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 Bruce
Springsteen's
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Dec 7, 2007
Reviewed by Mark Tamsula
As an old time musician, I have only a
peripheral awareness of contemporary pop music, and the people who do
it. This is because I am primarily interested in Old Time, which hasn't had much widespread
popularity and commercial success since the record industry was quite
young. Granted, it has popped up occasionally in recent times, in movies like
Cold Mountain and Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, Ken
Burn's Civil War, but always in the context
of period music, not something that the masses could ever hope to hear played
on Top 40 again (although I often get requests to play Ashokan Farewell). When Bruce Springsteen released his album "The
Seeger Sessions" last year, quite a few people in the Old Time
and Folk community talked enthusiastically about it. I think some of the
buzz was over the possibility that Springsteen's mainstream popularity
would bring more well deserved
attention to this largely ignored genre. This would have been a great
accomplishment indeed if only he could have managed to produce a passably
good album in this style.
You see, there are plenty of truly amazing
Old Time artists who are currently playing the music they love. Some even
perform and record it as a livelihood, and are doing it with a reverence for
that art form and culture to the extent that they actually bother to know
something about it, and the people who have carried on these traditions for
generations. It's unfortunate, but it's very unlikely the
fabulous music of these real players
will ever see the kind of exposure that Springsteen's renditions will
receive, which only adds to the heartbreak. This was my reaction to the first tune on the album,
Old Dan Tucker, shortly after hearing the first brass section break by the
Miami Horns. My expectations of hearing something that I would
identify with as a folk musician began to evaporate. Just to be
fair, I waited out the electric organ solos and tried to listen more
closely to the banjo and fiddle, but the novice style bluegrass picking
led me to suspect that some guitarist, namely Electronica style player Mark Clifford
simply acquired a few
banjo chords and some elementary finger-picking skills for the sake of
this project. The fiddlers
(credited as violins) did about as best as I've ever heard from any
classically trained players trying to fake it.
Alright, so that was only the first tune,
maybe I should allow them the artistic freedom to get silly with Old Dan Tucker. Next was Jesse James, a well known
favorite in Bluegrass and Old Time circles. I've heard plenty of hot raucous
versions of it to know that this tune rocks, and can be done with lots of
cool. Maybe there is some union rule they had to follow that specifies there
will always be a drum and electric bass on every track, adding that
oh-so-special Country Polka flavor. Did they forget to credit
Christopher Walken's artistic management on this cut? "You're
gonna want to hear that cowbell! More cowbell!"
It's not Bruce Springsteen's singing style
I object to, I think that is the single element that still carries the
project through. It's the indifference I detect in the arrangement of
instrumentation and solo breaks that screams "Anything goes! Don't
really care!, Doesn't matter!, This stuff isn't supposed to be cool
anyway!". Despite the talent and experience with other styles
that these musicians probably possess, they demonstrated a certain degree
of ignorance of folk music in regards to what sounds good or bad, what
makes it work, and what doesn't. A musician begins to understand that sort
of thing by first really liking some of it, then discriminating within its
own context between the finer points. If there's one thing I've learned
about performing is that music is very closely related to mood, and the
mood of the artist is reflected in the mood of the audience. If the artist
is indifferent about what he plays, the listeners will be as well.
The slower ballads like Mrs.
McGrath, O Mary Don't You Weep, and Eyes on the Prize, were
much more tastefully arranged and delivered, suggesting Springsteen had a
more heartfelt connection to the material, and I guess the musicians could
relate somewhat better to the more bluesy, soulful tunes. This leads me to suspect that
maybe this was the material that originally gave rise to the concept of the
album, and the rest of the tune selections might have been just packaging
to complete the cd. Otherwise,
why not play with some real folk musicians, not just studio regulars who
probably just saw a paycheck regardless of how indifferent they may or may
not be
to this style.
Short of working with other,
traditionalist folk
musicians, I would have had a greater
overall appreciation and respect for the project if Springsteen
would have recorded all the selections solo, with only guitar
accompaniment, maybe some harmonica. It would have presented a much more
genuine approach, consistent with the style, but still giving him every
opportunity to put his own touch on the work, it certainly couldn't have
been any worse. The other possibility I
could have really been excited over is if he would have actually done what was
suggested at the outset, bring the coolness of Springsteen, which is
what he is best at, into the folk genre. Imagine a rendition of
"Froggie Went A Courtin'" done with that same Rockabilly
rhythm that he used in "I'm On Fire", country boy hollers and
all. They're not all that different...
Hey little girl is your daddy home, uh huh,
Hey little girl is your daddy home, uh huh,
Hey little girl is your daddy home,
Did he go away and leave you all alone
Uh huh,.. uh huh,.. I'm on fire
whooo whoooooooooooo!
By the way, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
won the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album
Mark :8^{>~
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