Back in 2022 Ace Records released Ladies Sing The Boss which, as the title suggests, featured artists like the Patti Smith Group, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and Bettye Lavette serving up their interpretations of classic Bruce Springsteen songs.
That compilation was compiled by Sean Rowley who now returns with Springsteen’s Country, where artists including Johnny Cash, Travis Tritt, Kenny Chesney, Neat Coty, Sonny Burgess shine their own light into Springsteen’s songwriting attic to offer up their own unique interpretations.
It’s a fantastic collection of songs that reveal not only the skill of Springsteen as a songwriter, but how those songs can be revitalised by being framed in a different musical setting.
Over the last five decades Springsteen’s songwriting has intertwined with all forms of American roots music, including the broad sweep of genres represented on this album, from country to folk to Americana, bluegrass to rockabilly. But, the influence of these musical forms on Springsteen was not that obvious when he first appeared on the scene.
This influence started to bear fruit on some of the songs written for his fourth LP, Darkness On The Edge Of Town released in 1978. Even the chord progressions were much simpler, more country. Then came ‘The River’ and ‘Wreck On The Highway’, both in 1980, which saw him interpolating lyrics from Hank Williams’ songs (a trick he repeated on ‘Mansion On A Hill’ and ‘Born In The USA’). By the time he got to Nebraska (1982), country music tropes were woven into the core of his writing and would connect to much of his catalogue thereafter.
Springsteen also started to perform Williams’ songs live, adding Johnny Cash to the mix. He’s scattered other country classics in sets over the years − Ernest Tubb’s ‘Waltz Across Texas’, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ ‘The Ballad Of Jed Clampett’, Red Hayes’ ‘A Satisfied Mind’, Nanci Griffith’s ‘Gulf Coast Highway’ − and, more recently, a blinding version of Glen Campbell’s ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’.
Part of the appeal of country music for Springsteen was that it was provincial like him. He was neither sophisticated, bohemian or a hipster. He has described himself as, “an average guy with an above-average gift. And I worked my ass off on it… country was about the truth emanating out of your sweat, out of your local bar, your corner store. It held its gaze on yesterday’s blues, tonight’s pleasures, and maybe on Sunday, the hereafter.”
This compilation shows the lasting impact Springsteen has made on the country music community, but it’s not only his songs that cut through. There’s something in his persona that connects and he’s been almost elevated to the stuff of country legend. Blue-collar, hard-working, integrity, heart on his sleeve, the myth of Springsteen is just sometimes too good to be true.
