7th Annual John Henry's Friends Benefit (December 13, 2021)
Last night was the 7th annual John Henry's Friends Benefit at The Town Hall in New York, to benefit the Keswell School, where Steve Earle's autistic son John Henry attends. The show featured Steve Earle and the Dukes, Willie Nile, Matt Savage, The Mastersons, Roseanne Cash, and, of course, Bruce Springsteen.
It's been more than 5 years since I -- or nearly anyone else in the audience -- saw Bruce play anything electric. As Steve Earle noted early on, the bar for the benefit shows has been raised pretty high.
The first hour of the show featured The Mastersons, who performed two songs off their "new" album (from March, 2020, when the world essentially stopped), pianist Matt Savage (who has autism), Willie Nile, and Roseanne Cash. Nile played a pair of COVID-19 inspired songs, including the brutal "Blood on Your Hands," which he had recorded as a duet with Earle. Cash, performing with her husband John Leventhal, delivered the night's highlight, a stunning adaptation for these pandemic times of the Reverend Gary Davis's "Tryin' to Get Home." Cash then quipped that after the show she would immediately tweet out that she had opened for Bruce Springsteen.
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| Glory Days. December 13, 2021 |
Bruce came out, ready to rumble. He opened with the obvious song for these times, "Darkness on the Edge of Town," following with the song that is often the counterpoint, "The Promised Land." The Dukes provided great backing, and both songs rocked hard. Willie Nile joined for "Glory Days," presented at first in an arrangement similar to that of the 1984 tour, but when Bruce took down the band, the audience took up the challenge and sang out the first verse. Steve Earle then joined Springsteen and the Dukes for a solid run-through of "Pink Cadillac," and that was it for Bruce until the finale of "Teach Your Children."
Tech Your Children, December 13, 2021
After Springsteen's mini-set, Earle and the Dukes went through 9 of Steve's better known numbers, including several of his more Celtic-flavored songs (e.g., "Galway Girl," with a playful switch on the lyrics the last time through to give the girl black eyes and blue hair), and then to blues numbers such as "Copperhead Road" and a poignant rendition of Justin Townes Earle's "Harlem River Blues" to close out the main set.
Could there have been more from Bruce? Yes. A duet with Roseanne Cash of "Sea of Heartbreak" (a song that she recorded featuring Bruce) or "Long Black Veil" (which she performed, and which Bruce performed on his 2006 Sessions Tour) would have been nice. Bruce joining Steve for any of Steve's songs would have been awesome; Steve even performed "Hard-core Troubadour," which references "Rosalita" in the lyrics.
Still, at 25 songs and more than 2 hours overall, the show was generous, and Springsteen looked like a man ready to prepare a new tour. Onward!
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