New York– New York (AP) – Bruce Hornsby’s The new, contemplative album begins sweetly and melodically, with a musician looking back at a fascinating life. Then it gets weird. That’s by design.
“I’m walking pretty well and then I might throw something at you,” the three-time Grammy Award winner warned from his home in Williamsburg, Virginia. “I’m well aware that a lot of my old-time fans hate it.”
“Indigo Park,” a 10-song set out Friday, is a concept album of sorts, with Hornsby reflecting on his childhood and where he came from. To borrow a line from a song, it is “a life in reflection”.
The album – which features appearances from Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, Bonnie Raitt and Bob Weir, his late Grateful Dead bandmate – is a darkly humorous collection that treats memories with intimacy – and a few quirks.
Hornsby, who came out swinging in 1986 with the socially conscious hit “The Way It Is,” knows which songs might appeal to the average listener these days — Nos. 3, 6 and 9, which would be “Entropy Here (Rust in Peace),” “Alabama” and “Might As Well Be Me, Florida.” They are, in a word, challenging with inconsistent and complex time signatures.
He says, “Look, I like simple music. It has simple songs too.” “But I also like complexity. And sometimes I’m interested in creating a sound I haven’t heard before.”
“Indigo Park” reflects Hornsby’s restless musical creativity and love of language. Not many pop albums nowadays reasonably omit the words “priapic” or “tumescent” or reference the Fibonacci sequence of mathematics.
“It’s just a window into my goofy world,” he says, explaining that because the Hornsby family likes puns and a bit of wordplay, dad might have told one of his sons that he was “looking a little horny, buddy.”
Hornsby calls himself a “compulsive reader” and many of his songs are inspired by literary fiction, such as 2019’s “White Noise” which was an allusion to David Foster Wallace’s novel “The Pale King”. “I guess you could actually call me, in just one word, a snob.”
In a new song, “Silhouette Shadows”, Hornsby calls President John F. Kennedy over the school intercom. Reference is made to learning about the Kennedy assassination. He was a third-grader in a small, conservative Southern town, and suddenly, his classmates started celebrating, hoping that maybe Richard Nixon would take over.
“I was really worried and confused/Watching the kids repeat the parents’ thoughts,” Hornsby sings. “Ancient Visions and Mysterious Dreams.”
The music of the song was inspired by a classical composer’s fugue dmitri shostakovich that he wrote for a spike lee project, but the filmmaker never used it. So Hornsby took it back: “I was trying to create a sound I hadn’t heard before.”
Another song – “Ecstatic”, featuring the vocals of Bonnie Raitt – sounds like a light-hearted playground joke, and it is. It comes from the basketball chants that Hornsby heard from his parents when their older son, Keith, competed on the basketball court for Louisiana State University.
“You fouled, you did it, raise your hand to admit it/That’s right, you fouled, you did it, raise your hand to admit it,” are the lyrics. “That’s right, you walked, you traveled and got caught.”
“Indigo Park” is the fifth consecutive album by Hornsby featuring guitarist Gib Droll and the musician says it gives listeners a glimpse into the singer-songwriter’s inner life.
“It’s more personal. I think his fans will feel like they’re getting a glimpse of the guy and what he thinks,” says Droll, who plays on five tracks.
As for the strange songs, the guitarist says it’s part of the Hornsby experience. “I don’t know anyone who has continued to push boundaries in his own way,” says Droll.
“If it’s really art, it should challenge you at some point. The listener should be challenged to feel, ‘Do I like this? I don’t know. Oh my God, I think I like this.’ And then by the eighth time, hopefully, you’re looking forward to those little weird spots,” says Droll.
Hornsby, who plays accordion, dulcimer and piano in the collection, chose an Edward Hopper print – “Night Shadows”, a copy of which he owns – as the album cover. It shows a man alone on a dark road.
“I thought, OK, this could be called a record of my aging. When you go away or get ready to go you realize you’re alone, man,” he says. “I saw this lonely guy walking around. I thought it was me right now. It spoke to me like that. So, I used it.”
“Indigo Park” comes 40 years after Hornsby’s debut album “The Way It Is”. In the years since, with songs scattered across the country, adult contemporary, rock, jazz, bluegrass, and folk charts, it has become impossible to classify them. He’s played with everyone from the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan to Chaka Khan.
He laughs that the songs carry over from those early times, but maybe he could fire the frontman. “I’m not a fan of that singer. I guess that’s how I would describe myself as a slow learner. It’s gotten better over the years, at least for me.”
