The Boss With Banjo, For Pete's Sake

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Bruce Springsteen
(Columbia)

The first thing I thought when I started listening to the new Bruce Springsteen CD, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," was, "Man, somewhere in America some dude who has been waiting 30 years for 'Born to Run II' is flipping his lid right now."

Actually, hardcore fans probably have gotten used to The Boss' roots-music detours by now. Between 1982's "Nebraska," 1995's "The Ghost of Tom Joad," last year's "Devils & Dust" and now "The Seeger Sessions," he's just as likely as not to release a folk-informed project. At this point, can these stylistic shifts still be called detours?

One thing you can call the new disc, Springsteen's first all-covers collection: ambitious. It's actually quite a bit of fun, too. The Seeger Sessions band, at times 14 pieces strong, rambles and rollicks through 13 mostly traditional tunes associated with folk singer/historian/activist Pete Seeger.

This recording was inspired by a 1997 session that produced Springsteen's contribution of "We Shall Overcome" to the 1998 Seeger tribute "Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger." From that seed were sown three one-day recording sessions (in 1997, 2005 and 2006) that resulted in this disc.

A criticism that's been cropping up is that despite the album's title, there aren't any songs written by Seeger on it (though he made lyrical contributions to "Jacob's Ladder"). That's valid, but in a way it's missing the point, too. Sure, it's odd that there are no Seeger-penned tunes included, because certainly he wrote some good ones, such as "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (with a big assist from the Book of Ecclesiastes) and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". But he's equally well known as an interpreter and compiler of folk music, and that side of his work seems to influence this disc. As Springsteen writes in the liner notes, "You hear the music not just being played, but being made." It captures the spirit of folk music; that is, folks are playing music rather than creating it in a sterile studio environment. The big folk band applies this ethos and a lively, off-the-cuff feel to work songs, spirituals, story-songs and protest songs to great effect.

The musicians gathered in Springsteen's farmhouse and added accordion, banjo, washboard, fiddle and horns (among other instruments) to the old guitar-bass-drums formula. The result is just what you'd expect from the Boss – a grandiose tribute to American folk traditions. It packs all the energy you've come to expect from Springsteen's stadium shows in an unplugged format. Arena folk, if you will.

That the tunes' only tie to Seeger is that he also recorded them is secondary, especially when you feel the musicians' palpable joy at playing the upbeat numbers such as "Old Dan Tucker," "Pay Me My Money Down" and "John Henry."

"The Seeger Sessions" has its somber side, too. "My Oklahoma Home" is about the Dust Bowl, an ironically fertile source for folk music. "Mrs. McGrath" is a traditional Irish anti-war song that approaches the topic from a mother's grief. Many reviewers have tried to hang a statement on Springsteen regarding the war in Iraq. They may be right, too, but "Mrs. McGrath" is applicable to any war. Such is the staying power of many of these tunes whose themes are somewhat universal in scope, whether it's the struggle for human rights ("O Mary Don't You Weep," "Jacob's Ladder," "Eyes on the Prize," "We Shall Overcome"), the fight for workers' rights ("Pay Me My Money Down") or the struggle of man vs. machine ("John Henry").

Rock critic Dave Marsh provides brief histories of the songs in the liner notes, and longer versions are posted at brucespringsteen.net. The CD is on the DualDisc format, so the DVD side includes a 30-minute film about the recording of the disc and two bonus tracks, "Buffalo Gals" and "How Can I Keep From Singing." For those of you who like it old school, "Seeger Sessions" also is available on vinyl, but without the two extra songs and, of course, the video footage.

There have been other collections by rock musicians that have attempted to bring traditional tunes back into the public consciousness, notably Bob Dylan's "Good as I Been to You" (1992) and Dave Alvin's "Public Domain" (2000). Springsteen's disc is a worthy addition to that effort, and a reminder that occasionally someone must pick up the torch and pass down our musical traditions. That, at least in part, will be Pete Seeger's lasting legacy.