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Springsteen has job security in Seeger |
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Written by Knight Ridder
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Wednesday, 21 June 2006 |
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Larry Eagle got a nice jolt of job security — on a pretty cool job — last month in Milan, Italy.
As the drummer for Bruce Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions Band, Eagle had been on the road with the “Boss” for three weeks, performing material from the rocker’s recent record of vintage folk and Americana, “We Shall Overcome.” It had been a venture into the unknown for Eagle and his 16 fellow players; nothing had been certain but that the ad hoc band would perform through June.
“We were onstage when Bruce said something at the end of the show, in Italian, and the audience went crazy,” Eagle recalls. “The rest of us looked at each other in confusion, and he translated it for us: “We’ll be back in the fall.’ That’s when we knew this tour would continue, and we’re just enjoying it every day as we go along.”
For Eagle, it was the latest in a series of surprises from Springsteen.
“We Shall Overcome,” featuring performances of songs popularized by folk hero Pete Seeger, had itself started as a set of loose jam sessions at Springsteen’s New Jersey studio late last year. The material was pegged for release as a proper album only after a second session in January produced another batch of fruitful results.
Eagle and the other studio participants were invited aboard for a run of touring that would kick off in April in the vaunted Springsteen territory of Asbury Park, N.J.
As Springsteen rolls into a third month of touring, “We Shall Overcome” stands as something of a stealth triumph for the 56-year-old musician. The album’s rousing, organic renditions of American standards and activist anthems — “John Henry,” “Eyes on the Prize,” “Old Dan Trucker”— seem to have won over die-hard fans who were initially skeptical about Springsteen’s latest musical maneuver.
At the heart of the Seeger Sessions Band is violinist Soozie Tyrell, a longtime Springsteen compatriot who helped round up many of the participating musicians. Those include Eagle, whose Cajun-zydeco band the Gotham Playboys was recruited by Tyrell to play Springsteen’s birthday party in September 1997. That job turned into a three-hour jam and an invitation to join a recording session the next month, where the rocker was cutting a track for a Seeger tribute album.
Springsteen may be famous — and infamous — as one of rock’s great perfectionists, but the Seeger Sessions tracks reflected a new kind of approach for the meticulous craftsman. Eagle points out that “we spent less time recording this entire album than he spent recording the one song ‘Born to Run.’ It’s a warts and all kind of project.”
Eagle says he’s having the time of his life, traveling with what he describes as an amiable and accessible Springsteen backstage, traipsing a broad field of musical styles out front. As drummer, he plays a pivotal role in steering the band. | Only registered users can write comments.
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