Bruce Springsteen Shows.

In my ongoing fascination with this modern-day voice of the American conscience that has felt subsumed by the politics of the day, I just found out that AOL Music and Bruce have worked out a way to see one performance from each of his shows in the United States during this tour. At the end of the 5-week stretch, he'll have posted 18 performances. We're actually also getting emails with exclusive tracks that he's recorded since the Seeger Sessions CD came out - including a touching version of "Bring 'Em Home" about the troops that was first sung about the American War in Viet Nam by Seeger.

Anyway - check out this link when you get a chance. Trust me, you may think that Bruce Springsteen is about something else - the "Born in the U.S.A." syndrome, as we like to call it, but even that song was something different from what people think: it was about a veteran returning to the U.S. after fighting a war, and being left out and forgotten. His later renditions of the song, acoustic, and in the mode of the Ghost of Tom Joad, approaches the true soul of the song. Radio play got it wrong (sorta like the overblown "Every Breath You Take" - what's behind the haunting melody and artsy video? Creepiness!).

So check him out. Use Napster's new free service (which I'm really loving, by the way - especially because my iTunes remains caput, and I almost always have a high speed connection with nothing to do with it).