Album Review: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions by Bruce Springsteen

[We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions was released in the U.S. as a DualDisc, containing a CD on one side and a DVD on the other. The CD side merely contains the album. The DVD contains the album in PCM stereo (there's no 5.1 mix, although given the big-band nature of this session, this album would have sounded great in Surround Sound), along with two bonus tracks, the rollicking "Buffalo Gals" and the moody, soulful "How Can I Keep from Singing." Both bonus cuts are excellent and should have been on the album proper.

Full Review >>

Pete Seeger turns 87 in a week, and it's the revivalist and populariser of America's folk heritage rather than the folkie songwriter that Bruce Springsteen celebrates in his 21st and most family-friendly album. Here are 13 time-hallowed songs sung by Americans from the original frontier pioneers to the civil rights marchers of Kennedy's New Frontier, but no versions of If I Had a Hammer, Turn Turn Turn or Where Have All the Flowers Gone; Springsteen didn't get where he is today without spotting potential banana-skins. In addition, on the flipside of this Sony DualDisc, there are the bonus tracks Buffalo Gals and How Can I Keep From Singing, plus a half-hour DVD of recording sessions shot live and unrehearsed in the Boss's farmhouse.

Full Review >>