One-man band of brotherhood 
On 'Devils & Dust,' Springsteen rocks on, powerfully, in the real world 
April 20, 2005 - Newsday

When Bruce Springsteen sings, he bends his knees and plants his right foot firmly on the stage. This leaves his left foot free to tap out the beat or hover in midair, which it does a lot, especially when he's singing about something emotional. 

It's a lot like his music - always grounded in straightforward rock and always reaching for something more, something uncertain. Over the years, this split has even become more or less formalized in his two performing personas: Springsteen the Man and Springsteen the Bandleader. 

Springsteen the Bandleader, charismatic head of the mighty E Street Band, is the popular one - the one who sings of tramps like us and dancing in the dark. Springsteen the Man is the solo artist, the one who sings of Tom Joad and reasons to believe. 

"Devils & Dust" (Columbia) is the latest album from Springsteen the Man and it tackles the heady material one would expect - war and loss, broken hearts and busted dreams. However, the uplifting songs, especially the gorgeous acoustic blues romp "All I'm Thinkin' About" and the powerful, break-the-cycle rocker "Long Time Comin'," will surely please even the toughest fan of Springsteen the Bandleader. 

"The people that are interesting are the people who have something eating at them and they're not exactly sure what that thing is," Springsteen explains on the accompanying DVD documentary. "The characters on this record are all trying to find their way through that, through those questions. Some do somewhat successfully and some come to tragic ends." 

"Black Cowboys," for example, is the wrenching story of a boy who leaves home because his once-loving mother falls in love with a drug dealer and becomes an addict. Its power comes not just from Springsteen's intricate details and his moving vocals, but also because it flies in the face of what we've come to expect from Springsteen the Bandleader. There's no triumph - or even escape - in this story, only heartache. You could waste your summer praying in vain for a savior to rise from many of the streets Springsteen the Man walks in "Devils & Dust." 

In "Reno," Springsteen sings in graphic terms about how an evening with a hooker can't fill the emptiness that comes from a lost love. The desperation feels even more potent as Springsteen sings in a Dylanesque drawl over the lonesome country sounds of the Nashville String Machine. 

At least in "Matamoros Banks" - a haunting, poignant tale of a failed attempt to cross the Rio Grande to come to America - the narrator has the memories of her lover for comfort, even though he has died in his attempt to reach her. 

"What I did on this record and I've done on a few other records is tell very specific narrative stories," Springsteen says in the documentary. "These are all songs about people whose souls are in danger or at risk through where they are in the world or what the world is bringing to them. That's a human constant. That risk is something they feel on a daily basis." 

At a taping of an episode for VH1's "Storytellers" earlier this month in Red Bank, N.J., Springsteen said he's not sure that talking about his lyrics really works. "It's kind of an iffy proposition," he said. "Talking about music is like talking about sex. Can you describe it? Are you supposed to? ... It's better when demonstrated." 

Yet he was forthcoming about his current single, "Devils & Dust's" title track, and its origins. He said the song's narrator is a "regular guy caught in the crosshairs of history," as he sings, "I got my finger on the trigger, but I don't know who to trust." 

Following the onset of the Iraqi war and the erosion of civil liberties after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he wanted to write a song to be an example of where "the personal and political collide." 

Without taking sides, he asks the question: "We've got God on our side, we're just trying to survive. What if what you do to survive kills the things you love?" 

"How much of this was I thinking about when I wrote it? None of it," Springsteen said. "How much of it was I feeling? All of it." 

The feeling that Springsteen captures is what makes "Devils & Dust" not only one of the album's strongest songs, but arguably one of his strongest solo songs ever. 

At the "Storytellers" taping, he showed other links between his earlier solo work and his current songs. He explained how the theme behind "Nebraska" is that "Everyone knows what it's like to be condemned." The theme behind "Jesus Was an Only Son," a new song that looks at the relationship between Mary and Jesus as mother and son, he said, is "Everybody knows what it's like to be saved." 

The "Devils & Dust" album is sort of a cross between the stark Americana of "Nebraska" and the political world view of "The Rising." However, once again Springsteen strives to take it to a new level, using his malleable voice in extraordinary ways. He adopts a soulful falsetto for "All I'm Thinkin' About," a folkie bellow for "Long Time Comin'" and a Neil Young-ish twang for "Maria's Bed." 

Springsteen also has strengthened his songwriting skills, filling songs that are not autobiographical with the same loving details that were once reserved for his remembrances of New Jersey. 

As it stands, "Devils & Dust" is a powerful combination of the soul-searching Springsteen the Man and the life-affirming Springsteen the Bandleader - a challenge to Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft" and Damien Rice's "O" as one of the best-written albums of the past five years. It's a unification process that started with "The Rising" and has really been a long time coming. 

For Springsteen, it should be a natural fit - a lot like walking. It's just a matter of the left foot and the right foot working together to get where they need to go.