We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

Via Soozie Tyrell, the violinist in the E Street Band, Springsteen hooked up with a group of lesser-known musicians from New Jersey and New York, and they recorded in an informal, large band setting in Springsteen's New Jersey farm. In addition to Tyrell, previous Springsteen associates The Miami Horns as well as wife Patti Scialfa augmented the proceedings. This group would become The Sessions Band. The album was Springsteen's second consecutive non-E Street Band, non-rock music project. The critical reception to the album was very positive, with E! Online calling it his "best album since Nebraska and Allmusic labeling it "rambunctious, freewheeling, [and] positively joyous". PopMatters called it a "a sonic transfusion on the order of the Mermaid Avenue records", which were Woody Guthrie songs recorded by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Seeger himself was pleased by result, saying "It was a great honor. He's an extraordinary person, as well as an extraordinary singer." The album, like its predecessor Devils and Dust, has been released on DualDisc, in a CD/DVD double disc set, and as a set of two vinyl records. For the DualDisc and CD/DVD sets, the full album is on the CD(-side), while the DVD(-side) side features a PCM Stereo version of the album and a short film about the making and recording of the album. Two bonus songs also appear on the DVD(-side). The subsequent Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour took this musical approach even further. On October 3, 2006, the album was reissued as We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition with five additional tracks (the two bonus tracks from before and three new numbers that had been introduced and heavily featured on the tour), new videos, an expanded documentary and liner notes. Rather than a DualDisc release, the American Land Edition was released with separate CD and DVDs. Added sales were minimal. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 49th Grammy Awards held in February 2007. The album had sold 700,000 copies in the United States by January 2009; the RIAA certified it with gold record status.