A Boss Nod to Seeger: 'We Shall Overcome'

A loose, fun, freewheeling energy dominates the new Bruce Springsteen CD, from the very first strains of songs like Old Dan Tucker, Jesse James, Erie Canal and others -- songs first made popular by folk music icon Pete Seeger.

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Bruce Springsteen, center, with the musicians who collaborated on the Pete Seeger project. Danny Clinch/BruceSpringsteen.net hide caption

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Danny Clinch/BruceSpringsteen.net

Bruce Springsteen, center, with the musicians who collaborated on the Pete Seeger project.

Danny Clinch/BruceSpringsteen.net

Springsteen, aka The Boss, may have a reputation as a rock 'n' roller, but he also treats American folk music with great reverence. For his latest project, Springsteen and a group of great traditional musicians all jammed into his farmhouse living room and started recording, without rehearsals, arrangements or overdubs. The live, unfiltered approach fits the old-time music well.

Many of Springsteen's best rock songs are animated by the same impulses that drive traditional folk music -- underdog tales of economic desperation and dashed dreams, but also of hope and defiance in the face of long odds.

Pete Seeger never had Springsteen's voice or his band, but somehow he conveyed all the fresh political and emotional overtones that lay hidden in every old song he played. There was always a reason for Seeger's song choices, and his music resonated deeply during the Vietnam War.

And that's the one quibble that I have with Springsteen's reworking of these chestnuts -- he doesn't seem to have any real sense of placing the songs in context, or trying to make them feel relevant to a present-day audience. He's mostly content just to have a good time playing them -- and, for this time around anyway, maybe that's good enough.