Springsteen has always tapped into the wellspring of the American songline – and for all his rock and roll roots and tendencies, as a practitioner of the people’s music, Bruce is really a folkie at heart. As powerful and inspiring as his rock persona is, the populist side of Bruce lends an abiding gravity and conviction to his acoustic side. Looking at his work as a whole, it seems his Woody Guthrie influences now stand side by side with his Elvis ones. We Shall Overcome, Bruce’s fourteenth album, works on a couple of levels: while clearly a tribute to Pete Seeger as one of the true godfathers of American folk and protest music, it is also in a sense part of a trilogy in the aftermath of 9/11. It is almost a natural progression from the very human reaction on ...