The AOR jazzer behind smash hit The Way It Is veered off into the avant garde. But he\u2019s having sudden mainstream acclaim. \u2018Well,\u2019 he says as he releases yet another album, \u2018it\u2019s nicer than being ignored\u2019<\/p>\n\n
When people tell you they remember exactly where they were when JFK was shot, they don\u2019t often add that the room erupted in cheers and shouts of: \u201cHooray! Nixon can take over!\u201d Speaking via Zoom from his home in Williamsburg, Virginia, one of the oldest towns in the US, Bruce Hornsby shrugs and says: \u201cWell, that was my experience!\u201d It was the day before his ninth birthday and the whoops of delight came from his classmates, all of which is recalled on an impressionistic track from his new album Indigo Park: \u201cI was really alarmed and confused \/ Watching the children parroting parents\u2019 views.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until now, Hornsby has rarely written autobiographical lyrics, so people don\u2019t know all that much about him. His biggest song, The Way It Is, was a piece of social commentary, the product of a liberal upbringing in the segregated south. His aunt campaigned against the likes of Senator Harry F Byrd, who opposed the desegregation of Virginia\u2019s schools in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1b55123367b02a59c64a4c28f315fa0f4bd241c2\/141_0_3000_2400\/master\/3000.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=345fdf5d177225ecbb0b78001d2f362c\" "\\"\u2018I\u2019m")
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