Ok, so I don't really know Bruce Hornsby, so I don't KNOW that he is a great guy, but he sure seems to be. There's no question that he is a great musician and has been making great, quality music for 25 years now, ranging from his early pop hits, to jamming with the Grateful Dead and other rock icons, to his wide-ranging and ever-roaming forays into all styles of music, from bluegrass, country, folk, rock, pop, jazz, and classical, he has always delivered melodious, insightful, and inspiring songs, and just downright amazing piano and keyboard work. He also has always been good to his supporters and fans, from time to time offering high quality free music downloads (such as his 2007 Christmas present I posted awhile back) . Bruce has been offering high quality downloads of concerts for purchase for some time (through brucehornsby.com and livedownloads.com), but he also often gives away some shows for free. Well, Bruce has outdone himself lately. He recently has set up a separate live download site (brucehornsbylive.com, affiliated with livedownloads.com) as a new home for his live downloadable shows for purchase (in both FLAC and mp3), and over the past few months he also has been adding a new free show from his Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers 2009-2010 tour each month. Currently there are 4 full shows and a 3 vol. 'best of' tour compilation (Dagle's Choice, compiled by Bruce's longtime sound engineer Wayne 'Dagle' Pooley), all available as free mp3 downloads. In total, this amounts to a whopping 16 CD's worth of free professionally recorded, mixed, and edited recent live music by Bruce and his band. In fact, at this point, the free music far outnumbers the 'for pay' shows available at the site (currently, 3 shows from 2004 are available for purchase). So, thank you, Bruce. Now, Bruce is not exactly someone who sells a whole lot of records these days (at least, not like his 'hit' days), so for him to offer such a substantial amount of his music for free is monumental. But, Bruce has always been interested in the music, first and foremost, and having people listen and enjoy it. And he knows that if more people get a chance to hear his music and concerts, the more likely those people will be to want to buy his albums and see him live (buy concert tickets). Frankly, it's a great way of doing business, and I sincerely hope it works out that way for him. So, go check out Bruce's free music and shows, then, if you like what you hear, by all means, please support him by buying his albums and attending his upcoming concerts. He has recently announced a new tour with the Noisemakers starting this Spring, which will include an appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. So, again, thanks Bruce, for thinking about all your fans, and making so much of your music available to everyone.
http://www.brucehornsbylive.com/
I'll vouch that he is a great guy. Several years ago, I emailed him (yep - his site lets you email him!) to ask if he had the set list for a concert on September 5, 1993, which was the first time I had taken my wife to see him live(she's a huge fan). None of the fan sites had the show listed but I had the program and ticket stubs! He emailed me back, saying that while he didn't, if i sent him the program, he would autograph it so i could give it to my wife as a gift. Lo and behold, 2 weeks later, I had a signed program, with a nice personal note from Bruce to my wife!!
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