16. We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is an oddity in Springsteen’s catalogue. It’s a covers album, first off, and rather than something a longtime fan might expect from that description (like, say, a collection of the classic ’50s and ’60s rock and roll songs Springsteen often plays on tour), it’s a tribute to American folk singer Pete Seeger. Recorded off-the-cuff at his farm in 2006, the project actually has roots in 1997, when Springsteen contributed a cover of “We Shall Overcome” for another Seeger tribute. Returning to the idea nearly a decade later, it’s easy to regard The Seeger Sessions as an odd artistic indulgence that wouldn’t really resonate with fans — hell, Springsteen himself wasn’t even that familiar with Seeger at the time of his initial cover, let alone his fanbase. And yet, it was quite successful given its nature. It won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2007, and garnered a near-unanimous stream of positive reviews from critics (oddly, some of the most uniform praise of his ’00s output). It’s sold enough to be certified gold — which, you’d have to imagine, is a feat for any traditional folk album in the 21st century, even with Springsteen’s name attached.

The praise wasn’t necessarily undeserved. The Seeger Sessions is loose and fun where much of Springsteen’s ’00s output had been (and continued to be) meticulously considered and produced. The degree to which you enjoy it is beholden to your degree of interest in old-timey folk music, though, which is a blight that doesn’t seem to apply to any other example of Springsteen’s work. Even previous stylistic detours like Devils & Dust and Nebraska feel very much a part of the man’s overall career narrative, the latter of course being essential, and definitively still Springsteen in a way that just isn’t occurring here. So, despite the project’s warm reception and general success, The Seeger Sessions is ranked so low because it can’t help but feel like one of the most minor entries into the Springsteen canon. After all, there’s something telling about the fact that the accompanying 56-date tour was under-attended in America — in an era where Springsteen is still a touring behemoth when on the road with the E Street Band — and the fact that the whole era was reduced to two and a half pages in Peter Ames Carlin’s 2012 biography Bruce.

I also can’t say I’ve witnessed any fan become overly excited when Bruce occasionally trots out one of the old Seeger Sessions covers on subsequent tours with the E Street Band. That’s something best left to Live In Dublin, the live album that commemorated the Seeger Sessions tour. Most interestingly, Live In Dublin also featured multiple arrangements of his originals, made to fit with the DNA of the Seeger Sessions album and band. Some of these are excellent, invigorating old classics or more recent standard rock songs in unexpected ways. Despite the project’s roots in American folk music, there’s something distinctly Old World about some of these arrangements, namely “Further On (Up The Road)” and the incredible re-envisioning of “Atlantic City.” This is perhaps the most engaging lingering notion about the Seeger Sessions detour: the idea that within Springsteen there could be the capacity for a new path late in his career. That he could age out, eventually, into a mystic on the borders (not unlike how Dylan has reinvented himself as an ancient, apocalyptically voiced bluesman), and become a purveyor of ramshackle gypsy folk. For now, Springsteen can still bring the bombast though, which keeps We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions from transcending its status as a career footnote.