Sayin' how are you, young fellow, how would you like to go
And spend another summer in the hills of Mexico?

Well, I had no appointment back to him I did say
It's accordin' to your wages, accordin' to your pay
I will pay to you good wages and often, too, you know
If you'll spend another season in the hills of Mexico

Now with all this flatterin' talkin' he signed up quite a train
Some ten or twelve in number, some able bodied men
And our trip it was pleasant as we hit the western road
Till we crossed the old Peace River to those hills of Mexico

It was there our pleasures ended and our troubles all begun
Was a lightening storm that hit us and made the cattle run
And we all got full of stickers from the cactus that did grow
And the outlaws there to rob us in those hills of Mexico

Well, they sent along that old steamboat and back to home did go
How those bells started ringing, the whistles they did blow
Going back to friends and loves ones and I'll tell them not to go
To that God-forsaken country in those hills of Mexico


CROWN OF JEWELS
She Came from the backwoods
Bright teeth, stylish hair
Good fortune and everyone's smiles
Followed her everywhere
Had a taste for the good life
Had some stars in her eyes
Thought she would have it all
Once her name was in lights

Hey, hey little Miss Jane
Sunny day turned to hard rain
Traded in your evening gown
For a jumpsuit of pain
The beauty queen and the wallflower
Feel the same in their darkest hours
All watch as the crown of jewels
Falls from the old guard tower

She walked down the runway
A crown of jewels she wore
Applause and lights, but at the end of the night
She was the first out the door
Drove all night at high speed
Arrived in the early day light
Flash of a knife, a nice evening dress
Couldn't change her man's mind

Hey, hey little Miss Jane
Sunny day turned to hard rain
Traded in your evening gown
For a jumpsuit of pain
The beauty queen and the wallflower
Feel the same in their darkest hours
All watch as the crown of jewels
Falls from the old guard tower

Stage moms and hair-sprayed charms
No one there could have sounded an alarm
I don't know why you think it's so strange
Any kind of act is within anyone's range

Hey, hey little Miss Jane
Sunny day turned to hard rain
Traded in your evening gown
For a jumpsuit of pain
The beauty queen and the wallflower
Feel the same in their darkest hours
All watch as the crown of jewels
Falls from the old guard tower


SUPER FREAK

She's a very kinky girl
The kind you don't take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street, ow, girl

She likes the boys in the band
She says that I'm her all-time favorite
When I make my move to her room, it's the right time
She's never hard to please
Ow, no

That girl is pretty wild, now
(The girl's a super freak)
The kind of girl you read about
(In new-wave magazines)
That girl is pretty kinky
(The girl's a super freak)
I really love to taste her
(Every time we meet)

She's all right, she's all right
That girl's all right with me, yeah
Hey, hey, hey, hey

She's a super freak, super freak
She's super freaky, yow
(Everybody sing)
Super freak, super freak

She's a very special girl
(The kind of girl you want to know)
From her head down to her toenails
(Down to her feet, yeah)
And she'll wait for me at backstage with her girlfriends
In a limousine
(Long and black and shiny car)
Three's not a crowd to her, she says
(Menage a trois, ooh la la!)
"Room 714, I'll be waiting"
When I get there she's got incense, wine, and candles
It's such a freaky scene

That girl is pretty kinky
(The girl's a super freak)
The kind of girl you read about
(In new-wave magazines)
That girl is pretty wild, now
(The girl's a super freak)
I really like to taste her
(Every time we meet)

She's all right, she's all right
That girl's all right with me, yeah
Hey, hey, hey, hey

She's a super freak, super freak
She's super freaky, yow
Temptations, sing!
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Super freak, super freak
That girl's a super freak
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

She's a very kinky girl
The kind you won't take home to mother
And she will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street
Blow, Danny!
Ow, girl
Ow, girl

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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