Bruce Springsteen

Originally recorded in the Boss' New Jersey farmhouse, The Seeger Sessions album found Springsteen and a huge acoustic ensemble rocking a rollicking set of American songbook standards made popular by folk legend Pete Seeger. Some of these songs are 100 years old, but Springsteen and his phenomenal band -- tubas, banjoes, accordions, and bunches more, numbering over 20 strong -- rendered them timeless. This expanded version of that set features five extra tracks that didn't make it onto the original album, including a potent rendition of Seeger's Vietnam-era protest song, "Bring 'Em Home."

We shall overkill, he means. Never have his Howard Keel tendencies, or maybe now they're Paul Robeson tendencies, tripped him up so bad. The idea is to big up the music and play the jokes you don't ignore like you're working a Roman amphitheater. I'm glad to have met the anti-war lament "Mrs. McGrath" and Sis Cunningham's "My Oklahoma Home," and sort of hope young people deprived of music appreciation funding will now hear "Erie Canal," "Froggie Went A-Courtin'," "John Henry," and "Jesse James." Only are young people really ignorant of these songs? And how many of them buy Springsteen albums anyway? Amping up his strange bluegrass-Dixieland hybrid like E Street is just around the corner, he sings his lungs out. But in folk music, lightness is all--and only newbies and John Hammond Jr. lean so hard on the cornpone drawl. (Grade - B)