Bruce Hornsby releases ‘Ecstatic’ new track featuring Bonnie Raitt — LSU players dance on campus court
On a sunlit hardwood floor at LSU, a cluster of players in purple and white laughs, jumps and dances to a new beat — a moment that underscores how bruce hornsby has folded personal memory and college basketball into his latest work. The single “Ecstatic, ” out today, is the second release from his forthcoming album Indigo Park, due April 3 on Zappo Productions/Thirty Tigers.
Who is Bruce Hornsby collaborating with on ‘Ecstatic’?
The song reunites Hornsby with Bonnie Raitt, who supplies backing vocals alongside Hornsby’s longtime band the Noisemakers. The forthcoming Indigo Park also features contributions from artists named in the project’s materials, and the record is set for release on Zappo Productions/Thirty Tigers. Bruce Hornsby’s musical history is visible in these choices: longstanding musical allies return to support a record built around moments from his life and creative reach.
Why did LSU’s women’s basketball team appear in the video?
Hornsby’s ties to basketball run through his family and his memory. The video recruits a dozen members of the LSU women’s basketball team to dance on a campus court; the players wear purple and white T-shirts with black and white shorts and cluster in one corner of the court for the two-minute, 48-second clip. Keith Hornsby, the musician’s son, is identified as a former LSU shooting guard who now serves as a graduate assistant for the LSU men’s team, a connection that helped bring the campus into the project. Kim Mulkey, head coach of the LSU women’s basketball team, said, “Bruce Hornsby and Bonnie Raitt are amazing musicians. When he approached me wanting the team to do something, of course, we were honored. ” A news release from Shore Fire Media noted Hornsby’s long history with the game and that the chant-driven energy he absorbed as an AAU parent helped inspire the track.
What does ‘Ecstatic’ aim to capture, and how are artists framing it?
The material released around the single describes “Ecstatic” as an exploration of the physiological sensations that accompany peak experiences — moments like cresting a wave or playing an unforgettable gig. The release emphasizes Raitt’s harmonies as a forward push in the arrangement and frames the song as a vow not to take such moments for granted. Bruce Hornsby himself reflects on the record’s perspective: “It’s just an old bastard, looking back, ” he says, framing Indigo Park and its songs as a musician’s reckoning with time and the company of collaborators and younger friends.
Hornsby will support the album with an extended tour and is slated to appear at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival during the album’s promotional run. In this project, the convergence of family ties, campus life and long friendships produces a short, celebratory film clip that doubles as a public recognition of college sport culture and the small, charged rituals that persist around it.
Back on the LSU court where the clip was shot, the players’ laughter and improvised steps give one more layer of meaning to the song’s title. The scene that opened the video — bodies in motion, music swelling, a crowd of teammates cheering in a corner — returns now as evidence of a collaboration that stitches together popular music, personal memory and college athletics. For Hornsby, the moment is both a footnote and a feature: a lived detail that becomes part of a record about noticing how mystery and joy arrive in ordinary places.
