[Dixielandjazz] The Boss is reviving folk (with a little Dixieland)

[Steve barbone]

Excerpted from the San Rafael, California paper. Is this a new trend in
"socially conscious" Rock & Roll? 100 year old songs and a "zany four man
Dixieland-style horn section"? As well as banjo and washboard?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

Boss' energy helps revive folk classics by Paul Liberatore

. . . 

Sweaty and full of adrenaline after his exuberant Tuesday night concert at
the Concord Pavilion (officially, and drowsily, called the Sleep Train
Pavilion), he was still too pumped to sit down. . . .

To put this scene in a larger context, the 57-year-old Springsteen
represents the socially conscious wing of rock 'n' roll. . . .

For his part, he modestly calls the project a happy "accident.". .  sent him
on a journey into the past, a quest into the trove of Americana music that,
as he put it, reflects "the vitality that it took to build this country." .
. .

"What I bring to this music is a sense of urgency," he said, looking me in
the eye. "It's like I'm saying to people, 'You've got to listen to this
music right now, right in the moment.' That urgency is my service to these
songs."

With some disappointment, he let us know that these all-American songs,
culled from our history and heritage, have been more enthusiastically
embraced when he performed them in Europe than in certain parts of the U.S.,
namely middle America.

As he has suggested, this attitude may stem from a disregard for the past
that affects the way this country behaves in the world.

"In places like Paris and London, people were jumping out of their seats for
American songs that are 100 years old," he said. "But in the Midwest, we're
having trouble selling tickets." . . .

"I'm going to do this again, maybe in the fall," he said. "There are
hundreds of beautiful songs just sitting there waiting. I like singing them
as much as my own."

That same wildly exuberant, 16-piece band - a zany four-man, Dixieland-style
horn section, fiddles, accordion, acoustic guitars, piano, drums, washboard,
banjo, stand-up bass, a bevy of backup singers - backed Springsteen Tuesday
night . . .

For an encore, he sang "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" as a kind of homage
to New Orleans, and told the crowd about the devastation from Hurricane
Katrina that he witnessed in New Orleans in April, when he performed at the
Jazz and Heritage Festival there. . .

Springsteen filled the 12,500-capacity Concord Pavilion. When he does this
again, as he said he would, maybe more Americans in other parts of the
country will be as eager to celebrate their past as he is.