[Rmz76]

Bruce Springsteen's Broadway show has been released to CD and to music streaming services as of yesterday. If you are a fan of Springsteen as a writer this is a must listen! If you're more a fan of the total package that is Springsteen with E Street then you may be a bit let down. There is no fancy guitar work on this release. The songs are performed solo. Alternated on piano and acoustic guitar. All solo performance aside from a vocal duo (as you may have guessed). The play style rough, mostly hammered out open chords. Played under Springsteen's aging, raspy voice; belting out his tales of his life and of American life through his eyes.

It's beautiful. I couldn't even make it through the second song introduction (My Hometown) without tearing up and that continued because so much of what he was saying resonated and because I realize what an incredible gift he has to be able to absorb so much and give it back in lyric and melody.

Music's first purpose is to entertain us. To make our hearts pump faster and or toes tap. To pull us into somewhere else for a few minutes and give us that escape. When artist want to try and take their music beyond that the audience defenses tend to go up. If they preach too hard, get too specific or make a shallow case for whatever point they are trying to get across in this sacred time we're allowing them to entertain us, it falls apart and they are labeled as too preachy, a pretender, etc... The ones who can do it well usually carve out a niche for themselves as the political folk singer in the vein of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. A certain group of people love that music and no one else ever wants to hear it.

The difference with Springsteen is that he has done it all. From the intentfully fun and shallow pop hit to the deep introspective songs that just might make a dent in your world view. Songs like My Hometown, The Rising and The Ghost of Tom Joad (all featured on this album) are examples. They don't preach or get over the top political. There is no pretension in the lyrics. The perspective is from a humble observer and in that perspective and through glimpses sprinkled through his entire catalog of work, I think we find the heart of the man.

I have a long list of favorite Singer-Songwriters, some of them I really love and could listen to for hours, but I also realize their body of work boils down to a collection of heart break love stories. Craftily written to keep me coming back for more, but also perhaps revealing an incredibly one dimensional, self-centered artist. Springsteen's work reveals the opposite. Through the years he has absorbed all the joy and pain of his environments. His songs often document that history not just from his perspective but also lyrics that take us behind the eyes of his family and friends to important points in history. I believe this is what separates literature from great fiction. One leaves its mark that future generations a hundred years from now can look back on and gain a little understanding of what was being felt. I don't think an artist can have a bigger accomplishment than that.