Bruce Hornsby has made a career out of defying expectations. This fall, one of his most eclectic albums of a less commercial period - the late '90s - will be expanded and revisited for its 25th anniversary: 1998's Spirit Trail.

The lengthy double album will feature four outtakes from a "lost" full-band follow-up to Spirit Trail that was abandoned in favor of 2002's Big Swing Face, a more electronic effort backed by his then-new band The Noisemakers. The CD version of the reissue will feature a third disc of Spirit Trail tracks played live at shows in support of the record - all previously unreleased. Bob Ludwig has mastered the sets (with vinyl lacquers cut by Chris Muth), and Hornsby has written new liner notes for the CD and vinyl sets. (The CDs, packaged in a clamshell case, will include an expanded booklet offering rare photos of Hornsby by Danny Clinch.)

Hornsby, of course, became an unlikely late '80s pop star with a burnished, piano-driven soft-rock sound and radio hits like "The Way It Is," "Mandolin Rain" and "The Valley Road." His keys or songwriting were also heard on hits like Huey Lewis & The News' "Jacob's Ladder," Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" and Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" - but Hornsby's restless musical spirit soon passed those mainstream highs in favor of unique artistic pursuits. He disbanded his backing band The Range, started making appearances at jazz and bluegrass festivals and even sat in on over 100 shows with The Grateful Dead, expanding his sonic palette and enchanting a spate of loyal, eclectic fans.

Spirit Trail, Hornsby's third and final studio album of the '90s, was an attempt to synthesize all those influences as well as come to terms with the life that absorbed all of them, too. In a discussion with Rolling Stone ahead of the album's release, the native Virginian called Spirit Trail "very Southern," offering "a lot of songs about race, religion, judgment and tolerance...and sort of my own personal struggles with some of these issues - or observing others with the issues." Despite the heavy subtext, fans really fell in love with its material (and an album that featured a rather silly candid shot of Hornsby's uncle Charles on the cover couldn't have taken itself that seriously). While it remains among his lowest-charting albums for RCA, its reputation among loyal listeners remains quite high - hence this handsome reissue.

The expanded Spirit Trail will be released October 27. All attendees of Hornsby's live concerts this fall will receive copies of the 3CD set. Amazon links and the full track list are below.

Spirit Trail (25th Anniversary Edition) (Zappo/Thirty Tigers, 2023)

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1-2/LP 1-3: Original album (Disc 1 and Disc 2, Tracks 1-10; released as RCA 07863 67468-2, 1998) and Lost and Found on the Spirit Trail (Disc 2, Tracks 11-14; previously unreleased)

1. King of the Hill
2. Resting Place
3. Preacher in the Ring Pt. I
4. Preacher in the Ring Pt. II
5. Song C
6. Sad Moon
7. Pete & Manny
8. Fortunate Son
9. Sneaking Up on Boo Radley
10. Great Divide

1. Line in the Dust
2. See the Same Way
3. Shadow Hand
4. Sunlight Moon
5. Listen to the Silence
6. Funhouse
7. Sunflower Cat (Some Dour Cat) (Down with That)
8. Song D
9. Swan Song
10. Variations on Swan Song & Song D
11. Living in the Sunshine
12. Groove Infatuation
13. Evening Sun
14. Clown's Tambourine

CD 3: Live Trail (previously unreleased)

1. King of the Hill
2. Resting Place
3. Preacher in the Ring (Part 1)/Variation 2 (Webern)/Catenaires (Carter) Excerpt
4. Fortunate Son
5. Sneaking Up on Boo Radley
6. See the Same Way
7. Shadow Hand
8. Funhouse
9. Sunflower Cat
10. Swan Song