Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.
Fans who plunked down $100 for charity this week were able to attend one of four "rehearsals" by Bruce Springsteen and Seeger Sessions Band for a world tour that kicks off with a performance Sunday at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
The tour, which takes them next through Europe, supports the album, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," which hit store shelves on Tuesday.
What fans got for their money was not a rehearsal but a polished, energy-filled two-hour performance by an 18-musician ensemble. Even the Boss, in slightly salty language, noted the absence of errors at the last rehearsal Wednesday.
But typical Springsteen it was not. There were no wailing electric guitars, as there are when he performs with the E Street Band, but neither was this a one-folk-singer-with-an acoustic-guitar event. It was loud and it was rollicking, and it melded the sounds of guitar, drums, keyboard, brass, accordion, fiddles. In some numbers, there was even a washboard!
If the "Devils & Dust" tour showed a musician experimenting with styles, the "Seeger Sessions" shows a performer gleefully mining a new genre he has just discovered.
While the new album, reportedly recorded in one day at Springsteen's farm in nearby Colt's Neck, New Jersey, is comprised of songs associated with folk singer Pete Seeger of the Weavers, the tour music appears to expand on that, harking back to even earlier folk roots.
The set list included American standards like "We Shall Overcome" and "Eyes on the Prize," some refitted Springsteen classics like "Johnny 99" and "Adam Raised A Cain," and little-known folk tunes like the haunting Irish folk ballad "Mrs. McGrath."
As at most Springsteen concerts, fans knew the lyrics and joined in on the choruses, not only for the Boss' own songs but for such old-time tunes as "Buffalo Girls" and "Man On the Flying Trapeze."
On stage with Springsteen were his wife, vocalist-guitarist Patti Scialfa, and Soozie Tyrell, who played the violin on "The Rising" tour, plus Clark Gayton (trombone); Frank Bruno (guitar); Jeremy Chatzky (upright bass); Curt Ramm (trumpet); Greg Liszt (banjo); Marty Rifkin (pedal steel guitar); Mark Thompson (vocals); Sam Bardfeld (violin); Art Baron (tuba); Cindy Mizell (vocals); Larry Eagle (drums); Curtis King (vocals); Charles Giordano (accordion, keyboards); Lisa Lowell (vocals), and Eddie Manion (sax).
From New Orleans, Springsteen takes the group to Europe for a May 5 performance in Dublin, followed by stops in London, Manchester, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Oslo and Stockholm before the group returns to the U.S. on May 27.
The U.S. leg of the tour has stops at Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, Detroit, Indianapolis, Des Moines, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio, concluding in the New York-New Jersey area in late June.
As for the rehearsal tickets, they provided funds for a dozen non-profit organizations in Asbury Park and the surrounding areas on the Jersey shore, including Hope Academy Charter School, Hispanic Affairs and Resource Center, the Asbury Park Library, Asbury Park Seniors, and the Boys & Girls Club of Monmouth County.
By MARY JAYNE McKAY