"Came into town with a pocketful of songs..." - Lisa Iannucci reviews SOMEWHERE NORTH OF NASHVILLE

August 1, 2025

Somewhere North of Nashville is, as its title suggests, a traditional Nashville country record laden with echoes, metaphor, and callbacks. There are song titles that tie back to other songs with similar titles (“You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone,”) song titles that are the same as those of other people’s records (“Tiger Rose,”) and songs that refer to books or films (“Tiger Rose,” “Repo Man,” “You’re Gonna Miss Me...,”) or bands (“Blue Highway.”) There also is plenty of just plain country and popular music standard imagery: bluebirds, endless highways, echoing footsteps, lonesome train whistles. It pushes all the right buttons sonically and lyrically, but does it hold up in terms of quality?

The answer is... well, sort of. The record is cohesive in sound, but the material is, at best, uneven. And what stands out is not heretofore unreleased or unfamiliar material, but a well-placed cover and a couple of alternate versions of previously released tracks. The other originals, while they are serviceable and align thematically with the album as a whole, are, for the most part, not particularly memorable.

The overall sound, as well as the musicianship, is solid, with standout performances throughout from familiar faces like E Streeters Dan Federici, Garry Tallent, and Charlie Giordano, alongside studio vets like drummer Gary Mallaber and pedal steel guitarist Marty Rifkin. It’s hard to find fault with the record’s polished, professional Nashville sheen, which is more difficult to pull off than it sounds. And much of the upbeat material - a virtual bonanza of country two-step rockers - deserves recognition for its clever lyrics and catchy melodies and arrangements.

Leadoff track “Repo Man” is just such a two-step. It’s a first-person account in the rocking vein of “Stand on It” that features a powerful Springsteen vocal, and one of several compelling story songs that would not be out of place on a Chuck Berry record. Though the title refers to what might not be a common term in most folks’ daily lexicon, country radio listeners are no doubt all too familiar with the notorious "repo men" (automobile repossession workers) who haunt lower middle class neighborhoods, hounding folks who are behind a payment or two for a secondhand junker on which they made a bad deal. So kudos to Bruce for introducing a possibly unfamiliar topic to a wider audience. Its opening riff instantly grabs your attention, and it’s definitely worth repeat listenings.

Another two-step, the rockabilly standout “Tiger Rose,” originally saw the light of day on Arkansas roots rocker Sonny Burgess’ 1996 eponymous album. It’s a cheating song that would have done well as a rabblerouser towards the end of a Springsteen set or a late night club jam, and it’s a shame it hasn’t popped up in a set list here or there.

It’s practically impossible to do a bad version of Johnny Rivers’ “Poor Side of Town,” and it’s not difficult to see why Springsteen included this particular song, given its title and subject matter: the possibility that love might just have the power to lift folks out of poverty. His childhood was far more hardscrabble than most folks realize, and the hopeful note at the tail end of the song must surely resonate. It’s a lovely cover, and the type of material he really ought to explore more often.

“Delivery Man” is a humorous story song - and another two-step - about a guy who drives a delivery truck filled with crated chickens (which you’ve most likely seen if you’ve ever driven on the Delmarva Peninsula). It’s a working man’s song that one might easily hear on country radio, but the visual of caged chickens on a speeding semi truck, feathers flying everywhere, is most likely not a welcome one for the animal lovers in Bruce’s audience. Nonetheless, it grabs your attention with a forceful lead vocal and playful lyrics about how things can go wrong rather quickly out there on the road.

“Stand on It” is an all-out roots rock barnburner that showed up at Stone Pony jams in the late 1980s and later in a couple benefit performances in the 1990s. It’s a can’t-miss track that instantly gets folks moving, and it’s another song that has been shamefully overlooked by both rock and country artists in search of material. The Nashville arrangement suits its driving backbeat, but most folks will probably still prefer the original “Glory Days” B-side. This is another song that should show up in a set more often.

Several songs on the record have very similar titles: “Repo Man”, “Delivery Man” and “Detail Man.” There is no way any official release would include all three of these song titles, regardless of their quality. And others - “Blue Highway,” “Silver Mountain,” “Under a Big Sky” - while thematically coherent and well-executed, just aren’t particularly memorable. "Under a Big Sky," for example, doesn't pack as much of an emotional wallop as the officially released track that it later morphed into and became: the heartbreakingly beautiful epic "Chasin' Wild Horses" on Western Stars. A similar criticism can be made of the alternate version of Western Stars' "Somewhere North of Nashville," recorded just within the past decade or so and tacked onto this collection of mostly mid-1990s material as its "lost album" title track.

“Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart,” like “Stand on It,” was another gem of a B-side that was issued during the Born in the U.S.A. period. It’s strong lyrically and meshes well with the album’s mood and tone, but the pedal steel and country arrangement suck the life out of the song. One misses the Roy Bittan piano fills and Nils’ tag vocal at the end, and its slick feel just lacks the urgency and romance of the original. And “You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” is just a disappointment all around. If you choose a title of such import and resonance, you owe your audience a song that delivers a punch, and while this Springsteen track is of a piece with the record in terms of its subject matter - cheating, loneliness, heartbreak, regret - it just doesn’t go anywhere. The song, which echoes the traditional “When I’m Gone” - a Carter Family staple - is a first-person narrative that bemoans a love interest who just doesn’t appreciate the singer, who’s halfway out the door. Unfortunately, its mostly forgettable lyrics and melody pale in comparison to the stark authenticity of the Carters at their best.

The best songs on the record are more fully realized as rockers than country two-steps. And the release, while impeccably produced, just does not have that catchiness that makes you want to immediately play it again as soon as the final track fades. Overall, while Somewhere North of Nashville contains some of the best material of the seven "lost albums" in Tracks II, it’s also not difficult to hear why many of its tracks were not previously released in some fashion. At one point in time, “throwaway” songs like these often became outstanding B-sides (“Janey...," “Stand on It”) or circulated as essential bootlegs. Now, unfortunately, it seems the vaults are being emptied simply to empty the vaults.