Rock and Roll Heart: Omnivore Celebrates Joe Grushecky with Career Anthology, New Album

April 29, 2024 By Joe Marchese — 1 Comment
Joe Grushecky Houserocker
BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

The title of the 1979 debut album from Joe Grushecky and The Iron City Houserockers proclaimed Love’s So Tough.  The Pittsburgh native and his band captured their city’s blue-collar milieu, recalling a harder-edged E Street Band.  The group took their sound an expansive step further with 1980’s Have a Good Time But Get Out Alive!, a bar-band classic which welcomed guests including Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, and Stevie Van Zandt.  That album introduced “Pumping Iron” which quickly became the band’s signature song.  Since then, Grushecky has continued to write, record, and perform live, and has more than 20 albums under his belt.  A longtime special education teacher, he’s also become a fixture of the Asbury Park music scene, performing at the annual Light of Day benefit to fight Parkinson’s disease and its related illnesses.  (None other than Bruce Springsteen has frequently performed with Grushecky and produced his 1995 album American Babylon.)  A jukebox musical based around his songs, East Carson Street, will premiere on May 3 in Holmdel, New Jersey, and on May 24, Omnivore Recordings will celebrate his extraordinary career with Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology.  Then, on July 12, the label will release his new studio album Can’t Outrun a Memory – the first album of new material in seven years from Grushecky and The Houserockers.

Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology is an all-encompassing look at the singer, songwriter, and bandleader, covering 40 years of music from The Iron City Houserockers, Joey G., Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers, and Grushecky solo.  Available on 2 CDs and digitally, the anthology culls 36 key tracks from Grushecky’s career as newly remastered by Michael Graves.  The compilation has been produced by Omnivore’s Cheryl Pawelski along with Joe’s son (and current Houserocker) Johnny Grushecky, and includes a booklet with liner notes by Mike Ragogna and Joe, plus Joe’s track-by-track comments.  Rare photos round out the package.  Joe will celebrate the album’s release with a hometown show on May 25; throughout the summer, he’ll play a number of dates including a July 20 show at Asbury Park’s Wonder Bar.

Joe Grushecky Can't Outrun a Memory
BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

In addition to providing a much-needed career overview, Houserocker serves as an appetizer for Grushecky and The Houserockers’ new album, Can’t Outrun a Memory – the band’s first studio set since 2017’s More Yesterdays Than Tomorrows.  Grushecky states in the press release of this new LP, “This one was a long time coming, but we worked through, never losing sight that we were creating one of our best records. I believe we captured the band at its peak.”  Omnivore’s release, available on CD, 2 LPs, and digital formats, includes a quartet of bonus tracks illuminating the songs’ development.

Look for Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology on May 24, with Can’t Outrun a Memory following on July 12.  You’ll find the track listings and pre-order links below!

Joe Grushecky, Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology (Omnivore, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

  1. I Can’t Take It
  2. Hideaway
  3. Love’s So Tough
  4. Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive)
  5. Pumping Iron
  6. We’re Not Dead Yet
  7. Junior’s Bar
  8. Blood On The Bricks
  9. A Fool’s Advice
  10. Friday Night
  11. Rock And Roll Heart
  12. American Son
  13. Angels
  14. I Should Have Never Let You Go
  15. Goodbye Steeltown
  16. Rock And Real
  17. How Long
  18. Swimming With The Sharks

CD 2

  1. Talking To The King
  2. Chain Smokin’
  3. Never Be Enough Time
  4. Labor Of Love
  5. Everything’s Going To Work Out Right
  6. I’m Not Sleeping
  7. Coming Home
  8. You And Tonight
  9. Fingerprints
  10. True Companion
  11. A Good Life
  12. Code Of Silence
  13. East Carson Street
  14. Another Thin Line
  15. Somewhere East Of Eden
  16. Who Cares About Those Kids
  17. More Yesterdays Than Tomorrows
  18. Blood Sweat And Beers

CD 1, Tracks 1-3 from Love’s So Tough, MCA 3099, 1979
CD 1, Tracks 4-7 from Have a Good Time But Get Out Alive!, MCA 5111, 1980
CD 1. Tracks 8-10 from Blood on the Bricks, MCA 5252, 1981
CD 1, Tracks 11-14 from Cracking Under Pressure, MCA 39004, 1983
CD 1, Track 15 from Green Dolphin single 83184, 1984
CD 1, Tracks 16-17 from Rock and Real, Rounder 9020, 1989
CD 1, Track 18 from Swimming with the Sharks, Rounder 9030, 1991
CD 2, Track 1 from End of the Century, Razor and Tie RT 2810, 1992
CD 2, Tracks 2-4 from American Babylon, Razor and Tie RT 2820, 1995
CD 2, Tracks 5-7 from Coming Home, Viceroy 54244-2, 1998
CD 2, Tracks 8-9 from Fingerprints, Schoolhouse SHR0018-2, 2002
CD 2, Track 10 from True Companion, Schoolhouse SHR0023-2, 2003
CD 2, Tracks 11-12 from A Good Life, Schoolhouse SHR0035-2, 2006
CD 2, Tracks 13-14 from East Carson Street, Schoolhouse SHR0040-2, 2009
CD 2, Tracks 15-16 from Somewhere East of Eden, Schoolhouse 535518-2, 2013
CD 2, Tracks 17-18 from More Yesterdays Than Tomorrows, Schoolhouse SH1702, 2018

CD 1 – Tracks 1-14: Iron City Houserockers; CD 1 – Track 15: Joey G; CD 1 – Tracks 16-18, CD 2 – Tracks 1-7, 10, 13-14, 17-18: Joe Grushecky And The Houserockers; CD 2 – Tracks 8-9, 11-12, 15-16: Joe Grushecky.

Joe Grushecky and The Houserockers, Can’t Outrun a Memory (Omnivore, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

  1. This Is Who We Are
  2. Here In ’68
  3. Can’t Outrun A Memory
  4. Just Drive
  5. Sleeping Dog
  6. Until I See You Again
  7. If These Walls Could Talk
  8. We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
  9. Living In Coal Country
  10. Who’s Fooling Who
  11. Rocked My Soul
  12. Let’s Cross The Bridge
  13. Can’t Outrun A Memory (coda)
  14. Leave Well Enough Alone [Bonus Track]
  15. Sleeping Dog (Horn Version) [Bonus Track]
  16. Living In Coal Country (Acoustic Version) [Bonus Track]
  17. Here In ’68 (Acoustic Version) [Bonus Track]
Categories:
Formats:
, , ,
Genres:
,
Tags:
,
Joe Marchese
Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

You Might Also Like

Stream 2026
The Weekend Stream: June 13, 2026
Robbie Robertson Filmworks Insomnia
Release Round-Up: Week of June 12
WAR GreatestHits
Spill the Wine: WAR’s “Greatest Hits” Returns in Expanded Form
Frank Zappa Zappa '66
Review: Frank Zappa, “Zappa ’66, Vol. 1: Live at TTG Studios”

1 thought on “Rock and Roll Heart: Omnivore Celebrates Joe Grushecky with Career Anthology, New Album”

  1. A. V.

    Interesting… I was wondering why I’d never heard of them, and they aren’t in my handy Billboard album and singles books. Turns out their first 2 albums “bubbled under” the Top 200, and they never had a charted single, and in any case those early albums went under the name Iron City Houserockers and not Joe Grushecky. Kind of like if Bob Segar had continued to only be a regional success. Good thing they have a friend in Bruce!

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.