Thinking in the context of the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks series (curated by their late great archivist Dick Latvala), some of the best live releases are compiled by the people that know the artist/band inside and out. In the case of Bruce Hornsby, recording engineer/producer Wayne “Dagle” Pooley has been an important part of the Bruuuce universe since 1991, helping to capture Hornsby’s sound both in the studio and on the road as the front of house (FOH) mixer for Bruce. Mix describes Pooley as Hornsby’s “architect of all things technical,” and that’s not a stretch at all when you wrap your ears around Dagle’s Choice, Volume 1, the new three CD compilation of recordings from assorted dates on Hornsby’s 2009 tour (with audible shout outs to Sioux City and St. Louis), as collected by Pooley.
Issued as the second volume of the recently launched Free Noise series, if this isn’t Pooley’s crack at creating a nice little “dream setlist” for Hornsby fans, it’s certainly a mighty fine coincidence that it plays out as just exactly that. As a compilation, it certainly whets my appetite for the prospects of future full show downloads (and just like the initial dose from Free Noise, this edition is a complimentary download as well!), and hopefully one of those will be the Pittsburgh-area date that I saw at the Carnegie Library Music Hall last year. (Please?)
Listening to the collection, I’m struck by the reality of the instant gratification that we enjoy these days as music fans. The live albums that we used to wait months and years to receive, now can be sprung on the unsuspecting audience instantly, available to download with a few clicks of the mouse for all who are interested. Unlike the previous Free Noise offering, which was a bit rough around the edges, Pooley’s mixes here are pristine and would be worthy of an official release. (And it’s a nice little tuneup for the upcoming official live release Bride of Noisemakers, which will land in stores next year.)
Sample the set here with the opening track “Sneaking Up On Boo Radley” (originally from Spirit Trail) and then head on over to Hornsby’s download site to grab the whole collection.
Bride of Noisemakers, you say? I’m intrigued.
Yessir, coming in early 2011, according to a post on the Hornsby Facebook
page a couple of months ago. I would assume that accounts for the lack of
material from Levitate here. Hopefully they’ll include representation for
the couple of songs per night that he was doing on dulcimer!
Great title for the album, too!