Here Come the Noise Makers

Disc 1
1	Piano Intro/Great Divide 7:48
2	Long Tall Cool One 7:54
3	The Red Plains 5:58
4	The Road Not Taken 7:22
5	The Lady With the Fan 5:23
6	Stander on the Mountain 7:52
7	Jacob's Ladder/Blackberry Blossom 4:31
8	Piano Intro/I Loves You Porgy/Nocturne 4:21
9	The Way It Is 7:02
10	Twelve Tone Tune/King of the Hill 11:43
Disc 2
1	Spider Fingers/Tempus Fugit 10:23
2	Sneaking up on Boo Radley 5:39
3	Fortunate Son 4:46
4	The Valley Road 7:08
5	The End of the Innocence 8:46
6	Sunflower Cat/It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry 9:22
7	Rainbow's Cadillac 7:33
8	Mandolin Rain/Black Muddy River 12:21

Barnes & Noble

Singer/pianist/songwriter Hornsby takes a fairly eclectic route on his first-ever live album, a two-CD, 18-song set at that mixes crowd-pleasing favorites with some less predictable fare that showcases the artist's verve and versatility. Hornsby's hits -- "The Way It Is," "Mandolin Rain," "The Valley Road" -- are here, along with some Hornsby compositions that became hits for other artists, namely "The End of the Innocence" (successfully covered by Don Henley, who cowrote it with Hornsby) and "Jacob's Ladder" (Huey Lewis). There's also a selection of compositions by some of Hornsby's favorite composers, including Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," and Hornsby also honors his jazz idols with sensitive readings of Bill Evans's "Twelve Tone Tune," George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy," and Bud Powell's "Tempus Fugit." Even more noteworthy are two numbers by the Grateful Dead, with whom Hornsby toured for awhile as guest keyboardist, "Lady with a Fan" and "Black Muddy River." The wide-ranging, confidently performed set is bound together by the artist's trademark melodic piano runs and relaxed but soulful vocals, resulting in a distinctly likable portrait of Bruce Hornsby as a multifaceted and consistently engaging writer, performer, and musician. C.O. Jones

All Music Guide

Bruce Hornsby was 32 when "That's the Way It Is" hit number one and made him a star in the winter of 1986-1987, and he has used that stardom differently from the way a 22-year-old might have. You might say he's deliberately dismantled his popularity, gradually dispensing with the Range, the backing band he used to bill on his records, and with his brother John, who used to write his lyrics, while making progressively less song-oriented records that have traced a steadily declining sales curve to the point that his sixth album, the 1998 double-CD Spirit Trail, spent only two weeks in the charts. Or you might say he's used his popularity, spending it on musical legitimacy by turning away from pop music, indulging in side projects such as his part-time membership in the Grateful Dead. Here Come the Noise Makers, a two-CD live album drawn from concerts in 1998-2000, is, he says, a gift to "our fans, our true fans," which is to say those who have stuck with him. His gift includes renditions of his biggest hits, "That's the Way It Is," "Mandolin Rain," and "The Valley Road," as well as hits he wrote, "Jacob's Ladder" and "The End of the Innocence," embedded in lengthy arrangements with lots of invocations of his musical influences -- the Dead, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Bill Evans, Bud Powell, and Bob Dylan among them. Hornsby is determined to create a hybrid style that encompasses rock, jazz, and classical music within a jam band mentality. If he doesn't succeed, it may be because there aren't enough "true fans" out there to follow him, or it may be because he is so impressed with his own showoff-ish virtuosity that he hasn't bothered to write music compelling enough to support his goals. William Ruhlmann