Bruce Springsteen - The Seeger Sessions

Picked up the album over my lunch break. The first four songs are excellent!!! This is not a traditional rock album, and it was not recorded with Bruce's E Street Band. However, if anyone has heard that this is a "folk" album and are expecting it to sound like Bruce's more somber efforts, such as (the excellent) Nebraska, Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils & Dust, they would be sorely mistaken. This is (so far) a raucous, upbeat take on traditional songs with a huge band, and the beginning has almost a carnival-ype atmosphere. The fourth song on the album, Mary, Don't You Weep, was great. I did not want to leave my car to go back to work. However, my evening is now happily booked as I plan to play the album from start to finish (at least once) and, over time, drive my family crazy by getting fixated on the latest Bruce cd (as I'm wont to do).

Obviously, a number of caveats apply. I am an unabashed Springsteen fan and, at the moment, only have had a chance to listen to the first four songs. However, based on early impressions, this is a really fun album that is likely to appeal well beyond Bruce's traditional fan base. Now I'm really psyched to see him, again, live in a couple of months.

Mike