As the years go on, the shows stay strong. Colorado Academy has announced its Spring 2014 financial aid fundraising concert will feature pianist/song-writer Bruce Hornsby. A veteran of Red Rocks, three-time Grammy winner and multi-platinum selling recording artist, Hornsby and his band, The Noisemakers, will play the intimate Newton Gymnasium on Saturday, May 3, 2014.
Best known for his hits “The Way It Is,” “The Valley Road,” “Look Out Any Window,” “Mandolin Rain,” “Every Little Kiss,” “Gonna Be Some Changes Made” and more, Hornsby’s work has crossed genres and generations. He toured with the Grateful Dead, worked with fans including Elton John, Sting, and Eric Clapton, and has had his work sampled in rap hits by Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, among others. He co-wrote Don Henley’s international hit “The End of the Innocence” and Huey Lewis had a hit covering Hornsby’s “Jacob’s Ladder.”
“Our previous sell-out concerts with Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter were unbelievably successful,” says Bob Schmitz, CA director of development. “They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for student financial aid. We expect the Bruce Hornsby show to be another blockbuster.”
As always, all proceeds go to tuition assistance for students who otherwise might not be able to attend CA. Hornsby has a long history of benefit concerts, sharing stages with Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Roger Waters, and others. He has seamlessly crossed genres from rock to blues, blue- grass and jazz. His stints with the Dead and use of his music in hip-hop brought him legions of new fans.
But for Hornsby, it started here. In a way, “An Evening with Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers” is a sort of homecoming for Hornsby, despite his Virginia roots.
“Denver is the first place we were popular,” he says. “KBCO was banging our record (‘The Way It Is’). Lou Reed was the priority at RCA. We were just some new group they didn’t know what to do with. All of a sudden, when we became the best-selling record in Denver, they went, ‘Sorry Lou, we’re going on to this guy.’” Details on ticketing, on-sale dates and benefactor packages will be available soon.
Colorado Academy is a private, Pre-K through grade 12 in southwest Denver serving 940 students from across the Denver metropolitan area. The school provides more than $2.5 million in financial aid annually to qualified, deserving students.