Bruce Springsteen

VIDEO: New Springsteen from upcoming Darkness Box- "Candy's Room" (live)

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Bruce circa 1978

While it garners far less attention (so far) than the double CD release of the Darkness on the Edge of Town outtakes, the DVD of the E Street Band performing the album in December 2009 at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park excites me.
They do it with no audience.
That allows allows the cameras to roam the stage in a way not available (or at least not unobtrusively) with a crowd watching.
On this first video – from the Rolling Stone.com site and newly released – my instinct seems correct.  Power.  Starkness.  And Steve’s minimalistic approach is revealed: he rips it up on guitar.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tap6gI7ZdU]

Springsteen joins Pittsburgh rocker Joe Grushecky for 23-song hometown show

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Springsteen and Grushecky on stage - from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Bruce Springsteen sweated like it was 1995.  That was the year that  Springsteen produced and played on Pittsburgh local rock legend Joe Grushecky’s album American Babylon.  It became one of Grushecky’s best albums, and Springsteen toured the bars as a guitarist in Joe’s band following the album’s release, in what they called the “October Assault”
On Thursday night, Bruce rejoined Joe for the first of two shows they are playing in Pittsburgh as part of the 15th Anniversary of that album’s release.  Thursday’s show was a 2 1/2 hour, 23-song masterpiece that included many from Bruce’s Darkness on the Edge of Town  album, which will see a boxed set re-release and outtakes coming November 16
Here’s a video of their live version of Springsteen’s “Save My Love”, one of the cuts from the outtakes portion of the new Darkness set. 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dptZn4uH4iA]
show review – Pittsbugh Post-Gazette
show review: Pittsburgh LIVE

VIDEO: Buffalo Springfield reunite at Neil Young's Bridge Benefit

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Over the weekend, Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello and Elton John, among others, played Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View, California. The highlight? A reunited Buffalo Springfriend performance – the first since 1968.  Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay were joined by CSN drummer Joe Vitale, who filled in for the late Dewey Martin, and Young’s longtime bassist Rick Rosas, who replaced the late Bruce Palmer.   
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMcOOHsWZy4]
FYI about the concert and Bridge School: Proceeds benefit the Bridge School, which assists children with severe physical impairments and complex communication needsm aiding in the use of advanced augmentative and alternative communication and assistive technology.

Read more…

New Springsteen "Darkness" Reissue Contains Intriguing Additions

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Though grounded in a rock and roll, with a healthy R&B/60’s Soul tradition chromosome, Bruce Springsteen was signed as a folk guy (at least that’s what Columbia Records thought they were getting). As successfully as any artist in modern music, has been able go from folk to rock to soul to pop without losing his ability to write insightful lyrics and embrace rock music.
But the record that has proven to be the strongest, most timeless work is 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town album.   It gets a newly remastered treatment (The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story, a 6 CD/DVD set, due out November 14) with a package that includes two CD’s of unreleased, new/old songs from the original recording sessions; a live concert video from 1978; and a making-of documentary – one that debuts at the Toronto Film Festival September 14, and on HBO in August.
I have the orginal CD in my car.  It’s a favorite on my iPod.  I can still remember the day in 1984 , going to the used record store in Hillsdale, Michigan, and coming out with a used vinyl version.  I still have it.
It a record that has some of Bruce’s meanest guitar playing, down-but still-hopeful lyrics and a core set of songs (“Badlands”, “Prove It All Night”, The Promised Land”) that form the heart of most of the band’s live shows.
He had to wait two years following the release of Born to Run before he could even get into the studio to record the album, because of the lawsuit with his management, and a judge’s injunction against recording with his new manager Jon Landau while the court case dragged on. 

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Roots Rock News: Todd Snider in NY Times, Bruce doc in September, Truth & Salvage Co. video

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A piece in the New York Times captures the essence of Todd Snider. I remember in 1996, seeing Todd and the Nervous Wrecks perform a sweaty blowout of a show at the Patio, and later that year, at the Vogue, and thinking then that he was pretty damn special. And I figured the road ahead to any mainstream success would be a long one. Truimphantly, he has persevered to create a solid spot for himself in the pantheon of Americana singer/songwriters. Viva Todd.
Read article here
Hear the BoDeans as they played both new and old music at Studio 92, in advance last week’s show at the Vogue. Brad Holtz chatted with them about returning to Indy, their new album, and writing “Good Things” in Bloomington. They played a set featuring “Idaho,” “Stay,” “Shine,” and “Good Things”.
Hear it on WTTS website
Americana songman Jethro Easyfields has two shows scheduled in Indianapolis on his birthday this Saturday. First, he is at Spencer’s Stadium Tavern from 7:00-11:00pm before hustling north for a rockin’ midnight set at Locals Only with his band The Arrowheads.
Wanna hit a show just south of Indy? Jennie DeVoe plays on the lawn at Mallow Run Winery in Bargersville Saturday night at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15 and available at the winery. Kids 12 & under are free. It s a blankets-and-lawn chair gig.
Truth & Salvage Co., who showed why they are a band to remember when they came to Birdy’s back in May, is taping Jimmy Kimmel Live on August 16. They have a Gap-related video from Bonnaroo that is pretty sweet. Click here to watch
And as has been speculated for more than a year, official word now arrives that confims Bruce Springsteen is working on completing a new package related to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town,‘ and it will include the new Thom Zimny film “The Promise: The Making of Darkness On The Edge Of Town.”
The documentary will premiere at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, according to Shorefire Media, Bruce’s PR people. The film reportedly has a ton of footage from the 1970s and has been rumored to have been in the works for a couple of years, as has a box set or re-release of the Darkness album tracks, plus some unreleased music from the sessions.