We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions - Bruce Springsteen Album Review

We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions - Bruce Springsteen Album Review

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Album Review

Yee ha! Take your partners, as The Boss goes barn-dancing hillbilly style. It’s not what you do, it’s they way that you do it - so mainstream BS fans are in for a big surprise, maybe a shock, or even a treat, which this fun-filled collection is from start to finish. When you’re ‘The Boss’, you can do what you like. So, doing a ‘covers album’ (with a difference) is new territory. After high-priest of Americana Woody Guthrie, comes 86 year old folkie Pete Seeger, who Springsteen pays tribute to on his 21st album. Springsteen said,

So much of my writing, particularly when I write acoustically, comes straight out of the folk tradition. Making this album was creatively liberating because I have a love of all those different roots sounds…. they can conjure up a world with just a few notes and a few words.

Using a big ensemble, 14 musicians in all, he’s virtually recreated his stadium conquering performances, all from his lounge (and hallway) in New Jersey. Not wishing to rush things, this concept is the culmination of a protracted nine year period - 1997, 2005, 2006, so maintaining its spirit, without rehearsals, must have been a monumental task itself. In the sleeve notes he says,

This is a LIVE recording….All arrangements were conducted as we played, you can hear me shouting out names and instruments of the players as we roll.

Musically he’s done his home work, seeking out songs that span centuries of American folklore.

Conjuring up images of camp fires and pitch-fork dances, it’s full of finger-licking life from the start: we’re given the Springsteen shuffle – joyous and uplifting, which me maintains throughout – Old Man Tucker gets the feet stomping. Fun continues as BS grows his way through another romp – Jesse James – with drum sticks leading and banjo following. Violin driven Mrs. McGrath and John Henry have a more ‘Irish feel’, a kind of bluegrass meets The Pogues. Throwing in a New Orleans jazz break midway through O Mary Don’t You Weep turns the indigenous song on its head, giving it a new spiritual meaning as brass, piano and back-ups have a ball. Gently ambling Erie Canal’s initial banjo pick and violin are swept away by Dixieland stylings, bringing a punctuated blast, segued by equally rip-roaring Jacob’s Ladder. The next three, take the foot of the accelerator – My Oklahoma Home, Eyes On The Prize and Shenandoah (a most beautiful love ballad and the undeniable highlight) are more sedate offerings amongst the wonderful din. Back to business, a rousing Pay Me My Money Down pre-fixes an emotional We Shall Overcome, sounding more like his compatriot Bob Dylan. Topping off, a chugging Froggie Goes A Courtin’ is a fitting conclusion to a brilliant idea.

On the DVD we get the album all over again plus two bonus tracks – Buffalo Gals and How Can I Keep From Singing, and visual snippets of how it was put together, in an almost improvisation process – he guides them with –

Trumpet…bring up a B-flat...don’t stop now…anyone wanna tackle that ?

The Boss also said,

I wanted the sound of a bunch of people just sitting around playing.

He’s certainly achieved his goal, even if it took nearly a decade. That’s dedication.

Elly Roberts

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