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December 10, 2023 Our friend and contributor Greg Drew continues his exploration of Bruce Springsteen's songwriting skills on his monthly E Street Radio show Legendary E Street Band. Following up on last month's episode, which focused on Springsteen's songwriting from the beginning of his career through the early nineties, this month's episode continues the exploration from the mid-nineties up to the present. As Greg notes at the beginning of the show, "you can be a terrific singer and have a versatile and kick-ass band but let's face it - it all begins with the song...The last show featured the early part of Bruce's career, so this episode will concentrate on the second half, and, as before, I'm gonna play some of my personal favorite songs - some studio recordings, some live, some expected versions, and hopefully a few pleasant surprises." The episode will debut on SiriusXM Channel 20 tomorrow morning, Monday December 11, at 10am ET, with re-airings scheduled throughout the week as follows: Tuesday, December 12 at 4pm ET Wednesday, December 13 at 8am ET Thursday, December 14 at 6pm ET Friday, December 15 at 9am ET Saturday, December 16 at 5pm ET SiriusXM subscribers will be able to listen to this episode on-demand/online, as well, via the SiriusXM app.

December 9, 2023 Yesterday's announced addition of a Las Vegas date to next year's tour itinerary wasn't the only "December surprise" that Bruce Springsteen has for fans this year. Also announced yesterday: Philadelphia 10.14.09, the first new "from-the-vaults" archival release from Live.BruceSpringsteen.net since the Christmas Eve 2022 release of East Rutherford, NJ - July 18, 1999. Fittingly, this December archival release arrived just in time for the first night of Hanukkah 2023, but of course it also raises the question... Given the almost-nine-years-old tradition of a Christmas-Eve (or thereabouts) extra release from the official live archives, will this be the only "December surprise" archival release from Springsteen this year, or might we be in store for a double-shot of archival releases before the month is over? So far, Letters To You has neither an official confirmation nor an official denial to report on that front; stay tuned... Regardless of whatever else may or may not get released later this month, Philadelphia 10.14.09 is an absolutely awesome treat from the vaults. The second of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's final four shows ever to occur in Philadelphia's legendary and now-demolished Spectrum arena, it serves as an excellent accompaniment to the previous official release from that great four-shows farewell-to-the-Spectrum run: Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 10/20/09. Bruce and the Band's October 14, 2009 performance, professionally recorded by John Cooper and given the usual stellar official-archives mixing/mastering treatment by Jon Altschiller & Co., included a full-album-in-sequence performance of Darkness on the Edge of Town, featuring the rarely-performed-since-'78 "Streets of Fire" along with the rarely-performed-in-general "Something in the Night" and the almost-equally-rare "Factory." The show also opened with a fine performance of an early-1970s outtake - "Thundercrack" - that's never been performed more than about a dozen times on any tour (even the early-1970s ones,) and featured the only public performance to date of the underrated Working On A Dream track "What Love Can Do." Click here to read Nugs/Columbia's Erik Flannigan's essay "In The Darkness I Hear Somebody Call My Name" and click here to purchase Philadelphia 10.14.09.

December 8, 2023 Further information on this and all other upcoming tour dates can be found by clicking here to visit BruceSpringsteen.net's "Tour" page.

December 4, 2023 As recently reported by Chris Jordan in The Asbury Park Press, Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa have donated $100,000 to the Asbury Park African-American Music Project (AP-AMP.) The money is earmarked for AP-AMP's ongoing renovation of The Turf Club, which is Asbury Park's sole surviving music-venue structure from the city's once-thriving African-American commercial and cultural district, along Springwood Avenue on the west side of Asbury Park. Before long-standing racism exploded into the west side's civil unrest of 1970 and the brutal governmental response to it, Springwood Avenue housed dozens of African-American-owned music venues and other businesses. For decades before 1970, music legends such as Count Basie and Billie Holiday could be seen performing on Springwood Avenue in such venues. At The Turf Club itself, music-lovers could catch nationally popular acts like The Ohio Players, as well as locally-based up-and-coming musicians like a young, pre-E-Street Band Clarence Clemons. AP-AMP's renovation of The Turf Club, which it now owns and has begun using as a space for cultural events and gatherings, is part of the organization's broader mission, as per its website: Share the music, cultural heritage and stories of Springwood Avenue through oral histories, research, writing, and programs Develop accessible resources that reflect Asbury Park’s African-American music heritage for the City of Asbury Park and others to use as a basis for interpretive heritage projects Address a lack of representation in traditional historic resources and give voice to the stories of Asbury Park’s African American community Engage all who live in and visit Asbury Park in the active exploration, interpretation, understanding, and preservation of Asbury Park's African-American cultural heritage AP-AMP Board member Jen Souder told Jordan that the donation from Scialfa and Springsteen will be combined with grant money to expand the ongoing physical renovations to The Turf Club. Souder also spoke directly with Springsteen about the donation. “We're really grateful that he thought of us, and he said music from the West Side is important to him,” Souder told Jordan. “He's excited that we're doing this." Click here to read "Bruce Springsteen donates $100,000 to restoration of historic Turf Club in Asbury Park" by Chris Jordan of The Asbury Park Press. And click here if you'd like to get involved in supporting the ongoing work of the Asbury Park African-American Music Project (AP-AMP.) Options include volunteering your time, donating some money, buying some cool stuff from their online shop, and/or spreading the word on social-media. Finally, anyone interested in Asbury Park's musical, cultural, and social history needs to check out AP-AMP's impressive and growing Digital Museum section of its website. For the past five years, AP-AMP has been conducting a major, ongoing historical research effort, filming interviews with locals musicians and community members who were part of the music scene on Springwood Avenue. The project also involves recreating historic maps of Springwood Avenue and collecting photographs. In addition to what can be seen currently online via the Digital Museum, a partnership with The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University has been established to house all of AP-AMP's research.

December 3, 2023

Our full report, featuring pro-shot photos AND a complete pro-shot video of the award presentation, is below. December 2, 2023 Just before the intermission break of her 2023 Love for the Holidays Christmas show at The Town Hall in New York City last Thursday night, the great Darlene Love finally was able to reveal the special surprise that she'd known about for just over a week beforehand. She confessed to her audience that secret-keeping wasn't one of her greatest skills. "My husband says, 'You are not no refrigerator; you can't keep nothin'," Love told the crowd jokingly. Nevertheless, she successfully kept her lips mostly sealed for this one, teasing it just a tad on her Facebook page by writing, "I’m so so excited to announce that Sony/Columbia Records/Legacy will be presenting me w/ a platinum record for 'Christmas Baby, Please Come Home'! I’ve never received anything like this so I’m truly honored and to top it off it’ll be given to me by a VERY special VIP guest at my show at The Town Hall in NYC on Nov 30th. Who do you think it is? It’s a MEGA MEGA star and NO it’s not Cher!! lol" [Love appears on Cher's recently released Christmas album, and they performed together at this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting event.] Since there was Sony/Columbia/Legacy involvement, an educated guess for the "VERY special VIP...MEGA MEGA star" would've been Bruce Springsteen. On the other hand, another equally good guess would've been Sony/Columbia star Mariah Carey, possibly as one more gesture of goodwill after last year's "Queen of Christmas" foofaraw. It wasn't Mariah, though, who strode onstage from the wings after the surprise was revealed. It was Bruce, carrying a framed platinum-record award for presentation to Darlene. Officially, the award is to commemorate sales of "more than 1,000,000 copies of the Philles Records album A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector." Nevertheless, it is Darlene Love's singing on "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" that is inarguably the single greatest musical highlight on an excellent album that's full of such music. "She’s my forever crush," noted Springsteen with a chuckle as he began his presentation. "Now, Darlene," he continued, "was born in Los Angeles. She began singing in the local church choir, and of course that led to ‘He’s A Rebel,’ ‘He’s Sure The Boy I Love,’ ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’…credited to The Crystals, but it was Darlene’s voice filled with teenage longing that made those songs hits. Then in 1963 she recorded the classic ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home,)’ the absolute greatest Christmas rock ‘n roll song of all time! She is that song, and Darlene has been a part of our holidays for sixty years. So I am here tonight to present Darlene with this platinum award for ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home.)’ Congratulations, Darlene! We love you! Whoo! Overdue! Well deserved!” Directly below, you can watch complete pro-shot video of Springsteen's award presentation, as well as Darlene Love's remarks after receiving her award: The award presentation came after a first-half set that included Love's performance of "Night Closing In," one of two Springsteen songs that were contributed to Love's great 2015 album Introducing Darlene Love, arranged and produced by Steven Van Zandt. Van Zandt also was in attendance with his wife Maureen, and throughout the evening Love made several veiled references to Stevie's strong, longtime support of her career, presumably not identifying him overtly so that he could remain in the audience and enjoy the show in relative peace and anonymity. Stevie was mentioned directly by name, however, during Love's introduction to her performance of the great Christmas song that he wrote for her to perform with members of the E Street Band on the Home Alone 2 soundtrack: "All Alone On Christmas." Springsteen and the Van Zandts also visited Love backstage, with Bruce and Stevie even participating in Love's pre-show prayer circle with her band, as seen in these photos posted on Darlene Love's Facebook page: After intermission, Love treated her audience to a humorous story about her backstage interaction with Springsteen: “I said to him, ‘When you gonna take me on the road with you?’ But I also said, ‘I ain’t goin’ on tour for four years, and I ain’t doin’ no three-hour shows, either.’” She may not do a three-hour show, but whether it's Christmastime or any other time of the year, Darlene Love still delivers one amazing experience. Backed by a great band and backing vocalists (one of whom, Milton Vann, delivered a standing-ovation-level solo version of "O Holy Night" during Thursday's show,) she consistently performs a mix of rock, soul, pop, and gospel material with a voice that surpasses most other singers on the planet, no matter the genre. And she's 82 years old! Take that, "classic rockers!" Seriously, I've had the good fortune to see Darlene perform live about a half-dozen times during the past ten years. Every show has been great, of course, but her singing last Thursday night actually topped all of the previous times that I've seen her live. How is that possible?! It feels like a Christmas miracle, but really it's all about a great singer who consistently has done all of the hard work in honing her craft, and also protected her talent by taking extremely good care of her voice through the years. No wonder artists like Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Van Zandt, who are equally interested in remaining great for the long haul, love her so and draw so much inspiration from her. If you want to treat yourself and/or your loved ones to something extra-special this holiday season, catch one of Darlene Love's remaining Love for the Holidays shows. Here are the dates and locations: Dec. 3, 2023 - Fairfield, CT - Sacred Heart University Community Theatre TICKETS Dec. 7, 2023 - Port Washington, NY - Jeanne Rimsky Theater TICKETS Dec. 9, 2023 - Woodstock, NY - Bearsville Theater TICKETS Dec. 14, 2023 - Glenside PA - Keswick Theatre TICKETS Dec. 15, 2023 - Red Bank NJ - Count Basie Center for the Arts TICKETS Dec. 17, 2023 - Tarrytown, NY - Tarrytown Music Hall TICKETS Dec. 22, 2023 - Newton, NJ - The Newton Theatre TICKETS ...and to keep updated on all future concerts and other projects, click here to visit Darlene Love's official website. Congratulations and Merry Christmas, Darlene! You are forever The Queen of Christmas on E Street, and long may you reign.

November 30, 2023 Happy birthday and many, many more to the great keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist David Sancious, the E Street Band's original pianist, stellar organist on tracks like "Kitty's Back," and masterful strings arranger for "New York City Serenade," to which of course he also contributed that classic improvised opening on the piano. And as we're reminded by the photo posted here, he even played a major role in the somewhat mythical (of course) origin of the E Street Band's very name, while living at 1105 E Street in Belmar, NJ. Just recently, at last month's 50th Anniversary Of The Release Of The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle symposium hosted by The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University, Springsteen said of Sancious, who turns 70 today,"Davey has never played anything bad. I don't know if he's capable of doing that, so it was always easy to give him free rein." For our birthday salute, we had planned to share a particularly timely pro-shot video of Sancious' most recent onstage appearance with Springsteen from just about a year ago, in that great live Tonight Show performance of "Don't Play That Song," accompanied by The Roots. "Take it, Davey!," exulted Bruce shortly after conducting his mini-post-mortem of the just-finished annual Thanksgiving feasting. Unfortunately, the Tonight Show's YouTube channel recently pulled the "Don't Play That Song" clip, presumably because of a one-year posting limit. In any case, we have here instead another pro-shot video of Sancious in action, embedded below. This one's just as good, if not better, because it shows off not just Sancious' multi-instrumentalist chops on guitar, but also his lead-vocal skills, covering the country-blues standard "Sitting On The Top Of The World" with The David Sancious & Jim Weider Blues Project at the 2010 Delaware River Bluesfest in Stockton, NJ.: Happy 70th birthday, "Davey from E Street!" May you be sitting on top of the world, today and every day.

...and directly from Jim to our readers, a very special Darkness@45 Cyber-Monday-and-beyond discount offer on limited-edition prints purchases! (Read below for the details.) November 27, 2023 Many fans already are familiar with the stellar work of photographer James Shive, and with his amazing archive, which includes beautiful and historic photos of Bruce Springsteen and other legendary rockers. Jim's photography was featured regularly at Backstreets Magazine and at the Backstreets.com website. More than 500 of Jim's photographs of Springsteen and other artists have been acquired by The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives. His images have appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, CREEM, Circus, Relix, on VH1, and on the cover of the fan-favorite book The Light in Darkness. Jim's also been a featured guest on SiriusXM's E Street Radio, and in 2011, he launched his own website, where thousands of his photographs can be viewed and purchased as high-quality prints. Letters To You recently connected with Jim Shive. We thought it would be cool for our readers to get to know a bit more about the man behind the camera. Jim not only was kind enough to talk with us, but with this 45th-anniversary year of the Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour quickly drawing to its close, and the holiday gift-giving season upon us once more, Jim has created a very special offer for any of our readers who may be looking for something special for the Springsteen fan(s) in your life, and/or even for yourself! Jim started photographing Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in concert in 1974, about a year after he first became interested in photography while still a high-school student. "I guess, growing up in Jersey," Jim told us, "Bruce and the Asbury Park scene became something near and dear to me. My wife Mary Ann and I spent a lot of time in Asbury Park at The Stone Pony, The Fast Lane, and all the other clubs. We met and got to know a lot of the up-and-coming bands from that time. I also photographed several of them, and was fortunate to catch Bruce and various members of the E Street Band in action at some of those smaller clubs over the years." Meanwhile, Jim's budding interest in photography, especially in rock-concert photography, had mushroomed into a very successful and exciting career. And it all began in 1973, before he even had his own camera and equipment. "Receiving my first camera in 1974," he told us, "I photographed a few other shows prior to that with borrowed cameras before I had my own. The very first show was James Taylor. I also shot Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which has been one of my top-sellers over the years in limited edition prints. I eventually expanded into other acts because I always seem to have tickets in the first couple of rows, and went to a lot of concerts. Once I had a small archive of images that were of quality similar to what I saw in magazines, I knew that there would be opportunities for me to get published. It was actually my wife - my girlfriend at the time - who suggested that I reach out to [long-standing NJ-based music publication] The Aquarian with my images. And within two weeks I had a cover. I started receiving lists and requests from publications, and started making contact with editors and publicists and record companies to get better access, a photo pass, or sometimes they would just give you a ticket in the front row." As the years went by, Jim and Mary Ann's young son Ian occasionally would join them at some of the concerts that Jim photographed. "I remember him being maybe five or six years old and sitting in the front by the aisle," Jim recalled recently. These days, Ian Shive is an award-winning nature photographer and film/television producer. "As crazy as it sounds," noted Jim, "he didn't see Bruce Springsteen in concert until The River Tour 2016." Not surprisingly, Springsteen's 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and the tour that accompanied it, still holds a very special place in Jim's heart all these years later, as it does for so many other Springsteen fans. "So many of the songs on this album have become the foundation of a lot of the live shows over the years. Many of them also stand out as moments that were very explosive and energetic on stage and help make for some great photographs." To help close out the 45th-anniversary celebration-year of Bruce Springsteen's classic album and tour in style, Jim has a very special offer for Letters To You readers who are interested in purchasing one or more prints from his "The Darkness Editions" collection at The Shive Archive website. Using the coupon code LETTERS when you check out, you'll receive a 15% discount on each and every Giclee Limited Edition print that you order! We also are honored to have Jim do one of his custom "takeovers" of our social-media sites, just like he used to do back in the heyday of the Backstreets website. Throughout the 2023 holiday gift-giving season, keep an eye out for various spotlights on Jim's beautiful photography from the '78 Darkness Tour, and a reminder on how you can purchase limited-edition prints during the gift-giving season with our special Letters To You discount code. Stay tuned to our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds.

November 24, 2023

November 23, 2023 Happy Thanksgiving 2023 to all of our readers and supporters who celebrate the holiday. We here at Letters To You couldn't be more grateful to each and every one of you who helped to make this year's launch of our website so successful. You did not have to love us like you did, but you did, but you did, but you did... AND WE THANK YOU! Speaking of which, click the image below for some appropriate soulful sounds (from December 7, 2003) to accompany your holiday feast later today. Enjoy! And please click here (and/or the image below) for more information on how you can support WhyHunger's 2023 Hungerthon. Bruce Springsteen has long supported WhyHunger's efforts to end hunger on our planet, and this year's Hungerthon - an annual Thanksgiving tradition - offers some exclusive Darkness@45/Springsteen items for its supporters. Please give whatever you can to support WhyHunger, with the hope that on one future Thanksgiving Day, no further Hungerthons will be necessary.

November 22, 2023 Yes, of course we just posted an extensive follow-up feature on TeachRock, the groundbreaking educational program founded by Steven Van Zandt, and it already included some great photos from his visit last month to a Brooklyn classroom using TeachRock resources. But with today officially marking Stevie's 73rd birthday, we just had to share (above) this one additional, beautiful shot from that visit. It perfectly captures his spirit of continually connecting and educating, refusing to ever allow the music and culture he loves to die. Happy Birthday - and many, many more - to "the Minister of faith and friendship, keeper of all that is righteous on E Street," the "RocknRoll Rebel," and the "Voice of America." And whether you missed it or didn't, today's an especially good day to watch (or re-watch) last Sunday's 60 Minutes overview of the Birthday Boy's amazing, inspiring life and career:

November 20, 2023 This past September, in our "back-to-school" feature on TeachRock - Steven Van Zandt's "greatest legacy," as per Bruce Springsteen - we noted that the organization recently launched an ongoing partnership with The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, and that we would be reporting more details on that exciting development in about a month. Due mainly to a slightly delayed official announcement of the Archives/Center's plans for a new state-of-the-art building, our report has taken a bit longer than expected to arrive, but it remains very good news that's well worth the extra wait to read at last. As the Archives/Center's Executive Director Robert Santelli stated at last month's official new-building announcement event, TeachRock and The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music are "first cousins," with much in common in terms of a shared vision and mission. We recently followed up with TeachRock's Executive Director, Bill Carbone, to dive more deeply into the details of the TeachRock-Springsteen Archives/Center partnership, as well as some other welcome news on the TeachRock front. "The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music...," said Carbone, "takes the ‘Center for American Music' part of their name seriously. They want the Archives/Center to be a place where you see America through popular music culture. The way they’ll be making connections between music and culture in their building is the same way TeachRock is doing it in schools. As their official education partner, we look forward to helping them build a pathway between the stories they're telling and the concepts teachers must address in classrooms.” "What TeachRock brings to the table at the Archives/Center," continued Carbone, "are the resources that make a field trip align with state and national education standards. That field trip becomes an extension of students’ history courses and a powerful way to bring what they might read in a textbook to life.” Along with the details of the TeachRock-Springsteen Archives/Center partnership, Bill Carbone also had some additional exciting TeachRock news to share. "TeachRock was awarded the Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative grant from the Library of Congress. It makes us a part of the Library of Congress' Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, and it supports our Rock and Soul of America U.S. History project. We will be able to expand our current history offerings to become a full-credit, year-long U.S. History high-school course that runs from Reconstruction to near-present, and uses music as the primary source throughout. We'll be using Library of Congress media resources as we expand the course. They're looking for ways to get their amazing collection of American music into teachers' hands and into classrooms, and we're making this history course which will help to provide that.” TeachRock also recently expanded its partnership with New York Edge, formerly known as the Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation (SASF), a non-profit organization that is the largest provider of afterschool programs in all five boroughs of New York City and the metropolitan region. It has more than 40,000 students from over 300 programs in grades K-12, providing under-resourced students with year-round programs to give them the extra support needed for success. New York Edge now incorporates TeachRock's comprehensive Harmony Student Wellness social-emotional learning program into its daily activities at all its onsite locations. You can click here to read our September 2023 TeachRock report, which included a more detailed discussion of the Harmony Student Wellness program with both Bill Carbone and TeachRock's Partner School Liaison Gina Machado. Hey, fellow Stevie/E Street fans, are you looking to help support TeachRock's various ongoing efforts to change schools for the better, and have a lotta fun doing it, as well? If you can be in the New York City area on December 6, TeachRock's annual "Stand With Teachers" fundraising event is definitely shaping up to be an exciting evening. The event will be emceed by Jake Clemons, with music provided by Anthony Almonte, Curtis King Jr., and Ozzie Melendez, and a TeachRock Visionary Award presentation to photographer Danny Clinch. Click here to download and read a PDF with all of the details on how you and/or your group can attend and/or support TeachRock's Stand With Teachers 2023 fundraiser. And whether you can or can't attend the December 6 fundraiser, you always can just click here to donate some money directly to TeachRock, especially on GivingTuesday, which will fall this year on November 28.