The CD of the Week on “Out of the Box”
Like most of rock music fans his age and younger, Bruce Springsteen didn’t know much of Pete Seeger’s music. When he was asked to record a song for a tribute album to the folk music legend back in 1997, he headed to the record store and came back with an armful of Pete Seeger records. That was the beginning of what he calls a quest to capture Seeger’s music on his own album, “We Shall Overcome:The Seeger Sessions.”
It’s a musical hayride of folk, gospel, Cajun, Celtic, country and bluegrass influences bound together by the rousing energy Bruce and his 13 piece band bring to these folk songs, some over a hundred years old. It’s a live recording, all the songs were cut during three one day sessions when the musicians had no rehearsals. Springsteen says all arrangements were conducted as they played, you can even hear him shouting out names and instruments until at one point on “Pay Me My Money Down” Bruce calls out “everybody solo!”
This easily could have turned into a scene out of “A Mighty Wind.” You can just see the writers of that stinging parody of folk musicians from the early sixties latch onto the storyline of the Jersey rock star embracing Seeger’s banjo picking civil rights anthems. Springsteen however, avoids any hint of pandering by delivering a unique interpretation of this music with foot stomping, sing along inspiring authenticity. The loose arrangements are like nothing he’s ever done before and after the stark folk references of some of his last few albums (“Devils and Dust”, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”) it’s completely unexpected.
He approaches the songs from the perspective of a new fan. Just goes to show what getting an armful of records by a musical icon you’re not familiar with will do for you. I suggest everybody give it a try.
Listen for lots of tracks all week from " We Shall Overcome:The Seeger Sessions " by Bruce Springsteen on Paul Shugrue's new music show, "Out of the Box" Monday through Thursday from 7pm to 9pm and Saturday from 1pm to 5pm on Public Radio 89.5 WHRV-FM