Bruce is ‘Somewhere North of Nashville’

Photo Credit: Danny Clinch

One of the seven never-before-heard complete albums due June 27 in Springsteen’s mammoth Tracks II box is Somewhere North of Nashville, where honky-tonk and rockabilly rule. Clearly, Bruce was searching, and the result, at least on “Repo Man,” is rather revelatory (like how “Pink Cadillac” was also never on any album but now is a favorite.) “Repo Man” has that rebel yell. (You can hear it below.)

Recorded in the summer of 1995 at the same time as The Ghost Of Tom Joad, it’s almost as if that Ghost dug so deep in his soul—with its profound sentiment and subdued delivery—that he just had to bust out. So what better way to do so than to emulate the honk, raucous rockabilly and country shuffles. Keyboardist Danny Federici [1950-2008], bassist Garry Tallent, drummer Gary Mallaber, pedal steel man Marty Rifkin and fiddler Soozie Tyrell add their talent.

According to Bruce, “what happened was I wrote all these country songs at the same time I wrote ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad.’ Those sessions completely overlap each other. I’m singing ‘Repo Man’ in the afternoon and ‘The Line’ at night. ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ got me connected to my socially conscious or topical songwriting. So that’s where ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ came from. But at the same time I had this country streak that was also running through those sessions and I ended up making a country record on the side.”

LISTEN to “Repo Man” on Spotify / Apple Music