35 years after Bruce Hornsby played piano on Bonnie Raitt’s classic ballad “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” the pair have reunited on the new song “Ecstatic,” which is drawn from Hornsby’s upcoming album, Indigo Park. That project will be released April 3 through Zappo Productions/Thirty Tigers.
“Ecstatic” is built around chants Hornsby found stuck in his memory from his days attending his son Keith’s youth basketball games. The younger Hornsby played collegiately at Louisiana State University and is now an assistant for the school’s men’s team. In a fitting twist, the “Ecstatic” video features LSU’s women’s hoops team and was shot at the school’s Baton Rouge campus.
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Raitt, 76, previously guested on Hornsby’s 1993 album Harbor Lights. She is among several other high-profile contributors to Ecstatic, including the late Bob Weir, Bonnie Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and Blake Mills. Two songs are co-writes with late Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
“It’s just an old bastard, looking back,” says Hornsby, who turned 70 during the album sessions. “To be honest, I’ve found a way, a path to grow old gracefully, with help from some newborn friends of mine.”
Hornsby and his band the Noisemakers will support the album with an extensive North American tour, which runs from April 9 in Cincinnati to Oct. 17 in Newport News, Va. The trek includes two rare club shows at the 500-capacity Troubadour in Los Angeles on June 16-17.
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