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Springsteen singing folk music? On one level, it's almost impossible to imagine. After all, with his near-mythic persona and the mighty E Street Band, he's the epitome of stadium rock. And yet, on a deeper level, Springsteen has always been a folk singer in the finest sense of the term—taking the joys and sorrows of ordinary Americans and turning them into high art. And the same impulses that have always driven Springsteen's music, social commentary and criticism of the powers, also forms the bedrock of folk song.
On The Seeger Sessions, Springsteen and a big acoustic folk band rip into 11 traditional tunes associated with folk legend Pete Seeger, filling the songs with an exuberant energy that'll get you jumping around and singing along in no time. In the notes accompanying the album, Springsteen says the sessions were cut live, with arrangements evolving as the band played, and it sounds like it. Everything has a loose, sloppy feel—which is not to say that the playing is anything short of impressive.
Things kick off with a stomping arrangement of "Old Dan Tucker" that has the energy of a drunken brawl, with a well-placed solo by Charles Giordano on the Hammond B3. Springsteen sings "Jesse James" with the kind of Okie twang Dylan used in his early Guthrie-infatuated days—you can almost see him grinning as he belts it out."Oh Mary Don't You Weep" and "Jacob's Ladder" sound like Gospel music as played by a brass band in a strip joint. On the quite side, there's a wrenching version of "Mrs. McGrath," an Irish anti-war song that Springsteen sings against a slow martial drumbeat and the Celtic fiddling of Soozie Tyrell and Sam Bardfeld. The beautiful classic "Shenandoah" is accented by Mark Clifford's minimal banjo and moaning choral singing by the ensemble."We Shall Overcome," the Civil Rights anthem Seeger, Guy Carawan, Zilphia Horton and Frank Hamilton adapted from an old Baptist hymn, has lost none of its power over the years, and this reverent vocal reading is guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of listeners of a certain age. In short, there isn't a weak track on the album. If you're not familiar with the songs that laid the foundation for modern American music, this is a good primer.
The DVD side of the disc documents the album sessions with the same loose, anti-commercial vibe of the music. Springsteen pontificates predictably about the importance of folk music, but the songs are powerful enough to say what really needs to be said, and they do.
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