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| time is on my side |
Just got through reading a couple of reviews of Springsteen's new album & they all seem to be very positive. Here's an example of one below from AMG which gave it 4 1/2 stars.
As in all things, one should be their own guide when it comes to this sort of thing. As for me, I'm picking up a copy tomorrow.
Does it seem folk and protest music is making a mini comeback these days or is it all in my head?????
Artist
Bruce Springsteen
Album
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions [DualDisc]
Rating ****1/2
Release Date
Apr 25, 2006
Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is an unusual Bruce Springsteen album in a number of ways. First, it's the first covers album Springsteen has recorded in his three-decade career, which is a noteworthy event in itself, but that's not the only thing different about We Shall Overcome. Springsteen, a notorious perfectionist who has been known to tweak and rework albums numerous times before releasing them (or scrapping them, as the case may be), pulled together the album quickly, putting aside a planned second volume of the rarities collection Tracks after discovering a set of recordings he made in 1997 for a Pete Seeger tribute album called Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger. Enthralled by this handful of tracks — one of which, "We Shall Overcome," appeared on the tribute — Springsteen decided to cut a whole album of folk tunes popularized by Pete Seeger. He rounded up 13 musicians, including some who played on those 1997 sessions, and did two one-day sessions in late 2005 and early 2006, swiftly releasing the resulting album that April. As Bruce stresses in his introductory liner notes, these were live recordings, done with no rehearsals, and We Shall Overcome does indeed have an unmistakably loose feel, and not just because you can hear the Boss call out chord changes in a handful of songs. This music is rowdy and rambling, as the group barrels head-first into songs that they're playing together as a band for the first time, and it's hard not to get swept up along in their excitement. Springsteen has made plenty of great records, but We Shall Overcome is unique in its sheer kinetic energy; he has never made a record that feels as alive as this.
Not only does We Shall Overcome feel different than Bruce's work; it also feels different than Seeger's music. Most of Seeger's recordings were spare and simple, featuring just him and his banjo; his most elaborately produced records were with the Weavers, whose recordings of the '50s did feature orchestration, yet that's a far cry from the big folk band that Springsteen uses here. Bruce's combo for the Seeger sessions has a careening, ramshackle feel that's equal parts early-'60s hootenanny and Bob Dylan and the Band's Americana; at times, its ragged human qualities also recall latter-day Tom Waits, although the music here is nowhere near as self-consciously arty as that. Springsteen has truly used Seeger's music as inspiration, using it as the starting point to take him someplace that is uniquely his own in sheer musical terms. Given that, it should be no great surprise that Bruce also picks through Seeger's songbook in a similar fashion, leaving many (if not most) of Pete's well-known songs behind in favor of a selection of folk standards Springsteen learned through Seeger's recordings. (Author/critic Dave Marsh researched the origins of each song here; there are brief introductions within the album's liner notes and thorough histories presented on the official Springsteen site.) While the songs featured here adhere to no one specific theme — there are work songs, spirituals, narratives, and protest songs — it is possible to see this collection of tunes as Springsteen's subtle commentary on the political state of America, especially given Seeger's reputation as an outspoken political activist, but this record should hardly be judged as merely an old-fashioned folk record. We Shall Overcome is many things, but a creaky relic is not one of them. Springsteen has drawn from Seeger's songbook — which he assembled in the '40s, '50s, and '60s from traditional folk songs — and turned it into something fresh and contemporary. And even if you have no patience for (or interest in) the history of the songs, or their possible meanings, it's easy to enjoy We Shall Overcome on pure musical terms: it's a rambunctious, freewheeling, positively joyous record unlike any other in Springsteen's admittedly rich catalog.
[We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions was released in the U.S. as a DualDisc, containing a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. The CD side merely contains the album. The DVD contains the album in PCM stereo (there's no 5.1 mix, although given the big-band nature of this session, this album would have sounded great in Surround Sound), along with two bonus tracks, the rollicking "Buffalo Gals" and the moody, soulful "How Can I Keep from Singing." Both bonus cuts are excellent and should have been on the album proper. There is also a 30-minute video program that chronicles some of the recording of the album, but it's not a documentary: it's more of a performance film with commentary, and while it could have been longer or had more commentary, it's still quite enjoyable. Finally, We Shall Overcome also was released separately as a vinyl LP.]
Tracks
Title
Composer
Time
1 Old Dan Tucker 2:31
2 Jesse James Traditional 3:47
3 Mrs. McGrath Traditional 4:19
4 O Mary Don't You Weep Traditional 6:04
5 John Henry Traditional 5:07
6 Erie Canal 4:03
7 Jacob's Ladder Seeger, Traditional 4:28
8 My Oklahoma Home Cunningham, Sunningham 6:03
9 Eyes on the Prize Traditional, Wine 5:16
10 Shenandoah Traditional 4:52
11 Pay Me My Money Down Traditional 4:32
12 We Shall Overcome Carawan, Hamilton, Horton ... 4:53
Composed by: Carawan, Hamilton, Horton, Seeger
13 Froggie Went a Courtin' Traditional 4:32
14 Old Dan Tucker
15 Jesse James
16 Mrs. McGrath
17 O Mary Don't You Weep
18 John Henry
19 Erie Canal
20 Jacob's Ladder
21 My Oklahoma Home
22 Eyes on the Prize
23 Shenandoah
24 Pay Me My Money Down
25 We Shall Overcome
26 Froggie Went a Courtin'
27 John Henry [multimedia track]
28 Pay Me My Money Down [multimedia track]
29 Buffalo Gals [multimedia track]
30 Erie Canal [multimedia track]
31 O Mary Don't You Weep [multimedia track]
32 Shenandoah [multimedia track]
[Edited by time is on my side] |
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| Gazza |
Got it on Saturday (although it wasnt actually released until yesterday)
Absolutely love it. It's great fun, although the 'Bawn in the USAAAAAAA' -type headband-wearing fan probably won't 'get' it. |
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| justinkurian |
Here's an article from Rolling Stone:
Springsteen Hears Voices
For his new album, he digs into classic labor and protest folk songs made famous by Pete Seeger
"We're in the ballpark," Bruce Springsteen tells his band during a rehearsal of "Devils and Dust" at the Paramount Theatre, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. "One more time, then we'll take a break." The band runs through the song one more time, as instructed, yet the promised break doesn't come. In fact, Springsteen shows no signs of stopping. "The first note is dark," he tells the guitarist. To the backup singers: "Underline 'Fear's a dangerous thing' on the lyric sheet." The band members look exhausted. They have been going for five hours straight.
"It's lunchtime," Patti Scialfa, Springsteen's wife, backup singer, guitarist and timekeeper, suggests.
"Let's just see what we got."
"Maybe we should do lunch first," she hints again.
"One more time, then we'll all take a break," Springsteen presses on.
Wearily, horns are put to lips, violin bows to strings, fingers to accordion buttons. When it comes to energy level and focus, Springsteen, even in rehearsal, remains superhuman.
The band has three weeks until its debut performance, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Scheduled afterward are a ten-date European tour and a monthlong American roadshow, which kicks off on Memorial Day. However, this ensemble is not Springsteen's walloping blood-brothers the E Street Band. It's a mix of old friends and new faces, a thirteen-piece outfit that has been nearly ten years in the making. In various incarnations, it has convened exactly three times before this stretch of rehearsals. Those three times led to Springsteen's newest and perhaps least commercial album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a collection of labor, civil-rights, protest and story songs from the repertoire of Pete Seeger, the pillar of the midcentury folk revival, now eighty-seven and laid up with a bad leg in upstate New York.
When the promised break finally comes, Springsteen pulls off his horse-emblazoned country & western shirt, revealing a thinning but still solid frame, and wriggles into a faded black T-shirt. He has small hoop earrings in his ears, string bracelets fraying on his wrists, brown work pants bunched around his boots and two days of stubble mottled with gray.
He wanders through the tangle of musicians and crew onstage, glad-handing and making small talk, slightly uncomfortable in an effort to make sure everyone else is comfortable. At fifty-six, Springsteen has earned his Neil Young pass, entitling him to basically record whatever he wants because, be it good or bad, commercial or noncommercial, it's done with integrity.
"My goal has been to try and put more things out, because in my youth I was so spare with my releases," Springsteen explains. "So now, like, the rules are off. By the time you're fifty-six, hell, if you're worrying yourself at that point, then you haven't learned your lesson. And I can say one thing: I have learned my lesson. The kind of fretting I did as a young man, I don't do anymore. I'm an old guy who can do what he wants, you know." He takes a step backward, laughs and spreads his arms, letting it be known that a big, heartfelt conclusion is on its way. "Right now, I just feel like I'm at the top of my game. And I've never felt freer or like I've had more music in me."
People often use words like "real" and "grounded" when they describe Springsteen, but to get more specific, what's most unusual about him is that he doesn't have a fiber of pretension in his being -- especially rare for a guy who's been called the Boss for most of his adult life. Beyond that, he's the only rock-star dad I've ever interviewed who not only seems happy to chauffeur his children around but can actually remember and quote papers they've written for school.
"We've got two teenagers and one on the cusp," Springsteen says after discussing a paper his eldest son wrote on George Orwell. "And they're people now. I like that a lot. I remember walking in my son's room one day, and I looked at him and it was a man sitting there. And there was something in the way he looked at me where I said, 'Oh, yeah, he's going to be OK.' "
After lunch, the musicians attack the material with renewed energy. Once Springsteen becomes aware that people are watching, the rehearsal turns into a full-fledged performance.
"Get out the way, old Dan Tucker/You're too late to get your supper," he rasps. Guitar cocked back along his hip like a machine gun, right leg thrust forward like a sprinter on the starting block, horse shirt once more on his back and stuck to the sweat, he powers through a performance of the bluegrass-tinged lead track from the new CD.
"Sing!" he yells at the audience.
The audience sits in absolute silence.
"Sing!" he insists, as if insulted by the silence.
The audience looks around, confused.
There are only four people in the theater.
Later, Springsteen relaxes in a small upstairs room. He initially sits on the couch, then switches to an uncomfortable hard-backed folding chair to discuss relationships, politics and The Seeger Sessions.
Initially, Springsteen had no intention of putting out an album of centuries-old folk songs. After touring behind Devils and Dust, he'd planned to take a year off, then get back together with the E Street Band to record some new songs he'd written for them.
But idleness is not something that sits well with Springsteen. First, he thought he'd use the time to dig through the vaults for a second volume of Tracks, his 1998 collection of rarities and outtakes. That, however, led him to consider revisiting a record he made but never released in the mid-Nineties: a solo album of songs over tape loops, extending the terrain he explored in "Streets of Philadelphia."
Still, something kept haunting him: a 1997 session he had recorded for a Pete Seeger tribute album. After agreeing to do a song for the disc, he bought an armful of Seeger records, studied them, gathered a dozen or so musicians in his Monmouth County, New Jersey, farmhouse and cut seven songs; "We Shall Overcome" was used on the tribute album. Because he enjoyed listening to the recordings from time to time, Springsteen decided to release them. So he called the musicians back to his house two more times in the past two years.
"It was the shortest record I ever made," Springsteen says, stumbling to find the right words. "We played nothing more than three times. There were no rehearsals and no arrangements. Everything was live, recorded into old-fashioned room mikes. If you listen to the record, you can hear me calling people's names, conducting as we go."
Where most of Springsteen's repertoire is for the people, the new songs are music by the people; they're field songs, not stage songs, many originally intended to be sung by civil-rights marchers, dockworkers, draft dodgers. These range from ultra-canonical songs etched into the brain of anyone who's ever been in a grade-school music room, like "John Henry" and "Froggie Went A-Courtin'," to spirituals that faced hardship head-on, like "Eyes on the Prize" and "Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep." He doesn't attempt to recontextualize the songs so much as to resuscitate them, to pick up and pass them on to, as Springsteen puts it, "the next guy with a guitar out there on the highway willing to come along and give them a ride.
"The songwriting was what struck me, how alive the songs were," he adds. "You have all those lost voices floating in there. And that's something I pursue in my own work all the time. I'm interested in lost voices. I don't know if I'm chasing that or if it's chasing me."
Though one might expect sparse, haunting acoustic ballads in the vein of The Ghost of Tom Joad, The Seeger Sessions is more of an old-timey party album, with influences reaching into jazz, zydeco, bluegrass and, in the newest songs, gospel, which has been Springsteen's kick lately.
"What's great about gospel is that combination where transcendence is in view and you can see the light, you can smell the light and you can hear the light, but the apocalypse is at your heels," he says, slipping into the preacher dialect he occasionally uses to heighten the energy onstage. "Those are the two elements I wanted in my songs. That's why I always say in my music -- the verses are the blues and the choruses are the gospel, the promised land."
It was these thematic reasons, rather than the current political climate, that drew Springsteen to release The Seeger Sessions -- less a political protest record than a celebration of American life, struggle and hope in the face of adversity. "I guess my take on some of the last experiences we've had," Springsteen says, "is that a small group of men with a very particular ideology found their way into power and pressed themselves on an immature president. They were able to literally get what they wanted: They got their tax cuts, they got their war, they got their money going to the places they wanted it to go to. I don't think that's being cynical. That's just what happened."
When asked why he doesn't try to meet with politicians to influence them directly, like U2's Bono, Springsteen responds, "I probably don't have that confidence or the flat-out social ability to pull it off. It's the Irish in Bono that gets him in and to where he can survive anywhere if there are ears around." Big, nervous laugh. "I'm only about twenty-five or thirty percent Irish.
"But when you sit back and see that everyone feels incredibly frustrated and flummoxed, that means..." He pauses to find the right words, then falls back on what he knows best: "...there's music to be played, my friend. And there are songs to be sung. Right now. If ever, right now!"
NEIL STRAUSS
Posted Apr 21, 2006 4:29 PM |
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| PartyDoll MEG |
Great album!! 
Impossible to keep your feet from stompin'and hands from clappin'. |
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| Gazza |
thank you, your margesty |
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| jb |
ow, disappointing....I was hoping for another "darkness on the edge of Town". |
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| Gazza |
quote:
jb wrote:
I was hoping for another "darkness on the edge of Town".
+++++blank friggin' stare +++++++++ |
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| jb |
yoU KNOW iLOVE THE "bOSS"...lIKE THE sTONES, WE NEED ANOTHER CLASSIC!!! |
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| charlotte |
first saw the Boss on 25-Mar-1976 in Columbia,SC-Opening night of the second leg of the BTR Tour-Better known as the "Chicken Scratch Tour"
again on 29-Mar-1976 in Charlotte, NC-the rest is history...
John Henry is one of my favorite tracks . It has all the musicians playing in perfect harmony. We Shall Overcome is another one. Jessie James is another 5-star. The violin playing gives this song an energetic pleasant sounding quality. Pay My Money Down and the bonus track Buffalo Gals are two very fun songs. My Oklahoma Home and Shenadoah are two beautiful tracks.
The music is nothing like you've heard from Springsteen before. It's as much traditional country as jazz. Where most of Springsteen music is very much thought trough this record sounds spontaneous and absolutely electrifying.
Looking forward in seeing the other side(DVD) later today...
[Edited by charlotte] |
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| jb |
Will the "Big Man" and Miami Steve be with him? |
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| charlotte |
In addition to Springsteen on vocals, guitar and harmonica, the US tour dates for the Seeger Sessions Band will comprise the following lineup: Sam Bardfeld (violin), Art Baron (tuba), Frank Bruno (guitar), Jeremy Chatzky (upright bass), Larry Eagle (drums), Charles Giordano (accordion, keyboards), Curtis King (vocals), Greg Liszt (banjo), Lisa Lowell (vocals), Eddie Manion (sax), Cindy Mizelle (vocals), Mark Pender (trumpet), Marty Rifkin (pedal steel guitar), Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone), Patti Scialfa (vocals), Marc Anthony Thompson (vocals) and Soozie Tyrell (violin).
Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band - Tour Dates
April 30 New Orleans, LA Jazz & Heritage Festival
European Tour
May 5 Dublin, Ireland The Point
May 7 Manchester, UK The Manchester Evening News Arena
May 8 London, UK Hammersmith Apollo Theatre
May 10 Paris, France Palais Bercy
May 12 Milan, Italy Forum Arena
May 14 Barcelona, Spain Badalona Arena
May 16 Amsterdam, Netherlands Heineken Music Hall
May 17 Frankfurt, Germany Festhalle
May 20 Oslo, Norway Spektrum Arena
May 21 Stockholm, Sweden Hovet Arena
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WITH THE SEEGER SESSIONS BAND 2006 US TOUR DATES
April 30 New Orleans, LA Jazz & Heritage Festival
May 27 Boston, MA TD Bank North Garden
May 28 Washington, DC Nissan Pavilion
May 30 Columbus, OH Germain Amphitheatre
May 31 Indianapolis, IN Verizon Amphitheatre
June 3 Phoenix, AZ Glendale Arena
June 5 Los Angeles, CA Greek Amphitheatre
June 6 San Francisco, CA Concord Pavilion
June 10 Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena
June 11 St. Paul, MN Xcel Arena
June 13 Chicago, IL First MidWest Bank
June 14 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
June 16 Cleveland, OH Blossom Amphitheatre
June 17 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Center
June 20 Philadelphia, PA Camden Tweeter Waterfront Amphitheater
June 21 Saratoga, NY Saratoga Performing Arts Center
June 22 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
June 24 Holmdel, NJ PNC Amphitheatre
June 25 Holmdel, NJ PNC Amphitheatre
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| Gazza |
quote:
jb wrote:
Will the "Big Man" and Miami Steve be with him?
No
Clarence Clemons is actually living in China these days, believe it or not. (I think his wife is from there). His health hasnt been too good in the last few years (I believe he had a double hip replacement). I'd expect an ESB album and tour maybe next year, but that could perhaps be the last one. |
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| glencar |
Brucie was on ABC's Good Morning America this ayem. So was my brother-in-law. Brucie sings better. I like this new CD. I might buy it next week. |
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| Gazza |
quote:
glencar wrote:
Brucie was on ABC's Good Morning America this ayem. So was my brother-in-law. Brucie sings better. I like this new CD. I might buy it next week.
is your brother in his band or something? Half of the USA seems to be! |
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| glencar |
LOL No, he was on a story about child abuse/stepchildren. |
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| Nellcote |
However, I just returned from two concerts by "The Boss"
in a mere 7 hours...
Yes, your humble typist scored tix for GMA last Friday.
I cleared the decks for work about 11A yesterday, and with
fun pass in hand, let out a hearty "ROAD TRIP"
Took the five hr ride to Asbury Park, the home of all thangs BRUCE...
Scored a tix for last night's 2hr 40 min wallop of a show from a fine chap I met on the BTX (Backstreets) message board...
What a show!!
The energy from the 18 players just flowed. Bruce was at his top notch best, forget about this being a "Rehearsal"
This unit must have been rehearsing for weeks, they are primed & ready for bear...
All of the numbers on Seeger Sessions get fleshed out, foot stompin treatment here...
Bruce joking about the whole time.
Great, uplifting show.
Got a four hour cat nap, then back to the hall for the GMA show. Got there about 430A, surprised I was about 70th in line, it grew to about 2K after that. I was about 20 feet dead center for the taping.
Bruce looked tired today, after last night's gig, then another tonight.
He played the TV type songs, which is to say Jacob's Ladder * O Mary twice, to get the timing right for tv.
He was joking again, saying, "Now it is time for the weather, sunny, go out and enjoy it" as if he was on GMA.
He was kidding with the producers, the crowd, he was
on his game.
Again, it's baptist revivalist time with these shows, go out and get your ticket now, you are going to love this 2 hour plus romp fest.
Bruce at yet another height in performing.
And to see this 18 piece band click, it is stunning...
Just got back home, now to settle into my "Clark Kent" life again...
I've got more from both days, so I'll post it tomorrow.
They tell me I got interviewed for abc.com, however, I do not know if it's up there yet....
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| Gazza |
Wow...great to hear. two hours and 40 minutes???? Really? Seems quite long for a 20-song 'rehearsal' show.
PS - I hate your guts  |
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| PartyDoll MEG |
Thanks Nellcote!! I'm jealous too!! Can't wait to see the show in Columbus. And your review solidifies my enthusiasm. |
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| charlotte |
I am typing this with gazza's nipples!
I second the WOW!!!!!!!! thanks!
[Edited by charlotte] |
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| rasputin56 |
OK, I had been wary of this whole thing and held back making any judgments until all this started coming together. After multiple listens to the album, hearing some reviews from a few people I know who went last week and last night and seeing the live thing this a.m. on the Tellie-Vision, I'd have to give this a solid A. I'm actually looking forward to seeing this show now. He's pulled this off and the show looks like it'll be a blast. Well done, Bruce! |
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| Gazza |
quote:
charlotte wrote:
John Henry is one of my favorite tracks . It has all the musicians playing in perfect harmony. We Shall Overcome is another one. Jessie James is another 5-star. The violin playing gives this song an energetic pleasant sounding quality. Pay My Money Down and the bonus track Buffalo Gals are two very fun songs. My Oklahoma Home and Shenadoah are two beautiful tracks.
all top songs, although my top 3 are actually none of the above :
Erie Canal (I love that "low bridge/everybody down" chorus)
Oh, Mary Don't You Weep
Eyes On The Prize
The gospel-style backing vocals on those three seem to be whats really got me. They're gorgeous and truly inspirational pieces of music.
Several of the songs I've heard variations on before from early Dylan bootlegs and other folk sources, but the way these are performed just gives an entirely new spin on them.
I knew he wouldnt let us down with this one. A stunning record that only Bruce could deliver like that. Cant wait for Dublin.
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| charlotte |
No doubt:5 star performance
Look at this lineup in New Orleans at the Jazz&Heritage Festival
http://www.nojazzfest.com/schedule/index04.html
you have the boss on the 5th and I have bob at Davidson College Tuesday the 2nd... |
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| jb |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
No
Clarence Clemons is actually living in China these days, believe it or not. (I think his wife is from there). His health hasnt been too good in the last few years (I believe he had a double hip replacement). I'd expect an ESB album and tour maybe next year, but that could perhaps be the last one.
Clarence has or had a place in West palm Beach as well...he played a lot of local clubs...he literally became a big man...last time I saw him, he was larger than any period I saw him tour with the E-street band... |
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| gimmekeef |
I will not attend these shows!...No Warhorses!!!!!!..lol |
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| Nellcote |
Some further updates from my solo whirlwind Bruce-o-rama...
Met up with the faithful @ The Wonder Bar Monday night, right across from the street from the hall. It is owned by a FOB, who was the person who gave Bruce the red hat he has in his back pocket on the cover of Born In The USA. It's a great, loud place…
Driving up & down Asbury Park, all I could think of is what it must have been like in the day. Visited the Stone Pony, it’s the shrine for all things Bruce..
The Convention Hall is an outstanding old venue, part of the complex, which was built by the same builder who designed Grand Central Station in NYC. What a treat it must have been in its day. It was used for several scenes of Sopranos filming, the scene when Tony is having one of his dream sequences when he figures out it was Big Pussy who was the rat was filmed there It has the adjacent Paramount Theatre which was used for rehearsals, as well as shows in the past…. The place (Asbury Park) is in serious disrepair. I feel for the folks trying to sell the new ½ mil condos on the boardwalk, it looks a long time away…
He was a hoot during the GMA taping, as he was gargling onstage, from one red cup to another, then forgetting after which cup he spit into, as well as teasing the ever-present GMA show director, who would keep telling him “2 minutes”, which caused Bruce to start to play his guitar, then whistle. He said, “I’m renaming myself to the Whistler. You tell your friends, you are not seeing the Boss, you are seeing The Whistler”
I watched the GMA show up in the pit, with the ABC folks. Some of them, while quite nice, had no clue about Bruce’s music, or past, admittedly. They were eager to find out more. They came away disciples at the altar of Bruce after…
Bruce came out for the GMA show, he looked tired, but he was on. He talked that after the show, he was going to go home, go back to bed, as he had his pajamas on under his clothes. He said he frequently drives his kids to school with his pajamas on, so he's always ready to go back to bed..
He talked of performing Turn, Turn, Turn during the GMA set, but ran out of time…I see he played it last night.
Sony gave out free tee shirts to the 1st 1500 at the GMA taping…
During Jacob’s Ladder, Bruce signals for the background vocalists (including Cindy Mizell was she not part of Steel Wheels ’89 tour?) to come forward, joining him at the front of the stage, with to sing the end of the song. The horn section packs a punch which creates a true wall of sound. Bruce seems very intent upon making certain the individuals are singled out for their musicianship. He’s the bandleader, calling for all to be involved. He’s frequently calling for vocalists to come forward, the instrumentalists to begin numbers; he has the musician “Chocolate Genius” www.chocolategeniusinc.com whom he duets with on “When The Saints Go Marchin In”, which is superb. The banjo player is probably the youngest of the group, you can see Bruce enjoys his playing. Bruce plays only acoustic guitar during the show.
Every song on Seeger Sessions which I was witness to was brilliant, it was difficult to call one a favorite, however, if pressed, Pay Me My Money Down, & Old Dan Tucker really stood out. His reworked original stuff, such as Cadillac Ranch, Open All Night, Look But You Better Not Touch are dead on.
Was able to obtain a photocopy of Bruce’s handwritten set list, for my Hall Of Fame in my office, he had Adam Raised A Cain written down, but replaced it with Cadillac..
Sightings at the shows…Michael Moore (how I came so close to decking him) Stevie Van Zant (Bruce dedicated Look to “Sivio Dante”) Bruce’s manager Jon Landau. I played dodge’em tag with the security folks after the show, hung around for about 45 min to see what took place. It got down to about 30-40 people in the venue, many with passes on, so I figured Bruce was still there. Sure enough, 1st Steve Van Zant came walking past me, he nodded, kept walking. Then, I look in the background; here comes Mr. & Mrs. Springsteen. I get the nod, thanks for coming; he visits with those whom have passes, has his picture taken with a small child, he walks right out the venue, to his limo, just like he owned the place. Of course, he does, as it’s Asbury Park!
All in all, this will get The Boss a Grammy or two for the next year. If you come out of the disc or the show disappointed, well, you must be about dead. Pretty damn good for someone who was going to take the year off. Go get the Dual Disc; it’s play it loud music, as it is for all generations. It probably works for several genres; it will give folk music a boost as well. But, by all means, go to the show, you will not be disappointed. You are in for a raucous hootenanny from The Boss. It is absolutely stunning to see & hear this band perform. Sitting in the crowd Monday night, I recall during the ’99 “Rebirth” tour, how Bruce would go on about the show being a rebirth, a revival. This is the true revival. Enjoy!
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| PartyDoll MEG |
Thanks for sharing Nellcote!
I can't imagine anyone not liking this music. It is great, joyous,rolicing, fun... But that could just be me!! |
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| Ronnie Richards |
The Seeger Sessions is great!
And it's even better when you're drinking!
(Although Jesse James was better with the Pogues..) |
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| Gazza |
Fucking brilliant story.
I really envy people who get the chance to see all these small pre-tour and Christmas shows he often does.
Almost makes me wanna move. State of disrepair or not!
Yes, Cindy Mizelle was on the Steel Wheels tour, with Lisa Fischer. From what I know, a couple of the horn players (La Bamba and another one) are only playing the US shows as they dont tour overseas. he has a couple of different guys playing the European gigs.
[Edited by Gazza] |
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| charlotte |
Thanks Nellcote for sharing this wonderful story...just think gazza, it's your turn next week
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| Soldatti |
I really like the album, my favorites at the moment are Old Dan Tucker and We Shall Overcome. |
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