SPRINGSTEEN: SEEGER TOUR

US TOUR ANNOUNCED FOR BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WITH THE SEEGER SESSIONS BAND
CONCERTS TO BE AN ALL NEW EVENING OF GOSPEL, FOLK AND BLUES
EUROPEAN DATES SELL OUT AT UNPRECEDENTED SPEED

Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band

A U.S. tour has been confirmed for Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band. Following the band's initial U.S. date in New Orleans on April 30, and a series of ten concerts in Europe, the U.S. tour resumes with a series of 18 shows kicking off in Boston on May 27, and finishing in New Jersey on June 25. Each night, an all new evening of gospel, folk, and blues will be presented by Springsteen with the 17-member Seeger Sessions Band.

Tickets for the European tour dates have all sold out swiftly. Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band sold out London's Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in ten minutes, The Manchester Evening News Arena in six minutes, and Amsterdam's Heineken Music Hall in just four minutes, all unprecedented. Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany also sold out in a matter of minutes. Legendary promoter Harvey Goldsmith said, "We announced Bruce Springsteen's concerts in the UK at 9.00 a.m. on Friday 7 April. By 9:10 a.m. both shows had sold out. This is the fastest selling show ever in Manchester."

In addition to Springsteen on vocals, guitar and harmonica, the U.S. tour dates for the Seeger Sessions Band will comprise the following lineup: Sam Bardfeld (violin), Art Baron (tuba), Frank Bruno (guitar), Jeremy Chatzky (upright bass), Larry Eagle (drums), Charles Giordano (accordion, keyboards), Curtis King (vocals), Greg Liszt (banjo), Lisa Lowell (vocals), Eddie Manion (sax), Cindy Mizelle (vocals), Mark Pender (trumpet), Marty Rifkin (pedal steel guitar), Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone), Patti Scialfa (vocals), Marc Anthony Thompson (vocals) and Soozie Tyrell (violin).

In Springsteen's note from We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, the musician describes the music on the album. He writes, "It was a carnival ride, the sound of surprise and the pure joy of playing. Street corner music, parlor music, tavern music, wilderness music, circus music, church music, gutter music, it was all there waiting in those old songs, some more than one hundred years old. It rocked, it swung, it rolled. It was a way back and forward to the informality, the freeness and the eclecticism of my earliest music and then some."

COLUMBIA RECORDS TO RELEASE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN'S WE SHALL OVERCOME: THE SEEGER SESSIONS ON APRIL 25

Columbia Records will release Bruce Springsteen's twenty-first album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, on April 25. The album features Bruce's personal interpretations of thirteen traditional songs, all of them associated with the legendary guiding light of American folk music, Pete Seeger, for whom the album is named. Speaking of the origins of the new music, Springsteen said, "So much of my writing, particularly when I write acoustically, comes straight out of the folk tradition. Making this album was creatively liberating because I have a love of all those different roots sounds... they can conjure up a world with just a few notes and a few words."

Springsteen recorded the album with a large ensemble. The musicians on the record are Springsteen (guitar, harmonica, B3 organ and percussion), Sam Bardfeld (violin), Art Baron (tuba), Frank Bruno (guitar), Jeremy Chatzy (upright bass), Mark Clifford (banjo), Larry Eagle (drums and percussion), Charles Giordano (B3 organ, piano and accordion), Ed Manion (saxophone), Mark Pender (trumpet), Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone) and Soozie Tyrell (violin). Lisa Lowell, Patti Scialfa, Springsteen, Pender, Tyrell, and Rosenberg contribute backing vocals.

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions will be released in DualDisc format, with the full album on one side of the disc and DVD content on the other side. The 30 minute video side of the DualDisc contains extensive behind the scenes footage of the recording of the album. In addition, the DualDisc will contain two bonus tracks, special artwork, and a note from Springsteen.

Springsteen is planning a short tour in the U.S. and Europe to accompany the release of the album. He will be appearing with most of the musicians who appeared on the CD. Details will be announced separately.

According to Springsteen's longtime manager Jon Landau, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions has a lightness and ease to it, a sheer joyfulness, that makes it very special from top to bottom. Bruce has taken a core group of classic American songs and transformed them into a high energy, modern and very personal statement."

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions Track Listing
Old Dan Tucker
Jesse James
Mrs. McGrath
O Mary Don't You Weep
John Henry
Erie Canal
Jacob's Ladder
My Oklahoma Home
Eyes On The Prize
Shenandoah
Pay Me My Money Down
We Shall Overcome
Froggie Went A Courtin'

Bonus Tracks:
Buffalo Gals
How Can I Keep From Singing

http://brucespringsteen.net/

[Published on: 4/18/06]