Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Sony
Rating: A+
On We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, his strongest studio release in nearly 20 years, Bruce Springsteen has made some of the most powerful political statements of his career while, at the same time releasing a compelling disc that is both joyous and mournful. And he did all of this without writing an original lyric.
Aided by the bravura work of a group of musicians who are, for the purposes of the release, named the Seeger Sessions Band, Springsteen has interpreted folk legend Pete Seeger’s versions of classic folk songs and, at the same time, have given these timeless classics a relevance that even a songwriter using tonight’s evening news as inspiration could not hope to achieve.
The disc, a combination of classic American folk tunes, Irish meditations Negro spirituals, sea chanteys, hymns, and protest songs, which Springsteen and the band infused with country, folk, zydeco, Dixieland, bluegrass, gospel, and Cajun sounds works for a number of reasons:
First, Springsteen fully embraced the idea of a session in the Irish tradition where artists would gather and begin to play. The disc was recorded over the course of three days over three different years, and the seat-of-the-pants nature of the recording – Springsteen can be heard calling out instruments and counting down song intros – combined with Springsteen’s traditional ability to expand the sound of any music with which he is associated results in an audacious and vivacious collection.
Second, the perfectionist Springsteen who was famous for going through more than 30 takes of songs in the studio to get the sound for which he was searching, was not in evidence on the days of these recordings. That is not to say that the tracks are sloppy – they are razor sharp even at their loosest – but rather that, going back to the first point, Springsteen embraced the looseness. This is evident on “John Henry” when he slips up vocally and moves right along and about two minutes into “Oh, Mary Don’t You Weep” where the chorus kicks in when Springsteen begins a new verse and then stops abruptly. Such a flub would never have made it onto previous studio albums. (And likely not onto his live albums as well, so much of a perfectionist is he.)
Third, by performing folk songs that he did not write, Springsteen is free to sing tracks that are clearly political in nature while, at the same time, shield himself from criticism that his tracks are outwardly political. Though this point won’t matter to his most ardent fans, perhaps it will quiet some of his right-wing fans who cried foul at the way in which Springsteen publicly supported John Kerry for President in 2004. If “Mrs. McGrath” isn’t one of the most powerful anti-war songs this writer hears this year, it will be a strong year for anti-war songs.
Springsteen is clearly having fun, for seemingly the first time in years. While his live shows have always been spirited affairs, the moments in which he has truly torn the roof off of the joint on a studio set have been less frequent in the past 25 years. (If anything, the disc is often reminiscent of his second album, <I>The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle</I> and tracks like "Kitty's Back" and "E Street Shuffle.") Freed from the heavy themes of his past two studio efforts, on We Shall Overcome, Springsteen gets the opportunity to pay tribute to the sounds by which he has been influenced throughout his career.
Finally, the singer clearly seems to enjoy the benefits that an orchestra-sized band and a choir afford in terms of additional instrumentation and vocalization. The E Street Band, talented as its members are, could not replicate the Dixieland sounds found on “Jacob’s Ladder” nor would they be likely to carry the bluegrass sound through seven verses of “My Oklahoma Home.”
That Springsteen recorded this disc over the course of three sessions is nothing short of remarkable. The disc is a complete vision, a joyous tent revival; a celebration that showcases the remarkable writing of those that, in many cases, history has forgotten, the magical vocal talents of a stirring choir, and the incredible ability that great musicians have to bring their instruments to life.
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is one of the best discs of the year. One can only hope that Springsteen will visit more of these classic folk songs in the future, something that he recently indicated that he would like to do.
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