A trip up the west coast of Lake Huron a few years back took me one day to the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, Michigan. Sadly, I was a week too early for the glass-bottom cruises showing some of the shipwrecks there, but I enjoyed strolling through the museum that afternoon. (Don't worry, I was able to take a shipwreck cruise a few days later from Munising on Lake Superior.) One of the songs that kept playing on the Heritage Center's sound system that day was "Erie Canal" (aka "Low Bridge, Everybody Down"), a song written by Thomas S. Allen in 1905. It was sung by a raspy-voiced gentleman that I thought sounded remarkably like Bruce Springsteen.

On my way out, I stopped in the gift shop and asked about the song. Yes, the clerk said she knew the one; it played frequently throughout the day, but no, she said, they didn't sell the album it was on. She said she wished they did, since people asked about it all the time. But she was happy to tell me where to find it: It's on Springsteen's Seeger Sessions, she said, and she was pretty sure I could find it on Amazon.

So I did. I'm not by nature a huge Springsteen fan -- I enjoy his music well enough, but I don't often seek it out. But I ordered this one, and I'm glad I did.

Although the title -- We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions -- might suggest a collection of Seeger covers, that's not what you'll find here. Rather, the set list was inspired in 1997 when Springsteen recorded "We Shall Overcome" for the anthology album, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger. Here's how Bruce explains it in the liner notes:

Growing up a rock 'n' roll kid I didn't know a lot about Pete's music or the depth of his influence. So I headed to the record store and came back with an armful of Pete Seeger records. Over the next few days of listening, the wealth of songs, their richness and power changes what I thought I knew about 'folk music.' Hearing this music and our initial '97 session for Pete's record sent me off, casually at first, on a quest.

Springsteen, working with E Street Band violinist Soozie Tyrell, set up some jams with a bunch of New York City musicians -- fiddle, banjo, upright bass, saxophone, trombone, washboard, that sort of thing -- and they recorded all this music over three sessions in 1997, 2005 and 2006, set up at Springsteen's place. No rehearsals, just making it up as they went.

And it sounds great. It captured, as Springsteen noted, "the sound of surprise and the pure joy of playing." The music is mostly traditional and public domain stuff, the roots of popular Americana, much of it popularized by Seeger back in the day.

The album features "Old Dan Tucker," "Jesse James," Mrs. McGrath," "O Mary Don't You Weep," "John Henry," "Erie Canal," "Eyes on the Prize," "Shenandoah," "Pay Me My Money Down" and "Froggie Went a Courtin'," plus Bill Cunningham's "My Oklahoma Home," Seeger's "Jacob's Ladder" and, of course, "We Shall Overcome."

Oh wait, there's more, added for the reissue in 2006. Bonus tracks are "Buffalo Gals" and "How Can I Keep from Singing," Blind Alfred Reed's "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times & Live," Seeger's "Bring 'Em Home" and Springsteen's own "American Land." I'm not even touching on the 40-minute "making of" movie and the four videos from the live tour on a companion DVD.

It's a lot of material. And it is fun to listen to. Springsteen and his Seeger Sessions band -- there are a lot of musicians, too many to list here -- obviously enjoyed making this recording, and their love of music shines through. They're not afraid to jazz it up, either, with a joyful flair that keeps the music fresh.

This isn't your father's Bruce Springsteen, although arguably it could be your great-grandfather's Bruce Springsteen. This album gives the music new life, new potency, and it brings it to a new generation.

Damn, this is good stuff. Check it out.

NOTE: Be sure to check out Springsteen's Live in Dublin, too. It has a lot of the same material, from the session band's tour to Ireland in 2006.

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