Springsteen readies expanded ‘Seeger Sessions’
A revamped version of Bruce Springsteen’s recent tribute to folk artist Pete Seeger will hit stores on Oct. 3, according to Columbia Records.
Dubbed “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions – American Land Edition,” the updated collection–which contains a CD, DVD and 28-page booklet–will feature five additional songs, exclusive live footage, music videos and previously unseen photos.
The CD’s five new cuts include Springsteen’s take on the Great Depression-era song “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live.”
“This song was written by Blind Alfred Reed and recorded a month after the crash of ’29 that heralded the Great Depression,” Springsteen said in a statement. “I first heard it on Ry Cooder’s self-titled debut album (1970). To his arrangement we owe a debt. I kept the ‘doctor’ first verse by Reed then wrote three others with a mind to the great trials the people of New Orleans have faced this year.”
Rounding out the five additional tracks on the forthcoming set are “Bring ‘Em Home,” which Seeger penned during the Vietnam War, and to which Springsteen added several new verses; “American Land,” a song Seeger wrote after reading “He Lies in the American Land,” a poem by a Slovakian immigrant steelworker; and “Buffalo Gals” and “How Can I Keep from Singing,” both of which first turned up on the DVD side of the previously released DualDisc version of “We Shall Overcome.”
Fans who already own a copy of “The Seeger Sessions” won’t have to buy the “American Land Edition” to obtain the new songs, as each cut will also be sold individually via Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
The “American Land Edition” DVD will include behind-the-scenes footage of Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band recording “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions”; music videos of “American Land” and “Pay Me My Money Down” by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny; concert footage of Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band performing “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live” (from Los Angeles, CA, June 5, 2006) and “Bring ‘Em Home” (from Concord, CA, June 6, 2006); rare photos of Springsteen taken by Danny Clinch; and additional lyrics and liner notes written by music scholar Dave Marsh.
Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band, who in late June wrapped up a US tour behind “The Seeger Sessions,” will launch a European tour in early October.
In April, The Las Vegas Sun reported that guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt of Springsteen’s E Street Band, during a phone interview with Las Vegas radio station KKLZ-FM, said Springsteen and The E Street Band plan to tour next year.
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