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October 27, 2023 Happy 74th Birthday to "the foundation of The E Street Nation, The Tennessee Terror..." bassist extraordinaire Mr. Garry W. Tallent. And special thanks to Nicki Germaine for providing us with the beautiful images above for our "From '74 to 74" photo-montage birthday tribute to Garry. We also want to thank both Nicki Germaine and Garry Tallent for arranging a special "BossBassBday" signed-item offer for our readers. See all of the details below. The black-and-white 1974 image above on the left is, of course, from Nicki's excellent limited-edition photo-book Springsteen: Liberty Hall. This book, published late last year, is a stunning visual record of Bruce Springsteen and the (not yet officially named as such) E Street Band's first-ever gigs in Texas, at Houston's Liberty Hall in March of 1974, during the relatively brief period when Ernest "Boom" Carter was the band's drummer, before both Carter and keyboardist David Sancious left the band to pursue together a jazz-fusion path with bassist Gerald Carboy in their band Tone. In addition to full-page high-quality presentations of Germaine's beautiful black-and-white and color photography, the book contains insightful, moving essays by Bruce Springsteen, Robert Santelli (Executive Director of The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music,) Garry Tallent, and Nicki Germaine. Check out this cool, rockin' little promo-video for the book, with music by Garry Tallent: And if you don't yet own a copy, or if you'd like to purchase a copy for someone else as a gift (especially with the holiday gift-giving season approaching,) we have a special Letters To You Garry's-Birthday signed-item offer for you, courtesy of Nicki Germaine and Garry Tallent themselves. You can email info@springsteenlibertyhall.com with this subject-line: "BossBassBday" That will let Nicki Germaine and her team know that you're a Letters To You reader interested in a Nicki-Germaine-AND-Garry-Tallent-autographed copy of the book ($65 plus shipping and handling) and/or a Nicki-Germaine-AND-Garry-Tallent-autographed 8x10 high-quality archival pigment print on cotton rag paper (see image below, $85 plus shipping and handling.) In the body of your email message, please specify how many of which item you want, and provide your Paypal or Venmo information for invoicing/billing purposes, along with your mailing address. Thanks again to Nicki - AND Garry - for arranging this special offer for Letters To You readers. And of course Happy Birthday - and many, many more - to "Boss Bass Man" Garry Tallent!

October 18, 2023 Above, Bruce Springsteen shares a laugh with old pals Carl "Tinker" West (left) and Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez (right) at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ earlier today. He was there for The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music's official announcement of its plans for constructing a new 30,000-square-foot building to house the Archives, the Center for American Music, related exhibition galleries, and a 230-seat, state-of-the-art theater, to be located on Monmouth University's campus, with an anticipated Spring 2026 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Click here to read the official announcement. And stay tuned for our Letters To You full-length report on today's announcement and related information, accompanied by additional photos from New Jersey's own Mark Krajnak, who took the beautiful shot above.

October 13, 2023 Here are two Springsteen covers of two classic Isley Brothers recordings strongly associated with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted - and for many years New-Jersey-based - group's founding member Rudolph Isley, who died yesterday at 84: First up is "Shout," which Rudolph co-wrote with his brothers O'Kelly Isley, Jr. and Ronald Isley. In 1959, this extremely influential and extra-long Black-gospel-derived classic had to be issued by The Isley Brothers as a double-sided, two-part vinyl single. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's epic covers of "Shout" became a standard part of their encores on the Wrecking Ball Tour, High Hopes Tour, and The River Tour 2016-17. Here's the pro-shot/pro-recorded version of "Shout" from the April 6, 2014 NCAA March Madness Music Festival, broadcast live from Dallas, TX: And of course there's no Isley Brothers recording more influential on the music of Bruce Springsteen than their 1962 version of "Twist and Shout," which was the first hit version. "Twist and Shout" also was the first rock-and-roll song that Bruce ever learned to play on guitar. While Rudolph played no role in writing "Twist and Shout," it was his and O'Kelly Isley's background singing, particularly on producer/songwriter Bert Berns' newly arranged ascending "aaah, aahh..." bridge, that made the Isleys' version so memorable, influential, and virtually immortal, especially as it was their version on which The Beatles would base their now-equally-classic version. As Paul McCartney once rhetorically asked onstage. "Where would we have been without [The Isley Brothers?] ...In Liverpool; that's where would have been! And we'd have stayed there!" Here's Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's New Year's Eve 1975 performance of "Twist and Shout," clearly modeled at least as much on the Isleys' version as The Beatles'. Rest in peace, Rudolph Isley, and thank you for so much great music. May it all play on forever... - Special thanks to Lisa Iannucci

October 13, 2023 Happy Birthday to the E Street Band's (and The Seeger Sessions Band's) great keyboardist and accordionist, Charlie Giordano. And here's a fun little Flashback Friday Birthday Fact about Charlie: Beginning in 1982 and continuing through the early 1990s, Giordano played keyboards in Pat Benatar's band. In addition to working with Benatar in the studio and on the road, Charlie appeared in the music-video for Benatar's 1982 hit version of "Shadows Of The Night." Benatar, her husband/collaborator/bandmate Neil Giraldo, and Giordano played World-War-II fighter pilots on a Nazis-fighting mission. Actors Bill Paxton and Judge Reinhold had small parts in the music-video, as well. Here are two screenshots of our hero "Cigar-Chompin' Charlie" in action, and you can watch the complete official music-video below. Happy Birthday and many, many more, Charlie! Thanks for helping to keep our skies safe, and our Springsteen concerts rockin'. Keep up the good work, Ace!

...and ending with a Vancouver gig on Stevie Van Zandt's birthday! October 13, 2023 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s postponed Canadian tour dates have been rescheduled and announced for 2024: Oct. 31, 2024 – Montreal, Quebec @ Centre Bell (rescheduled from Nov. 20, 2023) Nov. 3, 2024 – Toronto, Ontario @ Scotiabank Arena (rescheduled from Nov. 14, 2023) Nov. 6, 2024 – Toronto, Ontario @ Scotiabank Arena (rescheduled from Nov. 16, 2023) Nov. 9, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario @ Canadian Tire Centre (rescheduled from Nov. 18, 2023) Nov. 13, 2024 – Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Canada Life Centre (rescheduled from Nov. 10, 2023) Nov. 16, 2024 – Calgary, Alberta @ Scotiabank Saddledome (rescheduled from Nov. 8, 2023) Nov. 19, 2024 – Edmonton, Alberta @ Rogers Place (rescheduled from Nov. 6, 2023) Nov. 22, 2024 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ Rogers Arena (rescheduled from Nov. 3, 2023) All tickets for the postponed performances remain valid for the newly announced dates. Information about each individual show, including details regarding refunds, is available through Ticketmaster.com. Rescheduled dates for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s shows will take place in 2024 at their originally scheduled venues. For all officially updated touring information, please connect with the "Tour" page at Bruce Springsteen's official website.

October 6, 2023 Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's postponed U.S. tour dates have been rescheduled and announced for 2024: March 19 - Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center (rescheduled from Nov. 30, 2023) March 25 - San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena (rescheduled from Dec. 2, 2023) March 28 - San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center (rescheduled from Dec. 10, 2023) March 31 - San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center (rescheduled from Dec. 12, 2023) April 4 - Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum (rescheduled from Dec. 4, 2023) April 7 - Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum (rescheduled from Dec. 6, 2023) April 12 - Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena (rescheduled from Sept. 16, 2023) April 15 - Albany, NY @ MVP Arena (rescheduled from Sept. 19, 2023) April 18 - Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome (rescheduled from Sept. 7, 2023) April 21 - Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena (rescheduled from Sept. 21, 2023) Aug. 15 - Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena (rescheduled from (Sept. 12, 2023) Aug. 18 - Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena (rescheduled from Sept. 14, 2023) Aug. 21 - Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park (rescheduled from Aug. 16, 2023) Aug. 23 - Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park (rescheduled from Aug. 18, 2023) Sept. 7 - Washington, DC @ Nationals Park (rescheduled from Sept. 29, 2023) Sept. 13 - Baltimore, MD @ Oriole Park at Camden Yards (rescheduled from Sept. 9, 2023) All tickets for the postponed performances remain valid for the newly announced dates. Information about each individual show, including details regarding refunds, is available through the official ticketing company for the specific date. Rescheduled dates for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's shows in Canada will be announced next week, all taking place in 2024 at their originally scheduled venues. For all officially updated touring information, please connect with the "Tour" page at Bruce Springsteen's official website.

September 28, 2023 Last month Simon & Schuster published a new anthology of Dave Marsh's writing entitled Kick Out The Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing. It is highly recommended reading for Springsteen fans, as is the book to which Kick Out The Jams very much serves as a sequel: 1985's Random House anthology Fortunate Son: The Best of Dave Marsh, now out of print and somewhat difficult to find. (And no, unfortunately Fortunate Son remains officially unavailable to read in e-book form, despite Amazon continuing to claim otherwise.) Both books contain much significant Springsteen-related material, properly placing Bruce's work in the context of its importance within the larger spectrum of popular music. Dave Marsh is well-known, of course, to several generations of Springsteen fans as the author of two essential Springsteen biographies that later were collected as one large, enhanced volume entitled Two Hearts: The Definitive Biography, 1972-2003. The original 1979 edition of Dave's initial Springsteen bio, Born To Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, set the template for pretty much every possible approach to writing about Springsteen and his career that would follow, as it included not only facts and critical analysis mixed with a great collection of photos, but also closed with an appendix that included listings of all known songs that Bruce had written by that point, all songs written by others that Springsteen had covered in concert, and all known live-performance dates from 1972 through 1978. Marsh wrote about Springsteen's career with the benefit of an insider's perspective. Dave was a close friend and colleague of music-writer-turned-producer-and-longtime-Springsteen-manager Jon Landau. (Marsh edited Landau's famous 1974 "I saw rock and roll future" essay.) He also is married to former longtime Springsteen co-manager Barbara Carr. Yet his books, articles, and commentary on Springsteen always have offered far more than just so much inside baseball. Dave always wrote and spoke from the not-necessarily-contradictory perspective of a music-critic who also was a bona-fide fan of the music, and stayed focused on the bigger picture of the meaning and importance to be found in what Bruce and his collaborators were doing, as well as how the audience was affected and responded. In later years, Marsh went on to write a third book focused on Springsteen: the highly recommended coffee-table book Bruce Springsteen On Tour: 1968-2005, published by Bloomsbury in 2006 and, though now officially out of print, still available via many booksellers. Around that same time, he served as a key programming-team member and on-air personality in launching, sustaining, and expanding E Street Radio. Dave recently retired, but in his long career that stretched from the late 1960s through the first two decades of the twenty-first century, he has written and spoken passionately and brilliantly about many more aspects of music and culture than just the work of Bruce Springsteen. (The mere listing of Marsh's books at the beginning of the Kick Out The Jams anthology is staggering in and of itself.) In fact, the Kick Out The Jams anthology makes it clearer than ever why Dave Marsh should become widely recognized as one of our greatest and most insightful writers on popular music and the roles it has played - and can continue to play - in reflecting and supporting our struggles for a saner, safer, and more equitable planet. Accompanying the arrival of the new Kick Out The Jams anthology is a free, live online event happening this coming weekend entitled Kick Out The Jams: Music Writing Like Our Lives Depend On It. Music-writer and scholar Lauren Onkey, who wrote the introduction to Kick Out The Jams, will lead a conversation with the anthology's co-editors, Daniel Wolff and Danny Alexander, and other special guests. The conversation, accompanied by some musical performances, will be centered around the work of Dave Marsh and how it fits into our larger collective history, looking back and moving forward. [NOTE: You can click here to watch an archived video of this online event.] In recognition and celebration of the publication of this major new anthology of Dave Marsh's writing, and this weekend's in-depth online exploration of its continued importance, here below is MUCH more on Marsh from some well-known folks, including some of Letters To You's contributors and friends. As Dave's longtime Detroit brethren in The MC5 famously exclaimed, "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" “I connected to Dave because I knew he felt about music the way I felt about it. It was life-sustaining... It was central to your existence.” - Bruce Springsteen -excerpted from Danny’s essay “’Kick Out the Jams’ and the Debt I Owe,” the full version of which you can read at Danny’s Take ‘Em As They Come blog by clicking here. A MARSH MEMORY FROM E STREET RADIO AND SIRIUS/XM PERSONALITY/PRODUCER JIM ROTOLO, WHO WAS DAVE MARSH’S SOLE PRODUCER AND REGULAR ON-AIR COMPANION FOR HIS ENTIRE SIRIUS/XM RUN: In 2004, I was a [radio] producer. I was working for a different company at the time, and I’d been dying to get to Sirius Radio. Steve Leeds [former Vice-President of Talent and Industry Affairs at the then-fledgling satellite-radio company] had told Dave that he should be on the radio, with his legacy of interviews, writing, and journalism. So they gave Dave a show [Kick Out The Jams with Dave Marsh,] and by chance, the channel director at the time put us together. And of course I already knew of Dave; I remember reading some of his articles and his reviews. I remember being upset with him because he gave the second Black Crowes album a bad review. But along the way, I’ve always found it so amazing how he always could see and show people how music has such a profound effect on everything around us: society, culture, why we are the way we are. I’m looking at the first piece in the anthology, where he linked The New Deal to Elvis and rock-and-roll. Who does that?! Being with Dave has been the best music-history class you could ever possibly have, and I’ve learned so much about culture and society and people, through music and meeting all of these great musicians and fellow writers along the way. I’m blown away by the education. You couldn’t put a price on what I was taught just being around Dave, sitting there having lunch with him, the stories and the conversation, and the way he looks at different things. And below you can watch a special promo-video created for the Kick Out The Jams anthology, featuring a few familiar friends of Dave; edited by Samuel Shapiro, with music by Lorenzo Wolff: DAVE MARSH'S DREAM A world where everybody has a place to live and nobody has to stay up at night trying to figure out how to pay for it. Same with food. Same with education. A world where health care is dispensed rationally, not to the highest bidder. A world where everyone has some kind of productive work, everybody shares in the scut work at some level and nobody capable has to or gets to not have a job. A world where being child-centered is something more than rhetoric, where no child is left behind because no child is pushed forward by circumstances of birth. A world where decisions about important things (not just who's going to decide about the important things) are made by a broad, educated consensus. A world where a major goal is to keep technology, resources and the environment in balance. A world where everybody is free to exhibit their differences so long as the aim is not harming others. A world where the consequences of misbehavior are the same for everybody—and so are the incentives for misbehavior. A world where creativity is nurtured, inquiry is supported and encouraged, and rules are made to be broken but only with care. A world where there is peace, and when there can't be, nobody makes a profit or gets to bully others as a result of it. This is a world that would require tremendous gains in education; rather than the liberal “nanny state” it requires the utmost in personal accountability: a world where the government serves but doesn't control. A world where freedom is more than an abstraction. Do I believe there are ways to accomplish this? Absolutely. Every bit of it, and as I say, more that I can’t even imagine right now. Because with freedom, as with everything else, quantity changes quality. Do I think that this stuff is easily realizable? From the top down, sort of--meaning, I think we could almost overnight solve the problems of homelessness, hunger and lack of education and training. I think it would take a great deal more time before peace could be achieved—for one thing, the real capitalists, the guys that own the guys that loaned your restaurant owner the money to start his joint, would rather die. (I think.) For another, we all think in ways that are pointlessly competitive, uncooperative, selfish in all the wrong ways. ALL of us do this, to some degree, and really, it can hardly be helped—we have never lived in a world where a lot of advantage didn't accrue to competitiveness and selfishness didn't confer great advantages. For a third, we need to develop our sense of each other as worthy of trust and respect. Andrew Vachss wrote a book about child abuse that has my favorite title, I think ever, for anything. It is called Another Chance to Get It Right. What Andrew means is, every child is another chance to get it right, to raise a human free of the burdens predatory adults bring with them. But you know, we humans as a species are children for an extremely long time—far longer than any other animal on Earth. It may well be that we are always children, in some respects. And that is a good thing. Because the quality that, all children, except for those seriously impaired, possess is the ability to learn. In fact, the quality that almost all children possess before this ruthless world begins its extremely strenuous effort to dissuade them is the DESIRE to learn. As adults, we lose that quality at our peril. Because we lose the chance to get OURSELVES right. I'd die to create a world where that chance came home more often. But I'd rather live for it. - Email to Stratlist online group, 8/15/03

October 11, 2023 We at Letters To You are honored to have our YouTube channel serve as the YouTube platform for this official promo video. (You also can watch it above in its embedded form.) It was created for the recent publication of Dave Marsh's new anthology Kick Out The Jams: Jibes, Barbs, Tributes, and Rallying Cries from 35 Years of Music Writing (Simon & Schuster, August 2023.) The video features comments from (in order of appearance) Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Wayne Kramer, Stevie Van Zandt, Greg Tate, Ann Powers, Nona Hendryx, and Marsha Music. It was edited by Samuel Shapiro, with music by Lorenzo Wolff. Dave recently retired, but in his long career that stretched from the late 1960s through the first two decades of the twenty-first century, he has written and spoken passionately and brilliantly about so many important aspects of music and culture, including three major books on the work of Bruce Springsteen. (The mere listing of Marsh's books at the beginning of the Kick Out The Jams anthology is staggering in and of itself.) In fact, the Kick Out The Jams anthology makes it clearer than ever why Dave Marsh should become widely recognized as one of our greatest and most insightful writers on popular music and the roles it has played - and can continue to play - in reflecting and supporting our struggles for a saner, safer, and more equitable planet. For more info, please click here to read our website's lengthy September 2023 feature on Dave Marsh and the new Kick Out The Jams anthology.

October 6, 2023 Okay, class, it's time to talk some primordial E Street history. Before Dr. Zoom & The Sonic Boom. Before Steel Mill. Before Child. Before Earth. Before the glory days of The Castiles, even, there were The Legend, The Merchants, and The Rogues ("Freehold version," noted Bruce Springsteen parenthetically in his Born to Run autobiography, "not to be confused with the later Shore version consisting of actual playing, singing musicians.") Next week, Bruce Springsteen will return to E Street Radio with his first new episode of From My Home To Yours in two years. His special guests will be longtime friends and former bandmates from his very early bands in New Jersey. Joining Bruce will be Craig Caprioni, Mike Domanski, Donnie Powell, and Mike Wilson (who also went on to serve as Freehold, NJ's mayor, years after his teenage-rock-band phase.) Bruce and his guests will share stories and memories from playing in their local rock-and-roll scene, circa 1964-68. They also will discuss their musical influences, and play recordings of the songs they learned to cover via great records by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Dave Clark Five, and more. Should be very educational... and a helluva lotta fun, to boot! Next week's brand-new episode of From My Home To Yours will premiere exclusively on SiriusXM Channel 20 on Monday, October 9 at 10am ET. You also can catch replayed airings (again exclusively on SiriusXM Channel 20) on the following dates at the following times: Tuesday, October 10 at 4pm ET Wednesday, October 11 at 8am ET Thursday, October 12 at 6pm ET Friday, October 13 at 9am ET Saturday, October 14 at 5pm ET Sunday, October 15 at 3pm ET SiriusXM subscribers also will be able to listen on-demand/online via the SiriusXM app. Special thanks to Vinny Usuriello at E Street Radio

October 6, 2023 She Came To Me, the film for which Bruce Springsteen wrote and recorded "Addicted to Romance" featuring Patti Scialfa, officially and exclusively opens in theaters today. (Click here to purchase tickets.) Here's the Letters To You review of and report on the film, along with an extra-deep dive into "Addicted to Romance"'s role in it, written by our contributing writer Caroline Madden, author of Springsteen as Soundtrack: The Sound of the Boss in Film and Television: Bruce Springsteen is certainly not the first musician you associate with the opera genre, but his original song in Rebecca Miller’s romantic dramedy She Came to Me, entitled “Addicted to Romance,'' harmonizes beautifully with this eccentric tale of a creatively stifled opera composer. Despite her "secret wish" to have Springsteen write the end-credits song, Miller told Variety she initially hesitated to ask him "because I felt it was so unlikely, and frankly I was a bit shy.” However, with encouragement from the film's composer, Bryce Dessner, Miller shared her film with Springsteen, and he was inspired to write "Addicted to Romance." The heartfelt song is mostly from the perspective of Peter Dinklage’s character Steven, a floppy-haired opera composer suffering from writer’s block, whose one-night stand with a tugboat captain named Katrina (a nearly unrecogonizable Marisa Tomei, who always excels at playing characters with a gritty edge) enlivens him with the creative spark he needs for his next production. He’s fascinated by her hardscrabble gumption and independence that juxtaposes his haughty, cosmopolitan social circle in Manhattan. “My muse, the music you whispered in my ear reminds me of who I am,” Springsteen rasps in the song, referencing this life-affirming, artistically invigorating romance between Steven and the fierce Katrina. A high-strung therapist with a cleaning compulsion, Steven’s wife Patricia sharply contrasts Katrina's dirt-under-the-fingernails type of woman. Anne Hathaway’s sophisticated performance avoids the stereotype of a nagging wife and makes Patricia's curious epiphany to become a nun feel genuine. In one sequence, Patricia lays down on a bed in the nun’s quarters and stares at the sunlight bouncing on the wall, absorbing the pristine, clutter-free life for which she's been searching. It’s one of the most unexpectedly beautiful moments in the film. The narrative of She Came to Me often has a theatrical quality, especially in the plotline of Patricia's son Julian (Evan Ellison,) his girlfriend Tereza (Harlow Jane,) her exaggeratedly villainous stepfather (Brian D’Arcy James,) and her well-intentioned but submissive immigrant mother, Magdalena (Joanna Kulig.) The story unfolds with dramatic coincidences and extravagant gestures that interconnect the characters, leading up to a finale that reunites the star-crossed lovers in a whimsical and convenient manner. This hammy yet undeniably charming conclusion seems ripped from the pages of one of Steven's operas. Bruce Springsteen’s “Addicted to Romance,” on the other hand, is quite the opposite of Steven’s flowery arias—a short but impactful ballad that mirrors the other parts of the film that feel like a more grounded character study. The song's title is derived from Katrina's admission of being a sex and love addict, often indulging in grand “romantic” gestures such as stalking or intense erotic encounters with strangers. Although some lyrics represent Steven's point of view, the choice of Bruce Springsteen, known for his empathetic portrayals of the working class, resonates more with Katrina's salt-of-the-earth character. Depicted as the "neighborhood's broken daughter" in Springsteen's song, Katrina mirrors many of his characters from Western Stars: lonely, transient individuals with a desperate need for companionship. The lyrical images of whiskey, a jukebox, and bonding over a cold beer vividly recreate Katrina and Steven's initial encounter in a dive bar - an ordinary, rustic setting often found in Springsteen's songs. The graceful simplicity of “Addicted to Romance” highlights the stark difference between Katrina's humble daily life and Steven's glamorous opera career, making her all the more fascinating to him. She Came to Me mirrors this disparity in the offbeat visual style that shifts between two distinct tones and storylines. These alterations, marked by changes in aspect ratio, result in an unconventional and somewhat challenging viewing experience. "Addicted to Romance" plays against an end-credits montage that unifies the characters as they enter the next chapter of their lives. As the tugboat gently bobs along New York City's late afternoon skyline, we hear Bruce Springsteen’s soft vocals accompanied by a minimal piano arrangement. His lyrics are wistful, capturing the bittersweet beauty of fleeting moments between loved ones that leave a lasting imprint on the heart. Patti Scialfa's delicate voice alongside Springsteen's rugged tone creates ethereal harmonies, layering the song with an intimate tenderness. Their voices blend together with the weather-worn sound of real-life lovers who have lived through countless hardships and happy days together. Scialfa is credited alongside Springsteen, solidifying "Addicted to Romance'' as a duet and mirroring the film’s themes of finding your perfect match. "Tonight I get all the love that I've missed, from you in just one glance... And if this isn't love, my dear, it's more than what we planned... more than just chance,” Springsteen and Scialfa sing, words that resonate deeply with Steven and Katrina's unexpected yet profound connection. Their meeting was serendipitous, but Steven finds himself completely captivated by her. The concluding strings orchestrated by Bryce Denner, combined with the choral elements, has a melancholic weight that reflects the unpredictable fragility of our lives, especially our romantic relationships. It's no surprise that Bruce Springsteen felt a connection to this film. He understands how love can hit you like a lightning bolt - both in your personal life and as an artist. As he grew older, themes of marriage and family took center stage in albums such as The River, Tunnel of Love, Lucky Town, and Working on a Dream. A departure from his typical milieu of Jersey Shore summers or blue-collar anguish, these songs reveal an unabashedly sentimental side of his artistry. His fascination with the splendors and difficulties of romantic relationships has lasted throughout his career. “Addicted to Romance” fits alongside other songs such as “My Beautiful Reward” and “Kingdom of Days” that celebrate the humble joys of sharing your life with a loved one. Rebecca Miller's film fluctuates between moments of subtle elegance and theatricality, reflecting the peculiar enchantment of falling in love. "Addicted to Romance,” on the other hand, is a steady anchor that solidifies the film’s romantic themes. Ultimately, She Came to Me is about how finding your partner is a bewildering and uncertain journey marked by turbulent emotions and high stakes, but also moments of gentle beauty. [For more on "Addicted to Romance," click here to read our initial report, posted upon the recording's official release.]

October 3, 2023 EDITOR'S NOTE: Just as we were readying our first-ever podcast, focused on Bruce Springsteen's female fans, we happened to hear from a bona-fide "newbie" female fan. Maggie Wheeler shared with us her first-hand account of how she became a newly obsessed fan during Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's stand in Chicago, just under two months ago. Check out Maggie's story below. And if you can be in Asbury Park, NJ this coming Saturday, consider yourself invited to attend a FREE presentation and book-signing event with our podcast's guests, Lorraine Mangione and Donna Luff, co-authors of Mary Climbs In: The Journeys of Bruce Springsteen's Female Fans. The event will take place on Saturday, October 7, beginning at 7pm, at Asbury Book Cooperative. Click here for more info and to secure your FREE event-ticket. "Baptized By Bruce" by Maggie Wheeler I was not a Bruce Springsteen fan. When “Born in the U.S.A.” first hit the airwaves, I was not interested in his music. Back then, I saw a musician whom I perceived as too commercial and East Coast elite, who didn’t speak to someone like me living in a “flyover state.” Admittedly, “Dancing in the Dark” is a catchy tune, and I admired how he plucked a girl from the audience to dance with him in the video (although I later discovered it wasn’t a random selection at all.) But John Mellencamp represented those who grew up in the Midwest like me. And “Rain on the Scarecrow” is an amazing song. John knows what life is like in the heartland. I married Ray in 2012, and though we’d known each other for years, we never talked a lot about our musical tastes. That he is a huge Bruce fan eluded me. I’m not sure why. Ray has Bruce box sets and CDs and books all over the house. But Ray scarcely talked about his fandom to me. It was stealth, private. Clearly, he sensed my disinterest. He never mentioned wanting to go to see the 2016 tour. Or maybe he did, and I paid zero attention. Looking back on this part of our marriage now, it all seems odd that he never shared with me something so important to him. But we had other things in common, like a passion for animal rescue, and that kept us busy, and still does. For us, that was enough. But in 2023, I knew Bruce was on tour because this time Ray talked about it. I knew Bruce was in Europe and would be back in the U.S. at some point. I knew Bruce fell on the stage stairs somewhere. I knew Bruce possibly had COVID and had to postpone several shows. Ray decided now was the time to make me listen. And he did. “Bruce is coming to Chicago,” he said as he emerged from his home office one day in the spring. I didn’t look up from my computer. “How old is he now?” “73.” I shrugged. “How much are the tickets?” “A lot.” I paused. “Listen, do it if you want to. He’s not getting any younger.” He went back into the office, and that was the last I heard until the day the tickets went on sale. Then I heard a loud expletive coming from the office. “They’re all gone.” I was sad for him, but I continued doing personal things and forgot about it until a few days later when my husband told me they’d added a second show. “Do it,” I told him again. He bought expensive tickets and started counting down the days until the show. I couldn’t even remember the exact date and he had to remind me multiple times. August arrived and, amidst the stress of going back to teaching at our local university, I didn’t want to go to this concert. I hoped I’d get sick. I hoped Bruce would postpone the show (since I knew he’d had earlier in the tour.) Something. Anything to get me out of this. To my disappointment, nothing prevented me from going. We took the train to Chicago like we’ve done at least twenty times since we’ve been together, and I prepared to endure for three hours. Then I’d go home and things would go back to normal. On concert day, August 11th, my anxiety about navigating the Red Line to Wrigley and getting back to our hotel again distracted me from my disinterest in going. After an event-free ride, we made it to Wrigley Field right as the doors opened and settled into our pricey seats. I relaxed. And sweated. And prepared for an okay time. The show started, and the venue ignited. My problem was I didn’t know any of the songs for the first part of the show, so the palpable energy moved past me with no impact. Instead, I amused myself by watching the audience reactions on the big screens and taking in the atmosphere while my husband became one with the crowd. Something happened between “Mary’s Place” and “Last Man Standing.” Bruce talked about the passing of the one remaining band member from his first band. “Death is about what is possible in this life now.” "Wait, Bruce is talking about life and death?," I asked myself. Not what I expected in a rock and roll show. I glanced at my husband. Nodding at me, he already knew that life and death and the joy of living were the threads through the songs on this tour. He had followed the set list and watched clips from many prior shows. To date, I have lost both parents, a best friend, many pets, and three close friends. For the first time, I knew what others already did: Bruce gets it. Bruce’s songs have depth and resonate on levels I hadn’t understood before. Because I never gave him a chance. Something inside me broke and healed simultaneously. The wave of emotional energy from the crowd that had been crashing around me during the first half of the show finally swept me away. Metaphorically, I was crowd surfing. I felt like a presence wrapped its arms around me. My knees buckled, and I held onto the seat in front of me to compose myself. I had to sit for “Backstreets” because I felt dizzy. Surrounded by the surge of energy that moved around and now through me, I needed to catch my breath and process what I’d experienced. My head pounded, but in the best way possible. I lost myself in introspection. I’ve been to over fifty concerts in my life, but I have never experienced a transformation like this. Not once. When I heard the opening of “Because the Night” it pulled me out of my head — and out of my seat. “He’s singing my favorite 10,000 Maniacs song,” I whispered to my husband, who laughingly corrected me. Wait, Bruce wrote that song? How did I not know that? I love the song, and Bruce wrote it. What other surprises were in store for me? After that, I listened more closely to the lyrics. I listened to my husband’s whispered explanations leading me out of the darkness. I danced to “Rosalita” and “Dancing in the Dark” (without thinking about Courtney Cox once.) When he played “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” I swallowed the baseball-sized lump in my throat. Now, I didn’t want the night to end. I didn’t want any of it to end. Everyone in Wrigley but I knew that this was the last song on the setlist, and I refused to believe it. The night was over, but it wasn’t. On the train ride the next day, I fought back tears. Something is wrong with me. When we got home, I sobbed. After I dried my eyes, I fought to understand why I felt so emotional. Why was I crying about a concert - about an artist - that 24 hours prior I didn’t even care about? I rationalized it as being tired, though I knew I wasn’t tired at all. When I woke up the next morning after a restless night of Bruce songs peppering my dreams, and I still felt like crying, I knew this was not a fluke. That morning, I surreptitiously watched YouTube concert videos like someone sneaking glances at porn. Later in the day, I realized I was being ridiculous. What are you ashamed of? As I fought back tears, I confessed to Ray, “I think that concert changed my freaking life.” Ray smiled at me. “I think that’s a common theme," he replied. "Let me send you something.” He went to his computer and sent me the link to a post from a Bruce Facebook fan group. A guy who had been at the concert on August 11th, posted that he “got it” now. Finally, I exhaled literally and figuratively; I wasn’t alone in this transformation. Though the feeling was new and uncomfortable, as change often is, it would soon fit like my favorite pair of boots. I’ve debated a career change for over a year, but I feared losing the stability the job offers. As I read the post Ray sent me, I kept thinking about Bruce’s words: “Death is about what we make of life now.” Maybe now was the time to launch a writing career. Is a dream a lie if it don't come true...? I didn’t want to know the answer to that question. When my husband came back into the room, he looked at me like he hadn’t in a long time. Something had shifted between us we now talk a lot about. But right then, the gravity of my personal evolution struck me. “Like, I’m not joking. This concert messed me up. Maybe now is the time to do what I love.” “Do it,” he said. No more wasted days. * For the next seven days, I watched concert videos on YouTube with my husband and listened to E Street Radio all day long in order to catch up on the fifty years of Bruceness I have missed. During the seven days after the concert, I wondered what would have happened if I’d gone to a show sooner. I asked myself if this conversion would have happened earlier. Immediately, I understood what happened at Wrigley Field on August 11th, 2023 was something special. I’m perfectly where I need to be. Bruce's music did that. I believe it’ll help to lead me forward the rest of the way. My life hasn’t gone back to “normal.” My new normal is powerful. I cried for seven days - and counting; I swam in the songs for seven days. For seven days - and counting - I understood more fully where I’m destined to be. Seeing the joy on my husband’s face when I ask him about song lyrics or a biographical detail about Bruce makes my heart sing. Not only was I transformed, but our marriage was, too. It’s an intimacy that we share with millions of other humans, and I am happy I now join my husband in it. When I enter a room and shout “No retreat, baby, no surrender,” he laughs. When I sing along to “Badlands” in the car, he joins in. Our membership in this "congregation" transcends the hard responsibilities we also share. On that seventh night, Ray told me, “I hoped this would happen, but I didn’t want to push you into it.” He led me to the ceremony and let me decide whether to immerse myself in the water. But I didn’t choose to be baptized; something chose it for me. Only those who’ve been to the river will understand. I saw Mellencamp perform recently. “Rain on the Scarecrow” is still awesome, and he rocked, as he always does. But this time, I exited a venue bone-dry.

October 1, 2023 Congratulations to our pals director Nick Mead and executive producer (and Letters To You website consultant) Brian Samelson on A Thousand Guitars taking home the Best Film award at The 2023 Portobello Film Festival! Nick and Brian previously collaborated in the same respective roles on the great documentary Clarence Clemons: Who Do I Think I Am? Click here to read more in our previous feature on A Thousand Guitars. And additional congrats go out to Nick on the official announcement and greenlighting of his next project: the documentary I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol, based on founding Sex Pistols member Glen Matlock's memoir of the same title. Click here to read The Hollywood Reporter's full report. Kudos to you, Nick, and never mind the bollocks! It's time to, as the Big Man himself would say, "order the good wine."