Flawless execution in both musical performance and as a theatrical, cinematic piece.

The barn is essential to the music and the stories. It’s skeletal remains reflect the skeletal remains of most of the album’s characters who are nearing the end, having run from and away from everything that was ever good for them and the people that loved them. The barn’s wooden boards mirror what’s left of these characters: weathered and worn, fragile, slightly askew, but somehow still remaining and doing the best they can to hang on in a semblance of the work they used to perform

The barn is the perfect encapsulation of the vehicle used to deliver a story straight from the mythos of the West and western movies with their horses, cowboys, lonely men and wide open spaces filled simultaneously with blazing light, darkness and the shadows in between where the characters often find themselves living on the margins.

Bruce puts a huge collection of musicians and sounds in a very small space that reminded me so much of Elvis Presley’s stage show with a rhythm section, vocal support, a 30 piece orchestra, orchestra director and musical stage director. The sound embodies the pot pourri of musical tastes he’s been working at for 50 years. The country, pop sophistication of Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell, a nod to the horn arrangements of Allen Touisaant who worked with country artists in the 70’s including Cambell, paying tribute to the Nashville songwriters like Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle on Somewhere North of Nashville, the pure pop of southern California Beach Boys and Phil Spector orchestrations, Smokey Robinsonesque vocals on Sundown and There Goes My Miracle, a few hints of the Cosmic County stylings of Graham Parson, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Emmylou Harris and everything in between. It’s a sonic orgasm.

Beautifully shot inside and outside, lush in sound and scenery, incredible arrangements and flawless in musicianship by all on stage. The sweeping scenery filled with cactus and desert scrub, loping horses and lonely characters walking in silence pairs perfectly with the music Springsteen and friends play. 

This movie earns 5 gold plated Takamine acoustic guitars hung on the wall.

“And so we keep walking through the darkness towards the sunrise because that’s where the light is. Happy trails pilgrim”

#anotherzimnymasterpiece
#brucespringsteen
#westernstarsmovie