Bruce Springsteen Tribute Comes To Glór

0:00Now, a spectacular celebration of folk music is coming to clear this June, the 20th of June, to be precise, as the Seager Sessions revival brings the sound and spirit of Bruce Springsteen's iconic Seager Sessions album to the stage at Glor on the 20th of June. Featuring a 13-piece band, high energy mix of folk, bluegrass, gospel, and more, the show pays tribute to the legendary Pete Seager, and to tell us more, I'm joined now from the Seager Sessions revival by Christopher Spear. Christopher, a very good morning to you. Good morning, Alan, how are you? Very well. Thanks very much for joining us. Look, people very familiar with Bruce Springsteen. Obviously, his Seager Sessions album, some of them might be less familiar, unless they're avid Bruce fans. It isn't, you know, born in the USA, but it's a really an album I have and really enjoy. An important tribute to Pete Seager. For those not familiar with Pete Seager, can you just outline from them what a legendary figure he was in the last century in the US in terms of folk music and much more besides? Yeah, as well as Pete Seager. Maybe it is

1:03big and vomit on the separate Pete's movement and that in the sixties. So it sounds like we shall overcome a lot of songs. People will know that they'll not like what either Pete Seager are. Bruce Springsteen, there was a lot of songs on the show with that, but I think they'll all know them, they'll know them when they hear them. So yeah, and I guess even people who might have seen the Timothy Shalame Bob Dylan biopic, you know, Pete Seager features in that as well. And, you know, you think of him, you think of the likes of Woody Guthrie. How important is his legacy in terms of what we then saw in the music that came in the sixties and everything that unfolded from there? Yeah, it means huge. It means huge in the haste of America. I mean, I think it's two or five years this year of America. It means it says huge in the American haste. I mean, so it lives on through into today and the sounds are relevant today as they've ever been.

2:09So yeah, it's very, very important music and we're just delighted to be able to keep it alive and rest in 2006 and that, but it hasn't done it since then. So we're delighted to be able to keep the songs alive and, you know, I remember people, people come to say them and to say they know the songs and so I think it's very important to keep it going. And Christopher, can you talk to us a bit about the genesis of this show? Why focusing on this particular part of Bruce Springsteen's discography is career where he paid tributes to another legendary musician who paved the way for the likes of him to come along later. What was it that, you know, you were spread you and others in the group or Springsteen fans and just particularly took to this record where you were aware of the significance of Pete Seeger already. How did it all come about? I suppose growing up, I mean, I always loved the album. I mean, it was always a big Bruce Van, Melco's a huge Bruce Van,

3:10but I mean, the straight stuff, but this was just so different. I mean, it's so linked to the Dexelan jazz from New Orleans and the sad kind of a field hit, the whole community thing as well, just a huge sound and it's just joyful music and there's big gospel influence to it. It was back in Covid, really. I always came to what I had in my back in my head that I would love to do something with it, or do something like it, and then during Covid, I mean, well, that would happen, the world stopped, so I came to, just to return, just contacted just musicians I'd played with or recorded with over the years and pulled the band together. I mean, that was kind of the start of it, but I mean, it's not a straight stuff, it's not a straight music, and I don't know what's only one album, and well, the live album and the album as well, but

4:14but I mean, it's so significant. It's not just one album, really. It's an era, it's a era of Bruce Springsteen stuff and not even just Bruce, as you say, it's the Pete Seeger, it's the whole American hesitate element around it. Yeah, it really harks back to almost like the roots of various styles of music that began in America, folk, bluegrass, gospel, and so on, and as you've referenced the legendary live show in Dublin that was turned into an album, and did you think it provided a service, Christopher, in terms of people who loved that short-lived part of Springsteen's career, you're keeping it going to the extent that you've even played venues where Springsteen himself has performed. Yeah, well, I mean, as you say, like we played LSO St. Luke's, which is the headquarters of London Symphony Orchestra in London, obviously. But Bruce brought the Seeger sessions there in 2006. So we'll just start by calling it out. So we booked a show there,

5:18and there were fans flew from all over the world for that show for, to see us, people come from New York, there's different parts of America, there's people from Italy, Germany, all over Europe, as well, came in for that show. That's going to be a real boost for your ego, knowing they've traveled a far to see you guys. It's amazing. I mean, I just couldn't really believe it, because I mean, I get the ticket, I get the ticket, what do you call it? They wrecked out of the locations people come from, and it's amazing, hey. Just, I mean, there's the love for the music, you can see it there. I was to say, Bruce hasn't done since 2006, so... And when he did that tour and performed the Seeger material and everything else involved with it 20 years ago, it was a big band, I mean, the E Street band is big, this was even bigger, and I suppose to be able to carry all that off, you guys are quite the ensemble, 13 piece ensemble.

6:23In terms of instrumentation, you must have tons of stuff in there, is there fiddle, banjo, brass section, all that kind of stuff to get to pull off, all the different genres? Yeah, so we've got a four piece brass section, I've got a recording, fiddle, but I play the banjo, bass, bass, double bass, flitter in there, still get hair in there, drums, obviously. It's a big band, but you couldn't do it, you couldn't do it with four or five pieces, it wouldn't work at all, so you're going to have to have the numbers, but it's great, I mean, the band are great, in terms of not just musicianship, but they're just all great people as well, so it's really really, the make it easy, not that it's the make it easy, the make it easier in a way, so there's no egos on us, we'll get on really well, and it's really good, it's really good night just, and people, I'm sure will be very much look forward to the show in

7:25Glor on Saturday, the 20th of June, and we've talked about some of the bigger venues you've played, which I'm sure you enjoy, but is there something special, do you enjoy the more intimate venues like Glor as well, where you can really see the whites of people, the audience's eyes? Yeah, of course, when we played, some of the shows would have played, so we became the first band, every time we played the Emre Turina and Glasgow, back in Celtic connections last year, I think about 10,000 of that, but as you say, the smaller venues, the smaller venues probably sit to the show better, because we do the Belfast Empire there, and it's a small compact, very small stage, so we're all crammed on us, but that's brilliant, hey, so the smaller shows regretter as well, so we'll do it anywhere really, but yeah, as I say, the smaller stages and the smaller venues probably sit the stage of the music and the stage of the show. And it probably is no harm to be harking back to an era of a legendary artist,

8:27like Bruce Springsteen, because even though it's very roots-based music, and he himself was paying tribute to the likes of Pete Sieger and all those others who came before the rock-and-roll, modern rock-and-roll era, Bruce has an army of fans around the world, so you're kind of always guaranteed to have, for people who haven't seen you before, they'll be curious to check you out, because they're fans of the bus, and they perhaps like that record and that era of his career, and I want to see how you guys pull it off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you're right, yeah, there's been these days in army of fans all with the world, and people travel the world on these tours, I don't know where they get them on either side. You don't know where they get the money, but you're just glad they have it, and then I've enough for the ticket. Well, I do wonder, Christopher, you know, on the 20th of June, will you be checking out what part of, I'm sure there'll be people coming from all over Claire, and maybe even further afield, and see if there's any international travelers as well, I'm sure, and there's going to be a lot of, I know there's a lot of fans of Springsteen in this

9:28county, some who've seen them many, many times, they know who they are. So that's the Seager Sessions Revival, coming to Glor on Saturday, the 20th of June, and Christopher Spear from the band. Chris, thanks very much for being with us on the show, and I'm sure you're going to get a great reception in June. Thank you very much for having me, and hopefully you can make it on the night, sharing, we'll get to meet you in person.