Bruce Springsteen

These classic tunes from Pete Seeger's songbook, recorded with the legendary protest singer's original band, sparkle with heartfelt emotion and grace. All the songs were recorded live in the living room of Springsteen's Jersey farmhouse, without rehearsal, giving them a sense of urgency and fun that has been missing from the Boss's work for a mighty long time. His most vital and energized work in a couple decades.

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)