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Bruce Springsteen celebrated the American Semiquincentennial – the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – and the upcoming opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music with a performance Thursday evening at the “Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us” concert at the OceanFirst Bank Center in Monmouth, New Jersey. Featuring: Roseanne Cash, Kenny Chesney, Shemekia Copeland, the Dropkick Murphys, Valerie June, Keb’ Mo’ and Trombone Shorty.
The house band was Little Stevens Disciples of Soul; Bob Santelli, director of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, hosted the evening. Springsteen, who wrapped up his politically charged “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour on March 30, watched much of the concert from the audience before taking the stage toward the end of the night.
He opened his performance with a duet with Roseanne Cash: “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)”, a Woody Guthrie classic that he last played in 2021 when he won the Woody Guthrie Prize – although at that time as a Covid-related remote broadcast without an audience. He last played the song in front of a real audience in 1996 at a stop on the Ghost of Tom Joad tour in Fresno, California.
Woody Guthrie’s ghost in the hall
“What a night,” Springsteen said to fans. “This is a Woody song that could have been written yesterday, that’s how relevant it is – whether it’s Minnesota or Delaney Hall [das ICE-Abschiebegefängnis] in Newark. This is what’s happening right now.”
He then brought Kenny Chesney, who had performed Hank Williams’ “Mind Your Own Business” earlier in the evening, on stage for another Guthrie song, “This Land Is Your Land.” “This song is easily the greatest folk song ever written about our beautiful country,” said Springsteen. “Let’s just play it.”
“I knew Pete Seeger pretty well,” Springsteen told the audience near the end of the song as he encouraged the crowd to sing along. “I sang with him in Washington DC at President Obama’s first inauguration. Pete’s ghost is in this room tonight. And Woody’s ghost is in this room. Pete said, ‘A song isn’t worth anything if it’s not useful, if you can’t do anything with it, and if people aren’t singing along.’ I’m counting you in. Pete’s listening, Woody’s listening, I’m fucking listening.'”
Dropkick Murphy and Guthrie’s legacy
The Woody Guthrie theme continued as the Dropkick Murphys took the stage to join Springsteen in performing their 2006 classic, “I’m Shipping Off to Boston,” based on a lyric fragment frontman Ken Casey discovered in the Guthrie archives. “Aside from this being an incredible night for many musical, patriotic and protest-related reasons,” Casey said, “I would like to note that this is the first time the Dropkick Murphys have ever played on a carpeted stage… We dedicate the next song to the Guthrie family. The music is by the Dropkick Murphys, the words are by the one and only Woody Guthrie.” They then accompanied Springsteen on “American Land,” which he wrote in 2006 in the spirit of the Dropkick Murphys.
The finale was an epic version of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” where Trombone Shorty and many of the evening’s other artists joined Springsteen on stage. The piece was a firm highlight of the Sessions Band tour of 2006; Springsteen last played it at Jazz Fest in 2014.
The “Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us” event continues Friday night with a second and final show at the OceanFirst Bank Center. The program includes Jon Bon Jovi, Jackson Browne, Gary Clark Jr., Dion, Sheryl Crow, Nils Lofgren, Darlene Love, Public Enemy, David Sancious, Mavis Staples, Steven Van Zandt and Jimmie Vaughan. The Disciples of Soul are once again the house band – and Springsteen will definitely end up on stage with several of the artists.