Country covers of boss songs – reputations (just about) intact.
It seems an artist only needs a handful of well-received, reasonably successful albums, a couple of sold-out tours and a full spec entry on AllMusic to be gifted with the epithet ‘icon’ these days. Genuine musical icons, though, those who are widely revered for the way the substantial body of art they have created symbolises and encapsulates particular styles, times or values, are, in fact, pretty thin on the ground. One such icon, beyond question, is Bruce Springsteen. He is certainly revered – Steve Earle, of all fans, calling him out as “the greatest live performer that rock n roll ever produced”. He’s also renowned as the fundamental representation, an embodiment even, of the blue-collar, starry-eyed heartland rock that he just about invented. Status confirmed then.
As such, it is no surprise that albums compiling covers of his songs are plentiful – at least 17 spotted with very little effort! So, no matter your opinion on The Boss (icon status reaffirmed there), you know these songs. You probably have a view of them, one way or the other, as well. This makes it a tricky exercise putting together such a compilation in 2025, especially one that will make its point in any meaningful way. Compiling “Springsteen’s Country” then is an exercise in research, curation, licensing negotiations, etc., as much as it is a fundamentally creative endeavour. It’s not a ‘tribute’ album, nor is it assembled as a fundraising exercise like the monumentally magnificent “Silver Patron Saints”, a benefit for Jesse Malin aimed at raising cash for his medical expenses. So, we are left with a question hanging over the project: why? Let’s put aside the crass notion that it could have been for purely commercial motives and settle for the potential artistic ones.
Perhaps compiler Sean Rowley and Ace Records supposed that these songs shed new light on Springsteen’s songwriting and/or his position in the rock ‘n’ roll firmament. Maybe there was a belief that aligning Springsteen more directly and explicitly with his country extraction would add to our feeling for what country is and open our eyes to a host of new artists with a ‘Sprinsteenian’ vision. Conceivably, there was a simple, burning desire to put all these songs together because they just sound so damn good in this order, and they wanted us to hear just how good?
The thing is, though, we can’t help but hear these songs through the lens of our extant views and expectations of such an iconic subject, and it is impossible to escape these preconceptions when judging what we hear. We know Springsteen has a solid and respectful connection with country music; he’s covered songs, worked with artists, and (so it’s rumoured) even has an unreleased country LP somewhere in the vaults. He undoubtedly shares a ‘small-town everyman’ worldview with the genre, particularly the earlier stuff which has often featured in his live repertoire. The whole ‘three chords and the truth’ shtick fits his pitch as honest and authentic rather than urbane or bohemian. His connection with country is well established, and it is unambiguously articulated here, but listening to these songs in this configuration really tells us next to nothing about him (or it) that we didn’t already know.
So why not change the perspective and listen to this record as a compilation of country-adjacent artists covering some great blue-collar rock songs? Songs that espouse the dignity and travails of the working man which talk about joblessness, corporate gluttony and faltering governmental responsibility. Songs that arouse the ire of conservative commentators sufficiently to accuse their author of being “a reciter of shallow left-wing talking points“. These are serious songs that, in their original form, also revel in a certain guileless and warm-hearted widescreen sentimentality. They are open to possibility and generous in spirit, yet too many of the versions here exaggerate and elevate the more matter-of-fact mundanity that can often also be found in the originals. There is very little evidence of the righteous fury of what Springsteen calls his “critical, questioning, often angry sort of patriotism” to be had here.
Most of what is presented in “Springsteen’s Country” is perfectly serviceable listening, and occasionally, it offers joyously unexpected moments to treasure. Big hitters like Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris offer up ‘Johnny 99’ and ‘The Price You Pay’ respectively, neither of which is even their best Boss cover. There are full-on mainstream country versions – Kenny Chesney’s ‘One Step Up’ and The Mavericks’ ‘All that Heaven Will Allow’ (great as it is). John Anderson’s ‘Atlantic City’ sounds like a lost Band outtake, and Solomon Burke shifts ‘I Ain’t Got You’ from a gentle love song tinged with regret into an act of braggadocio celebrating unbridled hedonistic excesses.
As is often the way in the manner of these things, it is the lesser-known artists that take most of the plaudits on “Springsteen’s Country”. Jeff Stevens and the Bullets offer an unaffectedly exuberant version of Darlington County, Doc Walker’s chiming poppy take on ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’ charms and hearing Town Mountain’s rustic version of ‘I’m on Fire’ only raises the question of how we managed to get by without a bluegrass version of this song for so long. The recordings here span 28 years (1983-2021), yet best of all is the most recent song and version on the album. The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow, a collective of singer-songwriters from Massachusetts, recorded their version of ‘The Rising’ on self-released live LP “Recovered”. The record was a benefit to raise funds for local service workers during Covid, and their version is a raggedy, heartfelt thing that captures the spirit and emotion of the moving original with a dynamic and powerful, largely acoustic performance.
Their interpretation captures the essence of Springsteen, connecting to audiences with powerful live music and highlighting attention to regular people doing or trying to do good things. Such a textbook fit with Springsteen’s modus operandi only serves to further highlight the one real bum note on the record and what a clunker it is. This is a record of country artists doing country-tinged versions of Springsteen songs, so no issues with more mainstream acts like Chesney, Anderson and The Mavericks taking their place amongst the rest. However, the idea of having the odious, washed-up Trump championing hat act Travis Tritt anywhere near such a record is ridiculous. It may be an unlucky coincidence that as the LP is released, Springsteen’s Land of Hope and Dreams tour is traversing Europe, and we have PR emphasising his long-standing position as a champion of hard-working people the world over by sending out full transcripts of his recent anti-Trump stage tirades. Amongst these, Springsteen has observed that “… the America I love … is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration”, one that is “… taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers… siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.” He concludes by lamenting the lack of any effective opposition to “… the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government” who have “no concern for what it means to be deeply American.” So a pretty unequivocal position, then. One that is somewhat at odds with Tritt, who, after the election, crowed, “I’m so happy and proud of President Trump for continuing to fight, fight, fight!!! God bless America!”
Tritt’s presence is incongruous on a record purporting to highlight the lasting impact Springsteen has had on country music, emphasising his “Blue-collar, hard-working integrity”. The sleeve notes highlight the conservative right’s misappropriation of both ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘The Rising’, something that Springsteen has railed against on many occasions. It is too easy just to say that Springsteen is for everyone, especially when the position he currently takes would suggest otherwise. And before anyone gets on the ‘yes, but it’s just good music’ bandwagon, it isn’t. Tritt’s version of ‘Tougher than the Rest’ manages to be both self-importantly macho and bloodless at the same time. He entirely misses the point of the song: that toughness is about being able to be open and vulnerable in love, not some kind of pumped-up, alpha-male posturing. Women do this song so much better; just ask Tracey Thorne! Though given its absence from Ace’s previous LP of female Boss covers, they may well disagree.
On balance, then ‘Springsteen’s Country’ is worth a listen. There are artists that are unfamiliar and deserving of attention, and it does contain the best Boss cover version ever – The Beat Farmers’ rollicking overdriven romp through ‘Reason to Believe’. Worth the price of admission for this alone? You be the judge.
