We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions / American Land Edition [CD+DVD]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
The premise was simple. Bruce Springsteen invites a dozen or so New York City musicians--packing banjos, fiddles, accordions and the like--to his New Jersey farmhouse for a three-day hootenanny and leaves the tape rolling. The results are sublime, his 21st album featuring their versions of songs harvested from Springsteen's dog-eared LPs by Pete Seeger. Not all written by Seeger, the songs are how the American folk icon interpreted them, and these organic recordings, with no rehearsals or overdubs, pay tribute with the simplicity and spontaneity he intended. It's not hard to link Springsteen's dissatisfaction with American politics to the protest song "We Shall Overcome" or even the Irish ballad "Mrs McGrath," where he alters the lyrics to read, "I'd rather have my son as he used to be/Than the King of America and his whole navy." But the beauty of these Seeger Sessions are pieces that underscore the mood of the bandleader, which borders on down-home amusement: the bluegrass outlaw ballad "Jesse James," the Dylanesque "Pay Me My Money Down" and the euphoric "Jacob's Ladder," a gumbo-and-whiskey-fueled romp that could pass for the closing hymn at the Church of Asbury Park. --Scott Holter

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-05-12 rating:
Come back Sandy Denny
If, as I suppose, the main purpose of these reviews on Amazon is to orient prospective purchasers, then I had better warn all you die hard Bruce fans that you will be wasting your time if you read the following. My comments are aimed at the not so committed who, for example, rate "Tunnel Of Love", "Born To Run" and a few other albums but can take or leave a lot of his output for a variety of reasons. The main one being of course that he never lived up to the hype.
I am convinced that if some less well know musician had wanted to do this project they would have been turned down. There must be quite a few bands out there across the USA who on any given Friday or Saturday night are belting out these same songs and have always done so and will forever continue to do so. These are NOT songs in danger of oblivion (one of the reasons Springsteen offers for recording them).
The singing is raucous and insensitive; totally monochrome. Most of it is just a load of shouting.
The musicians are ok. But that's all and don't let the blurbs fool you: watch the accompanying DVD and then tell me if you really believe it was all such a great, free wheeling happy time as it was supposed to be.This is a load of unnecessary hoakum not very well done. No wonder it became available everywhere so soon for a fraction of the original asking price.
Pete Seeger fans, by the way, don't look for his originals because you'll only find two of them here despite the title.
The "future of rock and roll"? Yes,well. As a truly original musician once said,
"The past sure is tense."

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review by: date: 2007-09-05 rating:
Seeger sessions
This is such a good album. You cannot help but tap your feet along with each song and come off finishing the album with a big grin on your face It is good, simple, fun music. I love that you can hear the songs actually being performed and developing rather than a sterile studio album and it seems pretty obvious that a lot of fun was had making this music. The DVD is great to watch to soak up the atmosphere the music was played in and to see the group interaction. Bruce seems to be getting better and better and this is no exception.

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review by: Steve date: 2007-07-28 rating:
A very satisfying non-E Street Bruce product
After about the fifth person has come to me recently saying "I'm not a Springsteen fan at all, but I really like that Seeger thing" it tells you all you need to know. When I heard the rumours before it was released - folk album, Pete Seeger, banjo's, recorded on his ranch....it was quite depressing....until you put the record on.

Its not often you can put a Bruce CD on at a party either. I tried it the other day and there was a room full of tapping feet.

Top quality stuff!

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review by: gza date: 2007-04-06 rating:
Wonderful, exhilarating - still definitely Springsteen and yet very different
This is a fantastic album of old folk standards given a faithful rendition from Springsteen the devotee but with that distinctive Springsteen treatment as well, and it works a treat on every single track.

If you don't like folk music - it's all fiddles and banjos (a friend described it as "a bit lumberjack-y"!) - you won't enjoy it, but there is a zest and joy to these songs that is exhilarating.

It comes from the spirit of the old songs themselves, Springsteen's infectious enthusiasm and passion, and from the genuinely improvised vibe of the performances: you hear the man himself instruct the musicians on whose solo he'd like next, and you can watch him do so on the accompanying DVD. (For a non-musician music fan like myself, eeing how the songs were arranged on the DVD was instructive, and fascinating.)

But for me the real thrills come from the brass section that adds a fabulous extra layer and flavour. According to reviews I've read, Springsteen was astute and knowledgeable enough to notice that when Pete Seeger was living and playing his folk music in New York in the 1920s and 1930s that big-band jazz would have been playing in venues nearby, and so he added trumpet and trombones to the fiddles, banjos, mandolin and honky-tonk piano. The blend is magical. When they blow hard for the first time on, for example, "Jacob's Ladder" - heralded with big cymbal crashes - the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, every time. The result is a fabulous hybrid big band/folk knees-up.

There isn't a duff track on the CD, and the extra DVD of the recording sessions is great. Plus, buy this version, as you get 5 extra tracks and some live concert footage that isn't on the original release (why, I don't know - was Springsteen himself in on this rip-off? I hope not.) One of these extra tracks is an old Vietnam protest song updated for the Iraq war called "Bring 'em home" (i.e. 'our' boys and girls in the armed forces). Unfortunately, neither of Springsteen's two specially written new verses explain how this policy will help the poor, innocent Iraqis caught up in the politicians "testing their grand theories"...

Tremendous stuff. They don't make 'em like this anymore. Trust Springsteen to breathe new life into old songs.



review by: date: 2007-02-19 rating:
Don't weep no more
Like a lot of Bruce fans, I suppose, I hesitated before buying this one. How wrong I was. This is a marvellous collection of songs and possibly Bruce's best CD outside his vintage period of 1975 to 1985 and the outtakes album Tracks. Relieved of songwriting duties, Bruce sounds like a man reborn, rattling through a host of varied, traditional classics. The CD has some echoes of his other work, Pay Me My Money Down and John Henry's Hammer a bit like some of his early-80s work, the poignant Mrs McGrath a little reminiscent of the Ghost of Tom Joad. Oddly, it's the songs least like the bulk of his work that are perhaps the very best here, with Eyes on the Prize and O Mary Don't You Weep wonderfully inspirational. On the other hand, hearing Bruce belt out John Henry's Hammer and the Erie Canal is also an absolute joy.

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