Bruce Springsteen Unveils Previously Unheard ‘Repo Man’ Studio Recording

Bruce Springsteen continues to roll out material from his upcoming Tracks II: The Lost Albums collection, arriving June 27 via Sony Music. The latest, “Repo Man,” previews the previously unreleased album, Somewhere North of Nashville.

Tracks II contains seven “lost” albums. So far Springsteen has shared songs from LA Garage Sessions ’83 (“Rain in the River”), Streets of Philadelphia (“Blind Spot”) and Faithless (title track).

“Repo Man” belongs to Bruce’s unreleased album, Somewhere North of Nashville, “inspired by the sounds of honky tonk, rockabilly and uptempo country,” as per a press release. Springsteen recorded the LP at the same time he captured his 1995 record The Ghost of Tom Joad.

“What happened was I wrote all these country songs at the same time I wrote ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad,'” Bruce noted. “Those sessions completely overlap each other. I’m singing ‘Repo Man’ in the afternoon and ‘The Line’ at night. So the country record got made right along with ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad.’ ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ got me connected to my socially conscious or topical songwriting. So that’s where ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ came from. But at the same time I had this country streak that was also running through those sessions and I ended up making a country record on the side.”

Somewhere North of Nashville saw Bruce working with a core group including E Street Band members keyboardist Danny Federici and bassist Garry Tallent as well as renowned session drummer Gary Mallaber. Marty Rifkin adds pedal steel while E Street Band touring member Soozie Tyrell provides fiddle.

The material for Somewhere North of Nashville was cut live with the full band in much the same way as Born in the U.S.A. The record contains two tracks intended for U.S.A., “Stand On It” and “Janey Don’t You Lose Heart.”

Preview Somewhere North of Nashville with the country-rocker “Repo Man” below:

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band kick off the final leg of their The Land of Hope & Dreams Tour tonight (May 14) in Manchester, England. Scroll down for the full itinerary and ticket info.