I admit it; I’ve been a little annoyed with Bruce lately. He put “The E Street Band” back together in the late ‘90’s’ and toured with them. He then recorded an album with them in ‘02’ and toured with them again. The greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world was back and kicking ass, and I was damn happy about it.
Then, just like that, he ditches them again, records another solo album, and proceeds to go on tour without them.
Despite the fact that Bruce’s music is heavily rooted in, and influenced by folk, I’m not really a big fan of it. So when I heard that his newest album was going to be a collection of songs that were written or made famous by Pete Seeger I wasn’t all that thrilled. This was 2 in a row now without the band. When was he going to get them back together? For the first time since “The River” I didn’t rush out and get the new album the day it was released. I finally picked it up yesterday and after listening to it this morning I realized I had made a mistake.
All I can say is, WOW! Folks, this is not folk. The best I can describe it is a funky combination of folk, bluegrass, gospel, rockabilly, and Dixieland. He’s put together a collection of talented musicians backing him playing horns, violin, banjo, accordion, and keyboards. The only “E Streeters” are Patty on backup vocals and Soozie on violin.
When Bruce covers something, it’s always his own interpretation. It never sounds like the original, and this is no different. This is not your daddy’s Pete Seeger and it seems like the type of thing that only Bruce could pull off.
I love it, and I’m not the only one. When I first put it on this morning, Kyla came running over and grabbed onto me, which is her way of showing that she likes something.
So, while I’m still waiting for “The E Street Band” to get back together, I’ll be listening to “The Seeger Sessions” and Kyla will be listening with me.
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3 comments:
I'd review this album, but so far I can't get past track 1, which has been on repeat all morning.
"Old Dan Tucker" is great and definitely one of my favorites, but there's a lot more on here that's just as good, so get past it already and listen to the rest.
Thought I would pass this on, its from boston.com...
The folk icon who inspired the Boss's new album isn't exactly doing cartwheels (OK, Seeger is 87, but we're speaking metaphorically) over Springsteen's "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions." Of "O Mary Don't You Weep": "he turned that into a minor key -- it's like singing 'America the Beautiful' in a minor key!" Pete Seeger dishes in the August issue of Guitar World Acoustic magazine. Echoing some critics, Seeger says "I confess I would have liked it better if he'd had one or two more really serious songs...I would have liked to have had him put in something like 'Walking Down Death Row.'" On an upbeat note, Seeger claims that he looks forward to hearing "more of the kind of things Bruce has done. As a matter of fact I would love to see some of my songs played on electric guitar." Pete, weren't you guy who said if he'd had a hatchet he would have chopped Bob Dylan's cables when he plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival?
-CC
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