Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993                   TAG: 9309240363
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JILLIAN PETERSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HORNSBY TAKES A JAZZY SOUND ON THE ROAD

He has since returned, but now he's leaving home again on his Harbor Lights tour.

Hornsby released ``Harbor Lights,'' his fourth album but first without The Range, in April. He produced the album and kept the free, loose feeling he has in his live performances.

There is a high ``jazz quotient'' in his new music, with Hornsby exploring harmonic complexities and chord progressions not usually found in pop music.

The album is basically a trio of Hornsby and two close friends, The Range's drummer John Molo and Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip. Various guests add color to the album, including Pat Metheny, Bonnie Raitt, Phil Collins and Branford Marsalis.

Hornsby says his time as a guest keyboardist with the Grateful Dead, from September 1990 to March 1992, had an influence on his composition style.

Jerry Garcia appears on two tracks of ``Harbor Lights,'' and Hornsby says ``there is one section of a song with Garcia where we basically sound like the Dead.''

Since the release of The Range's last album in 1990, Hornsby played more than 100 shows with the Dead in between touring with The Range, and in the meantime contributed to more than 40 albums by the varied likes of Bob Dylan, Raitt, Don Henley and Robbie Robertson. He also produced Leon Russell's album ``Anything Can Happen,'' played on tribute albums to the Dead and Elton John, and wrote music for film directors Spike Lee and Ron Howard.

He also performed at events such as President Clinton's Inauguration, the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona, and playing the National Anthem with Branford Marsalis at the 1991 NBA All-Star game.

``I've actually said `no' to hundreds of projects,'' Hornsby says. ``I only work on projects that I feel good about. Of course, I've said `yes' a lot, too,'' he adds with a laugh.

Hornsby said ``no'' to everything in 1992, when he stopped playing with the Dead and refused all other performance requests. He decided it was time to return to his own recording career and to be with his twin boys, born in January of that year.

``I don't want to be an absent father,'' says Hornsby.

The song ``Fields of Gray'' is written for the boys. ``It's about the rather intense feelings a father feels, bringing up his children in an uncertain world, hoping he can do right by them.''

Like most parents, Hornsby dreams of a better world for his children.

``I hope they grow up in an environment where hate is absent from the scene, where it is eradicated. Where the color of one's skin is not a reason for ill feelings or uncomfortableness. I know it's an idealistic notion, but we're making progress. Virginia elected the first black governor four years ago. These are good signs, but there are still lots of problems. We still have cross burnings a few times a year.''

But Hornsby doesn't intend to move from his home state. ``You can't run and hide. Plus, it's everywhere.''