Customer Reviews

Pickin' on Bruce Springsteen

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For Picking on Springsteen Vol I, producer, arranger and performer David West was clearly inspired to reach beyond his typical cover project. And he's done quite a few. More than 50 in fact, a complete line of bluegrass and country tribute albums to popular musicians and bands such as Van Morrison, The Allman Brothers, Cat Stevens, Pink Floyd, The Who, Bob Marley, and Elton John, among others.

A consistent money-maker for CMH Records, these projects are the work of the California native and Santa Barbara resident, who besides playing guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass, and dobro - and thus capable of making the recordings all by himself - also calls on a huge cast of excellent studio musicians from nearby Los Angeles.

For this 1999 release, West chose to cover some of Springsteen's most popular anthems, ignoring the more obvious choices that might lend themselves to acoustic strings, such as material from Greetings, Nebraska, Tunnel of Love, or Tom Joad. That challenge appears to have brought out the best in his arranging abilities, which took him beyond typical bluegrass and into territory such as hot swing, with guitar, violin and clarinet trading leads on Cover Me, to the soft latin shuffle of Brilliant Disguise, featuring guitar and mandolin, with piano backing and pedal steel fills.

West also fiddles with tempo, slowing down Dancing in the Dark for melancholy effect, accentuated with a plaintive accordion on chorus. Prove it All Night is played at a tempo and intensity of the Darkness tour with mandolin and guitar trading leads, the banjo picking up the chorus, and all three joining in on fast-picking finale. And Born to Run really does run, with a banjo rhythm and brushes on the snare driving a chug-a-chug rhythm, like a train running down the tracks, with guitar and harmonica racing along sharing leads.

There are among the gems a couple of clunkers. The choice of violin for the chorus on Glory Days was inspired, but having to play at the original tempo strips the instrument and the song of its doleful potential. And the honky-tonk slide guitar on Born in the USA seems rather too obvious and too much like a cover band at the corner tavern.

West and CMH released a second volume of Springsteen covers in 2003 that is on the whole a less inspired collection than this first release. There is also a single volume Best Of disc collecting selections from both volumes. If you want to buy only one, go with Volume I.

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Those who think Bruce's music is above interpretation should get over it. Granted many covers of Springsteen songs are drivel, but some interpretations of Bruce's material is enjoyable. For the simple reason that I love Bruce's songs and I love bluegrass music, I love this combination. Call is "Brucegrass". In the end one can conclude that it is ok to have Bruce's songs sounding like Tennessee-slick blue-grass, or first rate elevator music, because afterall the musicianship is admittedly great, if a bit sterile. If you love Springsteen, you probably won't mind this collection.

This CD is the best BLUE GRASS MUSIC by PICKIN ON!

Born to Run is GREAAAT!!

At times, there is a very fine line between pure brilliance and utter blasphemy. Such is this collection. I think Springsteen could be the Whitman of the late Twentieth century, so to hear this collection just cracks me up. I have to let others hear it to get the pure brilliance/idiocy of the tunes. Like many bastardized Shakespeare adaptations, it, at the very least, proves the universality of the original works. Sadly, we miss the best part of the songs...Springsteens words.

Take it from a die hard fan: this album will provide you many, many laughs! It's a musical masterpiece that elegantly ... all the of passion out of Springsteen's music and effectively morphs it into understated and clever over-produced bluegrass. My favorite moment of this album is during "Born To Run". Right at the moment when we are all used to Bruce shouting "WHOA-OH!", these guys play the most laid-back blues slide you've ever heard. I near wet myself the first time I heard it. This is one of those rare collections of music that manages to walk the fine line between elevator music and masterful American musicianship.

This is the funniest thing I've ever heard. I was just looking on the internet for various Springsteen albums and I came upon this. I was completely suprised when I saw Springsteen described as bluegrass and when I listened tothe samples I started hysterically laughing. This is better than an episode of Seinfeld.