Orel Family

Bruce Springsteen introducing Western Stars at TIFF Last night, Bruce Springsteen's new film "Western Stars" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film consisted primarily -- at least in terms of time -- of live versions of the songs on the "Western Stars" album, performed at Bruce's barn in New Jersey over a period of several days, for an audience of friends. Bruce has put out accompanying video material to studio releases before; this took the concept to another level. I was among the fortunate 1800 or so to be in attendance at Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall for the first showing. This film is for fans, especially for fans who'd like to see live performances of the new album. Bruce has been emphatic that he will not be touring behind this album, so this is likely as close as we'll come to seeing him perform it live. An orchestra of approximately 30 members backed the live performances at the barn. Several member...

In late August, I received an email from an account manager at Special Ops Media in New York, asking if I might be interested in receiving a review copy of Patti Scialfa’s new album Play It as It Lays and post a review of it. It was a form letter, likely sent to anyone with a reasonably well-known Springsteen website. Nonetheless, having liked Patti’s first two albums well enough, not minding receiving promo material, and without promising what type of review I might give, I figured that yes, I might just be interested. The disc arrived August 31, which, as anyone who has read any of my other recent blog entries might know, was about the worst possible day to arrive. August turned to September, my priorities turned to those of mourning, and the package did not make the trip to New Jersey. I asked a long-time friend if he wouldn’t mind writing the review for me. Three weeks have passed. I’m returning to some semblance of normalcy. Patti’s album was released, to occasionally g...