Patti Scialfa

Scialfa may be Bruce Springsteen's wife, but her talents as a singer-songwriter outweigh the star power of her marriage. With a voice that recalls Marianne Faithfull and Ronnie Spector, and songs that incorporate 1970s soft rock, jazz and early Boss undertones, 23rd Street Lullaby is worth more than just checking out.

Patti Scialfa's 1993 debut, Rumble Doll, defied listeners' expectations so outrageously that it
ended up being unjustly ignored. On that record, far from coming on like Mrs. Bruce,
Scialfa sounded like Ronnie Spector performing songs written by Sylvia Plath. Among other
subjects, Scialfa struggled with her role as the tabloid-lashed other woman in Springsteen's
first marriage, torn between the urgency of her love and the hard reality of "tha... More >