A new concert special celebrating Bruce Springsteen’s acclaimed 1982 album Nebraska has premiered on PBS, and can be viewed now on demand on the network’s PBS Passport service. Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska: A Celebration in Words and Music documents a September 19, 2023, show in Nashville.
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The event, which took place at the Analog venue at the Hutton Hotel, included performances by Eric Church, Emmylou Harris, Noah Kahan, Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, and The Lumineers.
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The inspiration for the show was musician and music biographer Warren Zanes’ 2023 book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Zanes was on hand to share his insights on the Nebraska album, a collection of dark, stripped-down songs that Springsteen recorded on cassette on a four-track recorder in the bedroom of a farmhouse he’d rented in New Jersey.
“I wrote a book about Nebraska because the recording stayed with me over decades,” said Zanes in a statement. “Every time there was trouble in my life I reached for Nebraska. When I started doing events around the book’s publication, I quickly realized the best of them had music. When I went to Nashville, I had a remarkable cast of musicians to help me tell this story.”
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The show featured the various performers singing a selection of songs from Nebraska. Church and Williams, respectively, also performed hits from Nebraska’s 1984 follow-up, Born in the U.S.A.—the title track and “Dancing in the Dark.”
PBS.org features a preview of the Deliver Me from Nowhere special that includes Church’s performance of “Dancing in the Dark.”
More About Nebraska
Nebraska was Springsteen’s sixth studio album, and it followed the chart-topping success of his 1979 double-album The River. After creating the raw, demo-like recordings of the 10 songs that appeared on Nebraska, he began doing electric versions of the tunes in the studio with The E Street Band. The Boss decided, however, that the intimate tunes should be released he as originally recorded them.
Springsteen was going through a depression when he wrote and recorded Nebraska. The songs focused or were inspired by various dark topics, including the mass murders committed by Charles Starkweather in Nebraska and Wyoming during the late 1950s.
Released in September 1982, Nebraska peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. Springsteen considers the album his masterpiece.
In a recent interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Bruce said. “If I had to pick one album out and say, ‘This is going to represent you 50 years from now,’ I’d pick Nebraska.
About the Film Based on Deliver Me from Nowhere
A theatrical film based on Zanes’ book currently is in production. Jeremy Allen White, known for his work in the TV series The Bear and Shameless, has been cast as Springsteen. Bruce and his longtime manager, Jon Landau, both are involved in the production of the movie.
About Springsteen’s Upcoming Tour Plans
Springsteen and the E Street Band are preparing to kick off second U.S. leg of their 2024 world tour. The trek gets underway Thursday, August 15, in Pittsburgh and is mapped out through a September 15 performance at the Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
The Boss and company will then wind down 2024 with a Canadian outing. That trek runs from an October 31 concert in Montreal through a November 22 show in Vancouver, British Columbia. Visit BruceSpringsteen.net to check out his full itinerary.
Tickets for Springsteen’s concerts are available via a variety of outlets, including StubHub.
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