At the beginning of 2021, Bruce Springsteen said he wouldn’t tour until 2022 but told SiriusXM that he had a “big surprise” coming: Last night, he revealed the surprise: He has a record coming out soon that’s set in the West.
Springsteen speaks on the role that the state of California has played in his “most topical” songwriting, “The ’90s, the 2000s, and even now on a record coming out soon set largely in the West,” he explained. “So I got very involved in telling those Western stories through my work.”
He made the fan-thrilling announcement during a remote acceptance speech as the eighth recipient of the Woody Guthrie Prize, an award that goes to artists who honor and create in the spirit of the legendary folksinger.
Will Springsteen’s new project will pair with Western Stars, the singer-songwriter 2019 album that was largely set in California? The follow-up to that record was 2020’s Letter To You.
In accepting the award, Springsteen follows recipients Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Kris Kristofferson, Norman Lear, John Mellencamp, Chuck D, and Joan Baez. He pledged his appreciation to Guthrie and and said, “I’ve always said that Bob Dylan was the father of my country, but [Woody Guthrie] was the grandfather of my country.”
Previously, Springsteen has covered Guthrie classics such as “This Land is Your Land,” “I Ain’t Got No Home” and “Blowin’ Down The Road” during his live performances. He’s also admitted that his 1995 hit “The Ghost of Tom Joad” was directly inspired by Guthrie’s “The Ballad of Tom Joad.”
Springsteen’s music has been a magnet for covers lately. Recently, we’ve seen Marlon Williams and Lorde perform”Tougher Than The Rest,” and Waxahatchee include her take on “Streets of Philadelphia” in the deluxe version of her latest album.
