lifeblood: songs: backgrounds: born to run

2019-11-07: album review: a ukulele tribute to bruce springsteen's 'born to run', ukelele magazine:

as with most multi-artist "tribute" albums, the adaptations on born to uke range from the faithful to the unusual, and through the years i've learned not to get too hung up on the approach, either way-it's gonna either work for me or it doesn't. sometimes a different lead singer and different instrumentation is all it takes to elevate an otherwise faithful arrangement; other times, changing the tempo and other key elements will allow a familiar song to truly become "new." both of those are in evidence here. ukulele is obviously the unifying element, and all you players will be interested to hear the multitude of colors elicited from solo and duo ukes on this collection. after all, the uke is asked to replicate lines originally played on saxophone, piano, and electric guitar, and the good news is that the little "flea" is more than up to the task, whether it's chunky soul strumming on will kimbrough's passionate version of "tenth avenue freeze-out," the chopped bo diddley beat of album organizer and producer keith metzger's "she's the one," or the steady, propulsive charge of "born the run," sung so wonderfully by the indigo girls' emily saliers. all three of those i would place in the "faithful" category. sara watkins also does a nice job on "thunder road," perhaps adapting more of the approach of bruce's stripped-down solo piano version than the album original.

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emily saliers of the indigo girls soars on "born to run," perfect for your next uke party singalong!

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2018-11-19: charity album to feature 'born to run' songs on ukulele, njarts.net:

emily saliers (of the indigo girls), sara watkins (of i'm with her and nickel creek), the weepies and will kimbrough will be among the artists contributing tracks to born to uke, an album featuring ukulele-based versions of all the songs from bruce springsteen's born to run album. the performers were limited to ukulele, bass, vocals and percussion except on one song, "jungleland."

it will be released on jan. 18.

you can listen to some excerpts below. in a way, the stripped-down, acoustic songs sound as if they might if they had been recorded for springsteen's nebraska.

all proceeds from born to uke will benefit little kids rock, which funds music education in underprivileged public schools.

keith metzger produced the album as well as performing one of its tracks, "she's the one."

"i've always been a fan of springsteen," he said in a press release, "and at one point thought 'she's the one' off of born to run might make a great cover, in the style i'd been recording. it had a bo diddley beat with a tribal feel to it that i thought lent itself thematically to the ukulele.

"after finishing the recording i thought: 'what if one were to do ukulele covers of the entire born to run album?' i didn't have time or the patience to pull that off, and so i thought, 'what about if other artists were involved?' the question then became: why would other artists of any note want to do it? at that time, i had become familiar with little kids rock, knew that bruce's sax player clarence clemons had been involved in its founding, and it all kind of clicked for me."