Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact
Previous story: Drive-By Truckers: A Blessing and a Curse
Next story: Fruit Bats

Bruce Springsteen: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

If adopted into the Seeger family, Bruce Springsteen would be the brazen, grizzled nephew who takes old family standards and puts a little extra hitch in their proverbial giddy-up. In fact, consider yourself forgiven if We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions leads you to believe that Springsteen had an affair with Pete Seeger’s music that extends deep into his childhood, his father crooning “Old Dan Tucker” as they drove that big ol’ Buick into town to pick up the morning paper, lumber and redemption. The Boss looked deeply into Seeger’s catalogue only after being asked to record “We Shall Overcome” for a Seeger tribute album in 1997. What he found made an impact. Over the course of the following eight years, Springsteen and a group of cohorts put their own stamp on the music that helped shape folk and they did it live. It lends the album the feel of a backwoods front porch in August, as well it should—it was recorded at Springsteen’s farm. Springsteen takes songs as old as the 16th century and excels at what Seeger, who only wrote or co-wrote two of the album tracks himself, did best—owning them. If the Boss’s version of “John Henry” doesn’t make you want to swing a 30-pound hammer on the tracks all the livelong day, you probably left your soul on the wrong side of the bed. Springsteen’s selections are brilliant: “Jesse James,” “Erie Canal” and “Mrs. McGrath” radiate with the type of storytelling he’s done with “Stolen Car” and “Lost in the Flood.” It isn’t just the richness of the stories he embraces. On “We Shall Overcome,” Springsteen is almost just a member of the band. The Boss can be heard cuing solos (“Let’s bring up a b-flat,” he hollers halfway through “Pay Me My Money Down”), arranging banjo, fiddle and accordion with the deft hand of an old pro, even adding his signature harmonica to 1549’s “Froggie Went A Courtin’.” We Shall Overcome isn’t just a must for the Asbury enthusiast—it’s a backyard BBQ waiting to happen.