Bruce Springsteen To Explore Country Music On New ‘Somewhere North Of Nashville’ Album

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Bruce Springsteen. Photo: Danny Clinch

Bruce Springsteen will release the never-before-heard album Somewhere North of Nashville in full on Tracks II: The Lost Albums due out June 27 via Sony Music.

The previously-unheard, 12-song collection inspired by the sounds of honky tonk, rockabilly and uptempo country was recorded simultaneously with The Ghost of Tom Joad in the summer of 1995, and features members of the core band at the heart of those sessions including Danny Federici, Garry Tallent and Gary Mallaber. Featuring elements like pedal steel from Marty Rifkin (later a member of The Sessions Band) and fiddle from Soozie Tyrell, Somewhere North of Nashville includes two songs originally planned for Born In The U.S.A., “Stand On It” and “Janey Don’t You Lose Heart.”

“What happened was I wrote all these country songs at the same time I wrote The Ghost of Tom Joad. Those sessions completely overlap each other. I’m singing ‘Repo Man’ in the afternoon and ‘The Line’ at night. So the country record got made right along with The Ghost of Tom Joad,” Springsteen recalled. “Streets of Philadelphia got me connected to my socially conscious or topical songwriting. So that’s where The Ghost of Tom Joad came from. But at the same time I had this country streak that was also running through those sessions and I ended up making a country record on the side.”

In addition to today’s release of “Repo Man,” Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will kick off “The Land of Hope & Dreams Tour” tonight in Manchester, England.

Lorie Hollabaugh
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