Well, they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night. Now, they blew up his house, too... Well now, everything dies, baby, that's a fact. But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.
Those words and song penned by Bruce Springsteen and first appeared on his solo album in 1982 called Nebraska. I have noticed this song all over the place lately and spent a few hours perusing the intertubes soaking up anything and everything in it's wake. I've always appreciated Bruce's artistry and sheer will to keep the music going. Much of my newfound admiration came from his recent SXSW Keynote speech. I found his message simply powerful and started yearning for more which led me to the track "Atlantic City". This song has it all with love, life, death, money and the mob. What strikes me is how much this song has been covered by artists like: The Band, Hank III, Rodney Parker, Canvas, Sticks & Stones, The Hold Steady, John Anderson and so many more. I leave with a few videos from various artists on this track as I'm fairly sure this song will continue to come back.
I'm back, after a nice week of vacation. It's always nice to take a break because it makes coming back to do a show that much more refreshing and fun. Hopefully you guys will dig the new music I have in store for you this week!
- Gasoline AND Natchez by The Burning Angels (from The Burning Angels) www.BurningAngels.com
- Sometimes Wine AND Never Go To Town Again by Sunday Valley (AKA Sturgill Simpson & The High Top Mountain Boys) (from To The Wind And On To Heaven) www.facebook.com/SundayValleyFans
The Boss has been shaking up Austin town all week during SXSW making appeareances all over the place including the Austin Music Awards, SXSW Keynote and even a gig with Alejandro Escovedo yesterday. I just wrapped up watching all fifty-one minutes of his speech and found inspiration all over the place. I would highly recommend listening in if you have the chance. If you are at work, you may want to crank it down a little due to the F bombs then again you may actually want to turn it up more. It's up to you.
**Update -- not a shocker but YouTube has pulled this video which sucks but you are in luck as NPR now has it online:
I took off from doing a show last week, it was a short notice kind of thing. But thanks for coming back this week to see what I have in store for you. It's kind of a chill-out week for me, so we're just going to sit back, hang out with Boris, and listen to some great music.
No E Street Bandies (except for wife Patti Scialfa and several lesser known members), but Bruce and the assemblage—consisting of horn guys blowing Dixieland, guitarists, fiddlers etc.—make the mostly traditional tunes hop, skip and jump. Songs include John Henry, Erie Canal, Jacob’s Ladder and Shenandoah. The flip side is a DVD with a 30 minute movie of Bruce and the band. If you don’t like Springsteen’s over-the-top strut and style, buy something else; that said, he’s to be congratulated for turning what could have been a boring, pedantic exercise into a celebration. Will Asbury Park’s favorite son inspire another folk scare in the USA?
Bruce Springsteen
By Don Henry Ford Jr.
While some say an artist of Springsteen’s stature doesn’t belong in our
world, I beg to differ. Just because an artist achieves success in the
larger arena of popular music doesn’t mean he can’t or isn’t part of
the Americana movement.
Are we to throw out Johnny Cash, Waylon and Willie, Robert Earl Keen
and Pat Green because they too found success—make an exclusive club of
only those that fail to be accepted by traditional circles? Or are we
to invite them in where they belong and raise the standard—achieve the
credibility we desire? In my book all of these get included. Along with
the Johns—people like Mellencamp, Prine, Hiatt, and Fogerty. And maybe
a few others that don’t come to mind right now.
For my money there is no other artist that better represents what it is
to be an American. In Bruce Springsteen’s music you will find the roots
and branches and the soul of Americana music. A man that sees and feels
and breathes the spirit of our country; chronicles our fears, doubts,
triumphs and passions like no other.
The man may have been born in Jersey but I proclaim him an honorary
Texan, if he’ll have us. (I think he will too—a couple of the songs on
his latest speak of Texas.)
As I write this, Bruce’s latest, Devils and Dust, plays in the
background. The only word that comes to mind right now is great. This
one’s acoustical and has both a CD and a DVD on the same disc. It’s
soft, introspective and spiritual—the kind of album I suspect won’t
sell.
People looking for more of the hard driving sound he’s famous for.
Money isn’t everything.
Bruce Springsteen took me through some tough times. I don’t think I’d
be the man I am absent his contribution. In fact, I know I wouldn’t be.
I listened to him while I struggled with wild and destructive desires
of youth. I learned of love and hate and trust and deception and greed
and sharing while he strummed and shouted his way through life in the
background. He struggled alongside me and shared his experience with
his words and his music. Sounds like he still struggles a bit and he
still shares.
Bruce sees. The things most ignore. And then he raises the mirror and
forces us to do the same—to see what this country really is—a wonderful
country made of diverse peoples—but a country with flaws. Bruce teaches
of love and life and tears and joy and sorrow and pain, of doubts and
fear and balls-to-the-wall ears-laid-back plunges into life with
abandon. How nothing good comes without risk, and that to truly
experience the greatest blessings one must also risk tasting loss and
defeat, sometimes even destruction.
Bruce is not of the elite class. His songs speak to the common man—the
workers, the bikers, the cowboys, the soldiers, and the single moms,
women of the night, young lovers, even an outlaw in a stolen car.
Preachers, priests, homosexual lovers, saints and sinners—sometimes in
the same skin.
Bruce Springsteen is a model for what I hope the Americana movement should be about. Let’s welcome him in with open arms.
We have everything to gain if we do and a hell of a lot to lose if we don’t.
I am not going to waste a lot of time telling you about Bruce for we
all know the story. I just want to say thanks. You have been a big
brother to me.
