Good news for fans of loud, Springsteen-ian guitar rock and roll with intelligent, soul-grabbing, blue-collar, Lou Reed-ish spoken lyrics, majestic piano, and essential gritty rock that transcends easy classification. The Hold Steady is celebrating their Our Boys & Girls in America album, which turns 10 this year
From the band…
“we are very excited! We will be playing a limited number of live shows this fall to celebrate. Our old friend Franz Nicolay will be joining us. More info on the first few shows will be available Wednesday, May 18. Mark it on your calendar!
“One apology: The plan was that today was going to be the day releasing the precise info on everything. Unfortunately, some details with our co-conspirators changed and it required waiting two more weeks on the details.
“Also, we are finally reissuing Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday on VINYL this fall on Frenchkiss Records.
“Stay Positive! It’s about to get incredible!”
The Hold Steady.
Love that they are getting together with former piano player Nicolay, who lent a certain gravitas to their music and is associated with their glory days….
Springsteen
VIDEO – Bruce Springsteen – "Human Touch" – Live in Australia
Bruce Springsteen just wrapped up a month-long residency-of-sorts in Australia, touring from west to east, and finishing up in Brisbane on February 26 with what is being called one of his greatest shows ever: a nearly four-hour long set that swerved away from the setlist after the first song, and included a live, in-sequence take on entire 1973 album The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle.
But here’s the hidden secret: it was a few nights before, on February 23 at a place called the Hope Estate Winery, that Bruce blew the doors off “Human Touch”, a forgotten, 1990’s non-E Street song that, in the middle of a winery, captured his – and the band’s – skills, all in high gear. Start with what is at the end: a long, impassioned, rising, killer guitar solo. The song, in slow-burn early, builds slowly. Mid-song, check out how he waits. And waits. And waits some more for the right moment to kick it in after resting on drummer Max Weinberg’s 1-2-3-4 cymbal ride. Here’s the YouTube clip. How the hell does he create a rock and roll gospel-like firestorm at nearly every show? Don’t know, but the audience is blessed.
read more about the Australian shows
VIDEO: Bruce Springsteen – "Trapped" – Copenhagen
Terrific version from May 14, 2013.
Plug pulled on Springsteen in London
On a night that began with Bruce Springsteen jumping in during John Fogerty’s set to sing “Rockin’ All Over the World”, and ended with Paul McCartney on stage doing Beatles rave-ups, the show was killed a bit early for Springsteen, as someone with access to the on/off switch shut down his show at Hard Rock Calling Festival in Hyde Park in London.
Bruce had pushed well past the three-hour mark during his show with the E Street Band, headlining the Saturday night schedule in front of about 80,000. Curfew was 10:30pm and he was more than 10 minutes past the cutoff.
Up to that point, reports on the web say Fogerty had returned to duet on “Promised Land” and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello had joined for a trio of songs, supplying incendiary guitar solos. But the big surprise was when McCartney ran on to do “I Saw Her Standing There’ and a raucous “Twist and Shout”.
And here’s where it gets ugly.
After “Twist and Shout,”, as McCartney was leaving the stage, Bruce motioned the band back to their positions after a bow. They wanted to play one of the signature songs of the tour, the Clarence-remembrance “10th Avenue Freeze Out”. According to witnesses, Bruce tried to count off the song, but the PA had been shut down. Backstreets.com reported that “Bruce’s monitor engineer had to come on stage to advise that the PA had been cut off, though the stage monitors were on. Unwilling to just walk off without doing something else, Bruce sang a few lines of the folk standard ‘Goodnight Irene,’ audible only to those near the stage, before leaving.”
Santacular Christmas Countdown – #11 – Bruce Springsteen
“Merry Christmas Baby” – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Overshadowed during the holiday season by his cover of “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”, Bruce and the E Street Band grab a hold of the song by supplying a nod to their Jersey shore R&B roots. What makes this work is Bruce infusing the song with some of the same stop and starts, and musical breakdowns that work so well in songs like “Spirit in the Night” and “Out in the Street”. It’s really a snapshot of how they would sound in the early 80’s – though a little less gloss than the “Born in the USA” album had – that’s because it was recorded in late 1980 during “The River” tour. Great Roy Bittan piano. I love this version of the song. Not the greatest Christmas song ever. But if you want one of the most inspired live pieces of Santa Rock, turn this one up.
The song has been covered by Otis Redding, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Bonnie Riatt, Charles Brown and Hanson. The recorded version performed by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band was recorded live at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on December 28, 1980, and included on the Christmas album A Very Special Christmas, released in 1987.
Video from Late Night with Conan O’Brien from December , 2002.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kee7ZjvEcs]
Santacular Christmas Song Countdown – #16 – Rusty Bladen
You will notice, if you are a longtime reader, I throw in a fair amount of unsubstantiated opinion on my way to passing along facts. In reality, if you have read the blog posts over the past year, you already know – via these little nuggets of insight that roll out of my brain, into my fingers and onto the computer – what I like. And trust me, this has everything to do with the song at #16.
If you listed the six (I needed six – five wasn’t enough) musical sounds/songs/albums/artists that are the influences behind this here Rockforward site, it would read like this:
1. The trio of Mellencamp albums in the mid 80’s – “Uh-Huh”, “Scarecrow” and “The Lonseome Jubilee”. Anyone who is 35+ that likes the music we do should recognize how much these albums – especially “Scarecrow” – influenced tons of Americana and roots-rock bands and fans.
2. Tom Petty. Anything Tom Petty.
3. Those late 80’s bands that came on the heels of Petty and Mellencamp (including Gear Daddies, Uncle Tupelo, BoDeans, Del Fuegos, Georgia Satellites, Jason & The Scorchers, Lone Justice, and regional/Indiana artists like Larry Crane, Duke Tomatoe, The Hammerheads, and Henry Lee Summer. That is some and there are more ) Alt-country before they called it that. Heartland rock at the time.
4. Springsteen – for the majesty of the rock and roll, the brilliance of the lyrics, and the passion of the live show. And for the lineage to bar band rock and R&B (like the outstanding J. Geils Band)
5. Power Pop. I think Cheap Trick is woefully underappreciated. Rick Springfield’s “Working Class Dog ” album should be considered great power pop/rock. The Cars debut album is one of the best records in the rock music era. Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend ” record was killer. I saw the Romantics live at a bar in 1989 and they were loud, into the performance, and rocked hard, fast and righteously.
6. The current crop of bands that carry on the sounds: Bottle Rockets, Todd Snider, James McMurtry, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and Will Hoge among many more…
So that’s where I come from. And it leads to #16 on our countdown of 20 Christmas roots-rock songs. Indiana’s Rusty Bladen has been working for the past 20 years in the bars, clubs and parties throughout the state. I’ve known him that long, first meeting him when I was a radio jock down at WORX in Madison, Indiana – I was just out of college and had a Sunday night radio show and eventually did mornings for a couple years. He was just starting his solo career after a few years in cover bands. He now plays mainly solo live shows that are always high energy. His sound hits all of the influences I already cited. His writing is blue collar.
About a year ago, he released “Feels Like Christmas”, a holiday album of 11 classic Christmas songs and one original – the title cut. That’s the one we have here. Mellencamp drummer Dane Clark produced the effort, and made it all sound really good. A great country rock/heartland/Americana record. The record is simply my favorite Christmas album of all time. Overstatement? Nah. Listen to the album.
Here’s the song, with it’s fun, quaint, and homegrown video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2BFQCKHAdE]