Bruce Hornsby Recorded Grateful Dead Cover With Justin Vernon

Last month, members of The National shared more details about their long-awaited Grateful Dead tribute album which they said “will likely see release early in 2016.” One contributor the band didn’t mention was Bruce Hornsby who just revealed he recorded a track for the LP.

As first pointed out by Jambands.com, Hornsby’s Facebook page featured a post about the keyboardist’s big 2015 in which he discusses his contribution to The National’s GD tribute. Even more exciting is that Hornsby recorded the track with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver fame. “Justin and Bruce recorded a version of ‘Black Muddy River’ for a Grateful Dead tribute record curated by the group The National,” reads part of the Facebook post. Vernon has noted his love of Bruce’s music a number of times including during a visit to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon when he told the host, “There’s not enough Hornsby in my scene” ahead of a performance of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” of which the original featured contributions from Bruce. We can’t wait to hear their take on “Black Muddy River.”

Listen to Bruce Hornsby cover “Black Muddy River” in 1996:

Other contributors to The National’s Grateful Dead tribute mentioned in the band’s recent interview include The War On Drugs (“Touch Of Grey”), The Walkmen (“Ripple”), Marijuana Death Squad (“Truckin'”), Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio (“Playing In The Band”), Unknown Mortal Orchestra (“Shakedown Street”), Kurt Vile (“Box Of Rain”), Daniel Rossen (“Terrapin Station”) and Matthew Houck aka Phosphorescent (“Standing On The Moon”) as well as Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis. The National recorded “Peggy-O” for the compilation and have started covering the song live. Stay tuned for more details.