Music Review

The Boss is back, but not with the E Street Band. This time around he has assembled 17 musicians to help him pay tribute to the protest music of Pete Seeger.

Springsteen has mined the American songbook for years and in some ways it is a natural step for him to take on an album of covers. That said, an album of Pete Seeger covers is probably not what most people expected. Amazingly it works really well. This feels like a celebration of protest music and of Seeger himself.

There is a rollicking, joyous, almost spiritual feel to the whole project. Of course, the biblical imagery driving many of these songs adds to the gospel feel, but it is more than that, it is the man himself. Springsteen has an zealous approach to recording and performing that borders on the religious and increasingly over recent years he has employed gospel-type imgery and rhetoric in his live shows--that serves him really well here.

There is nothing drastically unexpected, yet nothing is predictable. Not an album for everyone, but one everyone should hear at least once. I saw him performing some of the songs on morning television today and it was fantastic, absolutley fantastic, a life-lifting affirmation of the power musical protest. America and the world should be grateful to Seeger and to Springsteen for drawing our attention to these songs again