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'The Boss'[ brings his first all-covers album celebrating the songs of Pete Seeger, songs that Pete Seeger himself covered and made his own. Rather than making the songs statements or protests (which in many cases they originally were), Bruce has a musical take on the proceedings of Pete Seeger's songs. Alan Lomax spoke of Pete Seeger - "Go back to that night when Pete first met Woody Guthrie. You can date the renaissance of American folk song from that night". Such is the regard Pete Seeger was held in during the 1950's that he was dubbed 'Kruschev's songbird'.
Taking in the great musical traditions that the U.S. has given expression to - the blues, folk, gospel, hill-billy, Dixie-land, and the international flavours of rag-time jazz, zydeco and Irish jigs and reels, 'We Shall Overcome' is delivered in the time-honored 'Yankee doodle dandy' celebratory manner that feels less like campfire songs, more the campsite-is-on-fire-songs.
Square dance numbers feature large - opening With Old Dan Tucker' with a banjo-pluckin', down on the farm with the yokels - "Now Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man/ washed his face in a frying pan...", a fresh-faced version of the old minstrel song dating from 1843 that'll get your knees lifting at angles. 'Jesse James' and 'O Mary Don't You Weep' keep the swinging-a-swaying with accordion and full band, Bruce belting out and dirt-kicking the old outlaw song and the great line on 'O Mary...' - "...old Satan he got mad/ missed that soul that he thought he had...". 'Mrs McGrath' comes with a jig in its stride - "...too ri oo ri oo ri aa...have you news of my son Ted/ is he alive or is he dead...and then came Ted without any legs/ and in their place two wooden pegs..." and it's over the hills and faraway. 'Pay Me My Money Down' has all the singin' and dancin' on the tables, the fiddlers elbow unimpaired and the boots akickin'.
The protest song features large in the great old songs of 'Jacob's Ladder' fusing the Negro spiritualist tradition with the worker's struggle; 'Eyes On The Prize' is a holiness hymn which became a civil rights activist song of the 1950's and is delivered as a homily by a husky Bruce and a restrained spiritualised-band. The mighty 'We Shall Overcome' has seen greater expression in its time, and comes across as a weedy version of early-Dylan and kind of lets down the party, given the zeitgeist of modern day U.S.A. - less a prayer or 'protest song' here, more a 'perhaps song'.
The band display all the richness and joie de vivre that is the underlying spirit of these well-worn songs. Bruce and the band honour the integrity of the original and traditional versions of these songs whilst bringing his signatures and respect to the whole proceedings. There's little more any band member could do to the way these songs have been handled, such is their accomplishment and satisfactory nature. There's also a DVD for when you can't kick the dirt yourself with a worse for wear Bruce.
