(10.06.06) Recommends:

Bruce Springsteen, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" and/or supplementary "American Land Edition" (Columbia, 2006).

Okay, so as a general proposition I find it obnoxious when a record label puts out a record and then a few months later re-issues the record with extra bells and whistles. However. I'm gonna bite my tongue here. While not recommending going out and buying both records, you need to have one of these records in your collection. Hands down, this gets my nod as 2006's Album of the Year. People who care about "traditional American music" (whatever that may mean) will have their jaws drop upon listening. People who do not care about "traditional American music" will begin to care upon listening.

Hopefully everybody knows the story by now: The Boss called up Pete Seeger's old band mates, invited them to his New Jersey farmhouse, they hung out playing songs for three days, and somebody had the good sense to record the whole thing. Over the last several years much has occurred to cause one to become embarrassed about being American. But be not so fearful: with this, it's again okay to be American. Somehow it feels like a middle finger simultaneously to politicians and to stupid fucking terrorists. I guess this is why we call him The Boss.