THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605140093
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Grand Opening Report
SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
CLEAN SOUND and cleaner sight lines. Natural turf underfoot, nothing but the cosmos overhead. For audiences accustomed to going elbow-to-elbow in Hampton Roads' crowded clubs and concrete arenas, tonight's inaugural concert at the Virginia Beach Amphitheater will be a new experience.
One, says Bruce Hornsby, that's been a long time coming.
The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter/keyboardist knows: He's played his share of ``sheds'' the last 10 years - with his own band and sitting in with others - and, as a musician, he's a fan.
``For years there's been this circuit of amphitheaters around the country that seems to do the best business and attract the best acts - `shed acts,' we call them,'' Hornsby said from Williamsburg, where he grew up and still lives. ``The schedule you're seeing for the first time we've seen for years at Lakewood in Atlanta, Merriweather Post in Washington, Walnut Creek in Raleigh
``It just seems to work; I don't know why. You're outdoors. It's a nice atmosphere. Virginia Beach is finally getting in on the wave.''
Hornsby is making a 700-mile overnight drive from Louisville, Ky., for the opening. His band includes bass, drums, horns, organ and a back-up singer.
While the sonic challenges of a performance under the stars differ from those for an indoor gig, years of playing venues of all sizes - clubs and ballrooms, sheds and stadiums - has let him hone his style to suit each.
``As an acoustic musician, I like to get really soft,'' Hornsby said. ``That works great in Chrysler Hall or the Boathouse, but in an arena the audience is going, `Is he still playing?' The dynamic level is not as wide. Playing with the Dead at RFK, you're not getting across to three-quarters of the crowd.
``There's more intimacy with an amphitheater than an arena, I think. I've always felt a little more comfortable playing at a low dynamic level at these places.''
Bill Reid, president of Cellar Door Productions, never had a second thought about who he wanted to open the $18.5-million, 20,000-seat amphitheater.
``To me, there's not any other artist in the whole world better suited than Bruce Hornsby,'' Reid said. ``It goes without saying that the first concert should be one of Virginia's brightest national stars. Bruce was the obvious choice.''
The record bears him out. Hornsby and Hampton Roads share a symbiotic relationship that stretches back a decade:
In 1986, just after the release of his Grammy-winning debut album, ``The Way It Is,'' Hornsby and his group The Range sold out Norfolk's Boathouse.
His February 1987 concert at Chrysler Hall was a homecoming, with his family - including 40 first- and second-cousins - and a busload of high-school buddies in the audience. At evening's end, then-City Councilman Paul Fraim presented the Williamsburg native with the key to the city.
Five years later, the pianist returned to Chrysler for his orchestral debut. Backed by the Virginia Symphony, he redefined a set list that took in ``The Valley Road,'' ``Look Out Any Window,'' ``Across the River'' and ``The End of the Innocence,'' his collaboration with Don Henley.
Hornsby was the first pop artist to play the newly christened Harrison Opera House. That was in December 1993; last year, going solo for the first time, he was at the Harrison for a Chesapeake Bay Foundation benefit.
Offstage, Reid said, Hornsby was instrumental in getting the amphitheater project off the ground. In August 1993, as a favor to Reid, he met with the city's Resort Area Advisory Commission.
``Bruce basically told people unfamiliar with amphitheaters what they were about, why he enjoyed playing them and why they were the preferred venue of the future. We were trying to drum up support, and he helped us a lot.''
The unassuming Hornsby dismisses any talk of being a mover and shaker. He will, though, hold at least two places in the amphitheater record books: First artist, and first artist to play the venue twice.
He returns June 25 with the Furthur Festival, a daylong jam featuring the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Mickey Hart, Los Lobos and Hot Tuna. Hornsby is ready for the long haul. He'll be onstage an hour - at least. Weir and Hart have asked him to sit in with their bands, too.
``I'll be up there enough,'' he said, laughing. ``The audience will be going, `Not this SOB, not him again!' ''
The festival will be something of a bittersweet reunion. Hornsby joined the Dead in 1990, following the fatal drug overdose of keyboardist Brent Mydland, and toured with them for 18 months. The friendship endured; he spoke with Jerry Garcia four days before the guitarist's death last August.
``We laughed for an hour. I used to prank-call him. He was just a great guy, one of the funniest people I ever knew.
``I feel like a cousin of the Dead,'' Hornsby said. ``You can't spend that much time in that situation and not have it affect you. Certainly, playing with those guys has influenced the way I play and write. We used to be looser live than on our records. Now, the records reflect that more.''
The two amphitheater dates only sound discordant. For Hornsby, that kind of genre-hopping has defined his career.
Last year's ``Hot House'' (RCA) delved further into the jazz inroads he made on 1993's ``Harbor Lights.'' He won Grammys for a bluegrass version of ``The Valley Road,'' a venture with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the pop instrumental ``Barcelona Mona,'' recorded with saxman Branford Marsalis.
Two weeks ago, when Hornsby called from his home in Williamsburg, he'd just taped a special for The Nashville Network with Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs and frequent collaborator Bela Fleck.
His current schedule, which runs through August, includes the Newport, Cleveland and Aspen, Colo., jazz festivals. ``We've also been offered a bunch of European festivals and a Grateful Dead festival.
``Although they're coming from that sort of perspective, to me, most of the jazz festivals are not about jazz,'' Hornsby said. ``Most of what's being passed off is pop without words. I look forward to it; I have a feeling we'll be very different in a way people don't expect.
``My thing is still mostly about songs. I got my degree in jazz and it's always been in my playing, I just brought it out more on the last few records. Even on `The Way It Is' and `The Valley Road,' my playing was coming out of jazz. It's more about that than coming from Little Richard.''
The collaborations - with the Dead, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Wayne Shorter, Charlie Haden, Pat Metheny, Phil Collins, Chaka Kahn - has been the unexpected bonus in a career he never would have predicted 10 years ago.
``It's been an amazing trip,'' Hornsby said. ``To work with Pat Metheny, Branford and Ornette Coleman on the jazz side . . . To have them call me to play on a Dylan record, or work with Willie Nelson, Bob Seeger or Bonnie . . .
``I never imagined in 1986, when all of this broke, that any of this would happen. I never imagined I would be lucky enough to have a successful career as a collaborator, alongside a solo career. Both have been equally fulfilling.''
As for the next decade, Hornsby sees himself branching deeper into jazz, bluegrass and orchestral music. He just finished a song called ``Big Stick'' for an upcoming Kevin Costner golf movie, but isn't pursuing film work. He might, he said, if he ever gave up performing.
Whatever the decision, it won't take him too far or keep him too long from home. Hornsby and his wife, Kathy, are the parents of 4-year-old twins. In 1990, he was in Williamsburg for 18 days; the following year, all of 30. He's more of a homebody now.
``Since I've become a father, a lot of my life has been about clearing out life,'' he said. ``When we had the twins, I said something had to change. I don't want to miss this, I don't want to be an absentee father.
``The next 10 years will be about balance, about doing music and writing and playing on a high level, but also keeping my feet on the ground here at home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Bruce Hornsby
KEYWORDS: PROFILE INTERVIEW VIRGINIA BEACH AMPHITHEATER by CNB