We shall overcome : the Seeger session

Springsteen has always mined a deep vein of Americana, from the hot-rod-and-B-movie-obsessed early albums to the Steinbeckian social realism of The Ghost of Tom Joad and last year’s Devils and Dust.
But with his first-ever album of songs written by other people, it feels like he’s turned to the music of our shared past to find a moral compass for a nation that’s gone off the rails.
The protest anthems ½Eyes on the Prize½ and ½We Shall Overcome½ are performed with an understated urgency; the gospel standard ½Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep½ -- which Springsteen sings in a gruff Tom Waits-ish baritone and to which the Seeger Sessions Band gives a Dixieland treatment with Stephane Grappelli-style violin -- promises, ½Brothers and sisters, don’t you cry/There’ll be good times by and by.½

Springsteen discovered most of these tunes -- which also include sea chanteys (½Pay Me My Money Down½), minstrel songs (½Old Dan Tucker½) and outlaw ballads (½Jessie James½) -- on LPs by Seeger.
Among the pleasures of this album is rediscovering childhood staples like ½Erie Canal½ or ½John Henry½ via Springsteen’s craggy, familiar voice -- which is as mighty and powerful as the steel-driving man himself.



JONATHAN RINGEN