Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band: Live in Dublin [Blu-ray]

Mix in hot jazz, a bit of gospel, blues, zydeco, bluegrass and country. Season with Bruce Springsteen and bake at high temperature in an Irish oven for what is perhaps the tastiest concert video of 2007.

This is not your anthemic, rock-til-you-drop, Born-in-the-USA Bruce. That energy is still there, but directed here into the American folk songbook, music written between mid 19th to mid 20th century and reflecting the concerns of the agrarian and working class, from the Oklahoma farmer of My Oklahoma Home, to the slave Old Dan Tucker, to African American dock workers of Pay Me My Money Down. This music was appropriated in the 1950's and 60's by politically active singer/songwriters such as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, and through them the music comes down to us in the 21st century through Springsteen.

Ten of the songs from the original 2006 Seeger Sessions disc are here, as are a handful of new numbers and songs from the extended Seeger Sessions release (How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live, When the Saints Go Marching In, This Little Light of Mine, American Land, Long Time Comin'), as well as new arrangements of some of Springsteen's less well-known songs (If I Should Fall Behind, Growing Up, Blinded By the Light, Atlantic City, and Highway Patrolman).

For long time fans the old songs in new-old clothes will be unrecognizable by the opening melody alone. It's not until Bruce starts singing that your mind begins racing to place that particular set of lyrics with a title. All of these newly outfitted tunes show some inventiveness, but the ones that worked best for me were If I Should Fall Behind and Highway Patrolman, quiet performances showcasing the lyrics, and Blinded By the Light, which like it's original rock incarnation is a wild, foot-stomping show closer.

In fact most of this show will have you tapping your feet and signing along. This is a joyous performance, and you can see that the musicians are enjoying themselves as much as the audience. If you have some room in front of your television, clear out that space and get ready to dance.

About the only downside to this release is that it's not a document of one evening, but a compilation of three. In itself that decision was not as critical as the one to delete all on stage banter, including song and band introductions, often one of the more enjoyable parts of any Springsteen show. The editing work is also noticeably poor at times with the action not in sync with the sound, presumably where the director chose to insert shots from nights other than those from which the sound was recorded.

Otherwise, this is a great DVD and watching it was the most fun I've had in front of the television in months.

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Roughly a year ago Springsteen surprised a lot of people when he released We Shall Overcome: the Seeger Sessions. A record that was not so much a tribute to Pete Seeger but more a celebration of American musical history. The record was uncommonly loose for Springsteen's standards, the song basically being the result of impromptu sessions. Musically the album mixed damn near every style in American folk music between New Orleans Gumbo & Blue Grass. A highly unorthodox style that would raise the eyebrows of purists but sounded catchy as hell. The song selection on the record went back hundreds of years but had a strong connection with today and Bruce's own catalogue.

Even before the album went on sale, concerts were announced and tickets were sold in Europe. Again, nobody quite knew what to expect from this evening of gospel, folk and blues performed by Bruce Springsteen & his 17 piece Seeger Sessions Band. Nobody knew what to expect but the shows in Europe sold out in minutes. I think few who went were disappointed.

Live in Dublin is a registration of what this tour was about, not necessarily a registration of the concert experience. The DVD clocks in at a mighty two hours, the shows were often pushing the two and a half. Some concessions seem to have been made to make the show fit on one disc. Concessions that'll no doubt bother a lot of fans. Two tour staples were cut from the set. John Henry and You Can Look were played every night, yet didn't make the DVD. A totally redundant track as Love of the Common People did, as a bonus. Springsteen has always made strange choices when it comes to releasing his live material and this is certainly one of them.

Despite those odd choices the Live in Dublin DVD gives you a pretty good sense off how good these shows were. The tour was in part a explicit political rally with anti-war songs as Ms McGrath or the New Orleans tribute How Can a Poor Man (stand such times and live). Yet most of the time its message was more subtle. Songs as Eyes on the Prize, a recast to the civil rights movement, or When the Saints Come Marchin' In served the same function, but in a more subdued manner.

The political issues that the tour tried to get back on the agenda weren't its greatest achievement by no means. The celebration of music was. Springsteen's own material fitted in seamlessly adapted to the style of the tour. Open All Night became a stomper in the style of Louis Jordan, Highway Patrolman revoked the images of Hank Williams, Louis Armstrong was omni present in the horn section and if you didn't know any better Jesse James felt like it had been in Bruce's catalogue since mid eighties.

The DVD captures all the musicians on stage in all there glory. Seldom did Springsteen give his band so much of the lime light. And during no tour he did before did the audience play such a crucial role. The band sung, danced and played with the audience. Pay Me My Money Down was sung minutes after the band left the stage, until they came back for the encores and even the most convinced atheist would belt out the words to Jacob's Ladder. The Seeger Sessions Tour was a celebration and this DVD brings it all back.

This DVD captures wonderfully the power and excitement of the Seeger Sessions band in concert. The band is just incredible, the performance over the top, high energy beyond belief, which boggles the mind at Springsteen's age.

Eyes on the Prize is stunning, Erie Canal runs a chill up the spine, Jacob's Ladder has never been more over the top, more joyful and exuberant.

And, the Bruce re-works of his own songs--Atlantic City, Further Up the Road, Open All Night, Growin Up, Blinded By the Light(and more)--are all incredible, in how Bruce once again completely re-worked the arrangements of each song.

That really for me, is what made the Seeger Seesions tour so special. In that, it is the first tour in a very long time where Bruce reworked so much of his own music, in so many different ways.

I watched this DVD about 5 or 6 times so far--on a home theater system it is just amazing! The sound is stunning! I would concede a bit too much jumping around with the camera--but not overly. And, it was a dark stage in Dublin, and for much of this tour, which does make for a bit of a dark picture throughout much of the DVD.

Aside from that, I would highly recommend this for fans of Bruce, fans of country music, ragtime, folk, gospel (there are some amazing gospel moments here!).

Really, I don't know how anyone who loves any kind of American music wouldn't appreciate the Seeger Sessions Band.

They are a joy to behold, living history.