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Happy Birthday to "Jazz Cat" David Sancious! (featuring Christmastime '96 clips w/ Natalie Merchant)
photo by Mark Krajnak  for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music  - used with permission November 30, 2025 Today we're celebrating the 72nd birthday of E Street Band founding member and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer David Sancious (pictured above at last September's Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University's Born to Run @50 symposium.) Christmastime has just begun, too, so how 'bout we celebrate Davey's special day by en

Letters To You
7 days ago1 min read


"...that little boy..." - Ethan Zane Browne, 1973-2025
publicity photo of Ethan Zane Browne from the Alain / Zane Facebook page November 29, 2025 This week, we at Letters To You were shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic death of Ethan Zane Browne at only 52 years of age . Ethan was the son of Jackson Browne and the late Phyllis Major. During his short life, he did some modeling, some acting, and - as one-half of the duo Alain Zane - he also made some pretty damned good R&B/soul music. In the now-hard-to-find 1980 film No

Letters To You
Nov 292 min read


"Everybody's got a hunger..." - Support WhyHunger's Hungerthon 2025, and get cool Bruce-themed items
November 26, 2025 Once again this year, Bruce Springsteen is lending his support to WhyHunger , as he has done so often in the past, and the anti-hunger organization's annual Hungerthon . Springsteen fans who support this year's Hungerthon and WhyHunger, which is now fifty years old, can score some exclusive Springsteen-themed gear. The theme of this year's Bruce-themed benefits is centered around lyrics from "Jack Of All Trades." Fans who donate $60 or more can receive the B

Letters To You
Nov 262 min read


Time Will Tell: The Underrated Importance of Jimmy Cliff to Bruce Springsteen's Music
November 26, 2025 It is well known, as it should be, that Jimmy Cliff , whose death at 81 was announced on Monday, has had an enormous and enduring musical impact around the globe. In addition, many Bruce Springsteen fans, myself included, feel an extra debt of gratitude to Cliff for writing and recording the original version of the song "Trapped." Springsteen found a Jimmy Cliff cassette that included Cliff's version of "Trapped" (which, incidentally, was produced by Cat Ste

Shawn Poole
Nov 263 min read


From Stevie in '75 to Stevie AT 75... Happy Birthday to our beloved rock-and-soul Renaissance man!
black-and-white 1975 "passport photo outtake" image by Barbara Pyle, from her book Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 1975 ; color 2025 TeachRock Facebook profile photo by Laura Merrill Images - used w/ permission November 22, 2025 Happy 75th birthday to the E Street Band's true Renaissance man: singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist, arranger, bandleader/musical-director, activist, actor, director, writer/screenwriter, satellite-radio pioneer, record-label executive, e

Letters To You
Nov 222 min read


ALERT: Here are the Hanukkah and Christmas/Kwanzaa deadlines to pre-order your "Spirit of '76" shirt
L-R: Letters To You editor/publisher Shawn Poole, Jon Landau Management's Alison Oscar, and "Springsteen - Spirit of '76" artist Frank Caruso at the 2025 Kristen Ann Carr Fund "A Night to Remember" event in New York City - November 15, 2025 - photo by Greg Drew November 19, 2025 Okay, all you procrastinators out there, to quote the man himself, "You guys know what time of year it is?!" It's your last chance to pre-order one (or more) of our exclusive "Spirit of '76" shirts i

Letters To You
Nov 191 min read


Bid on a Springsteen/Caruso-signed "Spirit of '76" print and lotsa other cool stuff in KACF auction
November 13, 2025 The Kristen Ann Carr Fund (KACF)'s "A Night To Remember" 2025 will take place in New York City this coming Saturday night, and once again the charity event - co-sponsored by, among others, longtime KACF supporters Bruce Springsteen & Patti Scialfa-Springsteen - will feature a silent-auction component, with bids being placed through 10 p.m. ET on Saturday. Even if you can't attend "A Night To Remember" 2025 in person, you still can place your bid(s) online v

Letters To You
Nov 132 min read


The "origin story" of Letters To You's beloved Veterans Day contributor, Doug Bradley
November 11, 2025 Since Letters To You was launched back in 2023, each year we've featured a special Veterans Day contribution to the website from my friend Doug Bradley . Doug is a Vietnam veteran and the author of Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America , co-author with Craig Werner of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War , which was named best music book of 2015  by Rolling Stone , and author of DE

Shawn Poole
Nov 113 min read


"It's about what's happening NOW!" - from Nugs/Live Archives, a past political show for our present
November 10, 2025 A lot has changed - some forever, and not for better - in the nearly two decades since Bruce Springsteen's 2007 album Magic and the 2007-2008 tour that followed it. But in 2025, when you're still stuck in radio nowhere and just want to hear a Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band musical performance with some strong, explicit, and sane politics behind it, while continuing your search for a world with some soul, it just doesn't get any better than Oracle Are

Letters To You
Nov 104 min read


"Sit and listen to..." NEBRASKA '82: EXPANDED EDITION - the Letters To You review
November 9, 2025 "...GHOSTLY VOICES..." - On " Nebraska Outtakes," "Electric Nebraska ," and the enduring greatness of the original album by Caroline Madden As any Bruce Springsteen diehard already knows, and as more casual fans have learned more recently from the film adaptation Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere , his 1982 album Nebraska was recorded entirely in his bedroom on a rather rudimentary TEAC 144 four-track cassette recorder, then mixed on an old Gibson Echopl

Caroline Madden and Shawn Poole
Nov 914 min read
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