Martyn Joseph's album of Springsteen covers released on 7 October 2013.
Often dubbed "The Welsh Springsteen" , Martyn Joseph unveils his unique and passionate interpretations of 17 songs by The Boss. Acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic, Joseph's strong vocals , skilled guitar and harmonica playing inject new life into some of the lesser known Springsteen "blue collar life" songs, peppered with a handful of stripped back takes on classics like 'Thunder Road', 'Badlands' and 'The Rising'. 'Tires Rushing By In The Rain' features a CD booklet introduction by acclaimed Springsteen biographer and American music critic Dave Marsh.
I'll preface this review by saying I'm a massive Martyn Jospeh and Bruce Springsteen fan - so I acknowledge not the most subjective. Martyn Joseph's live sets more than often contain snippets of or whole songs from Springsteen. Here we have 17 covers stripped back with guitar, harmonica and vocal and overall this is excellent.
The songs that work best are those that were orginally intended not to have the full E Street Band effect, in particular the tracks from the highly unerrated springsteen album Tunnel of Love, Walk Like A Man, Cautious Man, One Step Up and Brilliant Disguise. Tackling Badlands in acoustic fashion is not something I've even seen the Boss take on and I'm not sure it entirely works. Surpisingly there are no tracks from Nebraska (perhaps that was too obvious) but the version of the Ghost of Tom Joad is neck tingling.
If you are either a Martyn Joseph or Springsteen fan this is an excellent album - if like me you're a fan of both it is superb - highly recommended.
