Source: Associated Press

Rocker Bruce Springsteen Honors Folk Music Legend Pete Seeger With New Album

03-02-2006 9:14 PM

LOS ANGELES -- Pete Seeger will have an extra gift when he celebrates his birthday this spring: a new album by Bruce Springsteen that was inspired by the folk music legend.

"We Shall Overcome/The Seeger Sessions" is scheduled for release April 25, Columbia Records announced Thursday. Seeger, the dean of American folk singers, turns 87 on May 3rd.

The album will feature Springsteen's interpretations of 13 traditional folk songs that have been associated for decades with Seeger. Among them are "Jessie James," "John Henry," "Jacob's Ladder," "Shenandoah" and the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome."

The rocker said it shouldn't come as a surprise that he chose folk music for his first album of cover songs. Much of his own writing, he said, "comes straight out of the folk tradition."

"Making this album was creatively liberating because I have a love of all those different roots sounds," Springsteen said. "They can conjure up a world with just a few notes and a few words."

Columbia said Springsteen plans a short U.S. and European tour to accompany the album's release. Dates will be announced later.