Bruce Springsteen releases the uptempo ‘Repo Man’ from his country album, ‘Somewhere North of Nashville’
The pedal steel-kissed country album, part of the Boss' 'Lost Albums' boxset, includes a take on 'Janey Don’t You Lose Heart.'
Die-hard Bruce Springsteen fans can rejoice; the Boss is back with a teaser for his lost country album, Somewhere North of Nashville, that was a precursor to his 2019 album, Western Star.
On Wednesday, Springsteen released “Repo Man,” a soulful country tune he recorded during his sessions for the 1995 folk-rock album, The Ghost of Tom Joad.
“Those sessions completely overlap each other,“ Springsteen stated in a news release. ”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.”
The up-tempo, honky-tonk song is one of several unheard tracks on Somewhere North of Nashville, an unreleased, 12-song collection that’s a part of Springsteen’s Tracks II: The Lost Albums boxset.
The Lost Albums collection, scheduled to release on June 27, includes seven unheard CDs the rock legend recorded from 1983 to 2018.
The albums comprise variations of drum loops, synthesized sounds, and lo-fi songs, including tracks that inspired classics like “Nebraska” and “Born in the USA.”
Somewhere North of Nashville features contributions from most of the E Street Band during the recording sessions, including multi-instrumentalists Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, and Gary Mallaber. Additional elements like pedal steel and the fiddle were delivered by Marty Rifkin, later a member of the Sessions Band, and Soozie Tyrell.
The album boasts of a whiskey blend of country combos like “Repo Man,” including two songs — “Stand On It” and “Janey Don’t You Lose Heart” — originally planned for Born in the USA.
Along with the unreleased country album, Springsteen’s Lost Albums boxset will include Faithless, his soundtrack work for an unreleased movie and Twilight Hours, which is described as “midcentury noir.”
Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off “The Land of Hope & Dreams Tour” on Wednesday in Manchester, England. It’s the first of 16 scheduled dates this summer.
Springsteen last performed in Philadelphia for back-to-back shows at Citizens Bank Park in August 2024.