We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

Released

Springsteen has never taken as many left turns as Dylan: he found a lane early, changed it up enough to keep it interesting, and never made a Christmas or standards album. The Seeger Sessions record is one the biggest and most successful of his detours. It’s not unlike the two back-to-basics folk-song records that Dylan made in the early 90s, except that Springsteen never was a folk singer.  The record is thus a showcase for yet another corner of Springsteen’s vast performative gift: though he might never have set foot in a Greenwich Village coffee house in his youth, he inhabits this selection of antique material (“John Henry,” “Erie Canal,” “Pay Me My Money Down”) like an old hand.  And he brings a savvy as a bandleader that Dylan never had to the table: the E Street Band is absent, but he still whips the “Sessions Band” up into a party over and over again.  His rowdy minor-key version of “O Mary Don’t You Weep,” for instance, shows him at work as an expert arranger.  Where other big-name musicians’ folk turns are more contemplative or “authentic,” Springsteen’s hums with a spirit of festivity and renewed creative energy.

Sean Wood

Suggestions
The Little Willies cover

The Little Willies

The Little Willies
The Navigator cover

The Navigator

Hurray for the Riff Raff
Trouble cover

Trouble

The Howlin' Brothers
Shallow Grave cover

Shallow Grave

The Tallest Man on Earth
Cunningham Bird cover

Cunningham Bird

Andrew Bird, Madison Cunningham