Recorded at the Point in Dublin over November 17, 18 & 19, 2006 this a live album with the Seeger Sessions Band taking in 10 of the 13 songs from that album (omitted are my personal favourite “John Henry” (harumph), “Shenadoah” and thankfully “Froggie Went A Courtin’”) plus 13 other Springsteen songs and covers.

The original songs chosen are quite interesting, many not songs I would usually expect to hear at an E Street Band show. “Atlantic City”, “Further On (Up The Road)”, “If I Should Fall Behind”, “Highway Patrolman”, “Long Time Comin’”, “Open All Night”,  “Growin' Up”, “American Land” and “Blinded By The Light”. 

The remaining songs are old folk and traditional songs given a Sessions Band makeover. “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live” was written and recorded by Blind Alfred Reed in 1929. This version, apparently, owes more to Ry Cooder’s 1970 take than it does to ol’ Blind Alfred. Everyone knows “When The Saints Go Marching In”, right ? It’s a song that grew out of various hymns and spirituals and is forever connected to New Orleans style Jazz but here is slowed right down to an acoustic ballad and sung by various members of the band. “This Little Light Of Mine” is a traditional Gospel song that has a strong connection to the Civil Rights Movement and is one I’ve seen performed live with the E Street Band in Kilkenny in 2013. 

Lastly I need to make mention “Love Of The Common People” (yes the very same song that once was 80’d up by Paul Young) written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins (who also wrote “Son Of A Preacher Man”) and first recorded by the Four Preps. Sadly Bruce attempts the song in a laughable cod-reggae style and, much as I’ve never wanted to hear Bob Marley tackle Rock ’n Roll, I’ve never in my wildest imaginations wanted to hear the Boss play Reggae…and never wish to again !

“Live In Dublin” is an enthusiastic performance in front of an enthusiastic crowd. A great document of a tour I didn’t get to see.

Long Time Coming - https://youtu.be/_eehLPcXxBQ?si=j-kcZEchaOpSkWTO

On Side 6 of “Live/1975-85” Springsteen performs a wonderful version of “This Land Is Your Land”, Woody Guthrie’s critical answer song to Irving Berlin’s schmaltzy, patriotic “God Bless America”. While introducing “This Land…” Bruce says “There’s a book out right now. It’s called “Woody Guthrie: A Life”. It’s by this fella Joe Klein…and it’s really, it’s really a great book”. Finally ,after almost 40 years, I got around to  reading it and Pete Seeger features heavily in Woody Guthrie’s story. 

Pete Seeger was born in New York in 1919. His father was a Harvard educated composer and musicologist, his mother was a concert violinist trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and later a teacher at Juilliard so I guess music was always gonna be a thing with Pete. He originally started playing the Ukelele as a child and from there developed into one of America’s most important folk singers, songwriters and social/political activists. His songs (including “If I Had A Hammer”, “Where Have All The Flowers Gone”, “Turn!Turn! Turn!” and of course “We Shall Overcome”, an arrangement of a spiritual that became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King) and performances with the likes of the Almanac Singers and The Weavers sparked the Folk Music revival that ultimately led to the rise of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell in the 1960’s. Pete Seeger is an American musical legend.

“We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions” is Bruce Springsteen’s tribute to Seeger, his first album not featuring any songs written by himself, it contains 13 songs popularised by Seeger. It also features an almost entirely new band, headed up by future E Street Band violinist Soozie Tyrell. The Sessions Band, as it came to be known, was made up of lesser known musicians from around New Jersey and New York led by Tyrell, Patti Scialfa and the Miami Horns. One musician of note in the Sessions band is keyboard and accordianist Charlie Giordano who, following the Sessions Band tour, has stepped in to the shoes of the late Danny Federici in the E Street Band (he also played on Jerry Joseph’s album “The Man Who Would Be King” that we covered a few months back).

This whole album was recorded in Bruce Springsteen’s living room, live with no rehearsals, over 3 one day sessions and it sounds like…well it sounds like everyone involved was having one helluva great time. This was confirmed by a BBC broadcast of a Seeger Sessions show from St Luke's Church, London where you could absolutely see that everybody was having a total blast playing in this band.

“We Shall Overcome…” is real Americana, songs gathered from and popularised by the folk singers of the 1940’s and onwards  that originated from 19th century black face troupe’s (“Old Dan Tucker”), from Gospel music (“We Shall Overcome”) to traditional folk tunes (“Shenandoah”) and even a song celebrating the building of the New York State Barge Canal which would see modernisation and the transition from mule power to engine power when it opened in 1918 (“Erie Canal”). The instrumentation is almost entirely acoustic (there is some electric organ) and the sound harks back to traditional American Folk Music (if you are at all familiar with Folkways Records legendary “Anthology Of American Folk Music” you’ll know the sound here). And yes, for one or two acquaintances that have taken the piss, it does include “Froggie Went A-Courtin’” and yes he has played it live !

My favourite is “John Henry”, the epic tale of a freed African slave who went on to work as a “steel man” on the railways, hammering in the steel “pins” that kept the rails attached to the sleepers. He was so proficient that he entered into a race against a steam powered hammer. He won the race only to die with his hammer in his hand as his heart gave out from the stress. In the song John Henry proudly tells us he’s “Swingin' thirty pounds from my hips on down, Yeah, listen to my cold steel ring, Lord, Lord, Listen to my cold steel ring”. It’s a song that has been performed in one arrangement or another by many artists. I have versions by Johnny Cash, Steve Earle and the Drive-By Truckers and there are others by Woody Guthrie, Van Morrison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lonnie Donegan, Pete Seeger of course and many, many others. Bruce Springsteen’s tilt at it has a real party swing about it (in as much as a song about a man working himself to death can be considered a party song), the sound of a gathering out on the porch fuelled by moonshine.

“We Shall Overcome…” is a homage to American Folk music, the conclusion of Springsteen’s fascination with the likes of Woody Guthrie that stretches back to his introduction of Woody’s “This Land Is Your Land” and the nod to Joe Klein’s book”Woody Guthrie: A Life” on “Live / 1975-85” (when Springsteen appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in December 2016 his book choice was Joe Klein’s tome). It’s also (in the main) a great happy singalong party as you’ll see if you check out that BBC St Luke’s Church gig.

John Henry - https://youtu.be/bqxjHzff-Qo?si=ayq-qaMKQgiWoGMm

The Sessions Band, St Luke’s Church, London 9 May 2006 - https://youtu.be/dFTDkS6xUE0?si=-McyBVejoeKsF5S_

“Devils & Dust” is Springsteen’s 3rd “Acoustic” album, sharing loose stylistic roots with “Nebraska” and “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”. It isn’t however the overtly acoustic album that those two musical cousins are. We do get gentle introspective songs but there’s some full band “rockers” involved too. What is often regarded as a solo acoustic record doesn’t have any completely solo performances on it.

It was released in 2005 but the writer admitted that many of the songs had been written 10 or more years prior. “All The Way Home” was written for Southside Johnny in 1991; the wonderful “Long Time Coming” and “The Hitter” are from the “…Tom Joad” period. Waste not want not I guess. 

The title track sees us post 9/11. Written in the early years of the resulting 2nd Iraq war, the writer sings from the point of view of a soldier in that war who is questioning his feelings toward his (and his countries ?) involvement and, importantly, his part in things. He’s seen his friend die in action (“Well I dreamed of you last night, In a field of blood and stone”) and is now wrestling with what the war is doing to him (“I got God on my side, I’m just trying to survive, What if what you do to survive, Kills the things you love…It’ll take your God filled soul, And fill it with devils and dust”). This is all set within acoustic guitars and strings in a way that harks back to “…Tom Joad”.  There are some powerful ideas expressed in this song, ideas rarely discussed in a country which so often defines itself by its military.

“All The Way Home” shatters any notion that this is another acoustic collection. It’s a full band workout, a bit of a rocker, whereas when first recorded by Southside Johnny it was a soulful ballad. This sets up the 1-2 punch that most of “Devils & Dust” adheres to, solo Bruce followed by Bruce and Band, until we get toward the end.

The lyrically explicit “Reno” caused quite the controversy. Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, has said of it “”My artistic side said, ‘That is so brave.’ Then, just thinking right from the heart, I was like, ‘What are you writing about that shit for? Are you fucking crazy?’ ”. Without sugar coating what’s happening “Reno” tells of an, ultimately disappointing, liaison with a working girl while the punter daydreams of being with Maria somewhere between Guatemala and Peru and having everything he needs but “Somehow all you ever need's never really quite enough”. Amongst all that it’s a bloody gorgeous song and a fabulous performance. Incidentally on the vinyl release “Reno” sits at the end of Side 1, while at the end of Side 2 we find “Maria’s Bed” in which we’re told “I was burned by the angels, sold wings of lead, Then I fell in the roses and sweet salvation of Maria's bed”.

“Long Time Comin’” might be one of my favourite Springsteen songs. For a rudimentary guitarist like myself (I follow the Joe Strummer method, “I can only play all six strings at once or none at all” !) it’s dead easy to play and sound vaguely like it does on the record. It’s a closing of the book on Springsteen’s father and son songs. There’s a telling section in his biography where, just before the birth of Bruce and Patti Scialfa’s first child, his father, knowing how much his sons life is about to change, visits and offers an apology of sorts for his “parenting” toward his son…something like “you’ve been good to us…I haven’t always been good to you”. This song revolves around a camping trip the Springsteen’s took before the birth of their 3rd child, Bruce trying to be a better Dad to his kids than his had admitted he had been to him, the pivotal admission being “Well if I had one wish in this god forsaken world, kids, It’d be that your mistakes would be your own, Yeah your sins would be your own”.

“Leah” covers some of the same ground. A man now ready to accept that he can love and be loved, released from (some of) his demons by his fathers apology perhaps. The brighter outlook is underlined with its beautiful TexMex horns. 

The record ends on “Matamoros Banks”, laying out the pain of a Mexican, drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande to the US, being returned to Mexico. Both these songs have that TexMex colour to them that we encountered on “The Ghost Of Tom Joad”. It’s an atmosphere that we’ll find in many Springsteen songs from here on.

“Devils & Dust” hit #1 in the US and was supported by the solo “Devils & Dust tour”, just Springsteen (well, him and a couple of Roadies playing keyboards offstage) and an array of instruments. The album has an overall feel of the great outdoors, the range, America’s wide open country about it. It's more along the road of musical themes that will coalesce in a few years on one of his finest records.

Reno - https://youtu.be/8TXYAaJeSS0?si=JhuD4wbu08_c4xs-