kramdenfan

I just got this from the Springsteen mailing list:
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Columbia Records will release Bruce Springsteen's nineteenth album, 'Devils & Dust,' on April 26. 'Devils & Dust' features twelve new Springsteen songs.

'Devils & Dust' Track List

1. Devils & Dust
2. All The Way Home
3. Reno
4. Long Time Comin'
5. Black Cowboys
6. Maria's Bed
7. Silver Palomino
8. Jesus Was an Only Son
9. Leah
10. The Hitter
11. All I'm Thinkin' About
12. Matamoras Banks

'Devils & Dust' was produced by Brendan O'Brien, who first worked with Springsteen on the acclaimed CD, 'The Rising.' The new album was recorded at Thrill Hill Recording Studios in Los Angeles and New Jersey with additional engineering at Southern Tracks Recording in Atlanta.

Springsteen is planning a tour to accompany the release of the album. Details will be announced shortly.

* * * * *

www.brucespringsteen.net
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Woo-Hoo!! I can't wait!!

reverie

So is this sans the E-Street Band? I don't follow him too closesly, so forgive me if this is an ignorant question. I heard (or read) somewhere he wanted to work with them for awhile, or as long as he could maybe, because he realized that this would probably be the last time he'd be able to. Is there any truth to that?

Norm de Plume

I also hope he's with the E-Street boys. I prefer the Springsteen of "Born to Run" to the Springsteen of "Nebraska".

JLB

It's a Springsteen only album.....no E-Street band.....tour to target small venues and theaters and may be acoustic only, or with a small band....

abridged from backstreets

http://www.backstreets.com/news.html

Hollowgen

can the boss still handle it?

nightmaster

Sounds like a pricey ticket.

Gil Jawetz

I think I know that one.

Rypro 525

and something that would sell out in 5 minutes (if that) at small theaters

Flashback

I want the E St. Band as well. Solo Bruce is just not the same for me. But will keep an eye on it.

dick_grayson

good stuff. I can start saving up for tickets. Looks like the kids won't be going to college. Bruce needs the money, though.

paulringodaman

I've seen Bruce Springsteen with and without the E-Street Band (once for his "The Rising" tour in a large arena, and once at a John Kerry rally by himself) and I admit having the E-Street Band is much better, but his solo acoustic performance was fantastic and Thunder Road is much better played acoustically...Wherever he tours, I will be there!

Decker

Well good news/ bad news. I'm also an E-Street guy. But I'll take new Springsteen when I can get it. I doubt the tour will come here to Vegas, but if it does, I'm sure it won't be THAT pricey (at least compared with Billy Joel's upcoming "intimate" show at the Hard Rock -- $325 / ticket).

Ten years ago I lined up at a Ticketmaster (with a lot of others) for tix to Bruce's solo show. Right before 10 AM, the manager came out and announced that oops, they weren't going to be one of the outlets selling tickets for that show. They had already given out numbers! I was furious and called Ticketmaster. They couldn't help me out, but gave me advance tickets to another hard-to get show later in the year as an appology.

RonBoster

As far as tix prices, Bruce has always been reasonable in pricing his tickets the Jode Tour was no different (even though it was in small venues). This isn't like other retro rockers (Eagles etc) that charge hundreds of dollars for "gold" circle tickets.

Ron

PS: The only exception are the charity events, where the money is going directly to a specific cause-non-tour related event.

ViewAskewbian

Great News. I know I am a minority here but my favorite Bruce album is The Ghost of Tom Joad. I love his solo work and would certainly pay to see him alone with the guitar and hermonica. Bring on the Boss!

Gil Jawetz

Fixed.

ViewAskewbian

Nope, second favorite.

ViewAskewbian

Just heard the title track and it is an AMAZING tune. Reminds me very much of the Ghost of Tom Joad album which, as stated above, is my favorite. Here are the lyrics:

I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust

We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie
Home's a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust

I got God on my side
I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust

Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise

Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
The smell began to rise

We've got God on our side
We're just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

Now every woman and every man
They want to take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands

I've got my finger on the trigger
And tonight faith just ain't enough
When I look inside my heart
There's just devils and dust

Well I've got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a dangerous thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

ViewAskewbian

Early Review from UNCUT with track breakdown:
Every decade or so, Bruce Springsteen feels the urge to make a stripped-down roots album. It started in the '80s with Nebraska. Then in the '90s it was The Ghost Of Tom Joad. Now comes the third in the sequence with Devils & Dust, due for release on April 25. Laden with folk and country influences, many of the songs on the new album were written during the solo tour that followed the release of Tom Joad in 1995/96.

"I wrote a lot of this music after those shows, when I'd go back to my hotel room," Springsteen has said. "I still had my voice, because I hadn't sung over a rock band all night. So I'd go home and make up my stories."

The acoustic songs he'd accumulated were then set aside for an E Street Band reunion tour in 1999 and further delayed when the intervention of Osama Bin Laden compelled him to respond with 2002's The Rising. It's a history that gives Devils & Dust something of a time-warp feel, with many of the dozen compositions harking back to a pre-9/11 America and Springsteen singing about mothers and fathers, sons and lovers in a world in which global apocalypse takes a back seat to the everyman themes of faith, trust, dreams, hopes and fears - both lost and found.

"All the songs are about people whose souls are in danger or at risk. They all have something eating at them. Some come through successfully and some come to a tragic end," Springsteen says of the album's dozen compositions in a 30 minute DVD film that will accompany all copies of the CD. The film, directed by Danny Clinch and shot in New Jersey in February 2005, also features full-length solo acoustic performances of six of the songs on the album – “Devils & Dust”, “Reno”, “Long Time Comin'”, “All I'm Thinkin' About” and “Matamaros Banks”.

The album was recorded at Thrill Hill studios in Los Angeles and at home in New Jersey and produced by Brendan O'Brien, who also helmed The Rising. Musicians on the album include O'Brien on bass, Steve Jordan on drums and recent E Street Band addition Soozie Tyrell on fiddle, with further orchestration by the Nashville String Machine.

Springsteen will play London's Albert Hall on May 27/28, promising a solo set that will will focus on the new album, along with material from Nebraska and The Ghost Of Tom Joad, plus stripped-down takes on songs from The Rising.

Here, Uncut.co.uk exclusively offers a track-by-track preview of the album.

Devils & Dust
Starts of with just an acoustic guitar and gradually builds with the introduction of piano and strings into something more epic, while the line 'we've got God on our side' and a wheezing harmonica create a Dylanesque atmosphere. One of the few post 9/11 songs on the album, according to Springsteen it was written from the perspective of an American solider in Iraq : "What if what you do to survive/kills the things you love?"

All The Way Home
The oldest song on the album, written by Springsteen 15 years ago for a 1991 Southside Johnny album. The closest thing to a rocker on the album, albeit one that shuffles rather than explodes, with a hedonistic lyric about picking up a girl in a bar to a soundtrack of "some old Stones' song the band is trashin'."

Reno
The controversial one that has resulted in the album carrying an 'adult content' sticker. A simple acoustic guitar augmented by gorgeous strings underpins a lyric about a visit to a prostitute with explicit references to anal and oral sex.

Long Time Comin'
A delicious country romp and an infectious love song about a pair of lovers expecting their first child : "Lay my hands across your belly and feel another one kickin' inside/I ain't gonna fuck it up this time."

Black Cowboys
Led by a plaintive piano part, one of the densest narrative songs Springsteen has every written - five wordy verses with no chorus about the rite-of-passage of one Rainey Williams, growing up in the ghetto but obsessed with watching old westerns on daytime TV.

Maria's Bed
A carnal lyric about a typical blue-collar Sprinsgteen hero ("Been in a barbed wire highway 40 days and nights/I ain't complain'n, that's my job and it suits me right") set to an infectious, freewhelin' country stomp, complete with mandolin, dobro and fiddle.

Silver Palomino
Springsteen exchanges four wheels for four legs on a romantic Tex-Mex-tinged border ballad about a boy's love for his horse - and so much more.

Jesus Was An Only Son
Swelling organ, piano and backing chorus with a subtle gospel feel and a biblical lyric with references to Calvary Hill, Nazareth and Gethsemane.

Leah
Written before or after 9/11? It could be either. Mexican-sounding trumpet, lovely backing vocals and an insistent rhythm support a lyric of idealistic aspiration: "I wanna build me a house on higher ground/I wanna find me a world where love's the only sound."

The Hitter
Perhaps the album's most powerful narrative. With extraordinary empathy Springsteen tells the tale of a crooked boxer who's tasted success and then fallen on bad times against a potent but simple acoustic guitar
accompaniment.

All I'm Thinkin' About
Even a roots-based Springsteen album wouldn't be complete without at least one song about automobiles. A celebratory love song with a lyric populated by flat bed Fords and black cars shinin' and which rides buoyantly over an exuberant tune rendered as a jug band stomp with joyous falsetto vocal.

Matamaros Banks
A moody lament for a dead lover with a tune that sounds like it was borrowed from an ancient old folk ballad closes the album on a sombre note.

Gil Jawetz

He's on VH1 storytellers right now.

Laertes

Okay. Who's listened to it?

ViewAskewbian

I snagged it this afternoon. I'm on my third listen. A good balance of songs with some real powerful naratives. The Hitter is an amazing tune!

atlantamoi

I like Springsteen very much, but think the album is just average. Of course, I wasn't really blown away by most of "The Rising" either. I think the new one is a slight step down from "The Rising"... with about half the songs being fairly decent. Maybe I'll change my mind after some more spins, but I doubt it.

kramdenfan

So- I have to drive to Buffalo yesterday for a seminar (about an hour from me), and all day I'm looking forward to the drive, since one of my favorite performers has a new CD that's being released on the same day! On my way out the door, I go over to Circuit City and buy Bruce's new CD. With excitement I tear the plastic off the CD on the walk back to my car. I couldn't wait to hear it! The CD is a new format, called "Dual Disc," where one side is the audio CD, the other side is a DVD. Pretty cool, huh?

Because of this new technology, "The audio side of this disc does not conform to CD specifications and therefore not all DVD and CD players will play the audio side of this disc."


The fucking thing didn't play in my car stereo.



The whole way to Buffalo, I was able to LOOK at the CD. I'm ripping it to MP3 now so I can keep a copy in my truck.

pdutta2000

Just listened to it on my way to work this morning. Fantastic!! Title track is a winner. Looking forward to listening to it again on my way home. Albums like these are why people still love Bruce.

kramdenfan

yeah- I'm listening to it now. I really like it so far!