Five years ago, Bruce Springsteen brought the mighty forces of the E Street Band back into the studio to record their first album of new material together since the 1984 phenomenon which was Born In The U.S.A. The result was 2002's The Rising. The album is fueled by the gospel-tinged R&B and straight forward rock & roll which has been the E Street Band's trademark since the early days in Asbury Park. Springsteen himself injected his poetry of abandon, hope and redemption into these songs of reflection on a post-9/11 existence. In the few short years following, Springsteen released another album of intimate, confronting solo work reminiscent of Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad titled Devils & Dust. Shortly after, Springsteen hired a group of lesser-known musicians from New Jersey and New York, augmented by Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, and The Miami Horns to record in an informal setting the songs made popular by folk musician Pete Seeger. The resulting interpretation, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, became Springsteen's first album of completely non-Springsteen material and won the Grammy award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February.The Boss has explored many facets of the American musical landscape in the past five years and now he returns accompanied by the E Street Band with the appropriately titled Magic. The album doesn't release until October 2nd, but iTunes is making the opening track and first single "Radio Nowhere" available to download for FREE for a very limited time. It's a tasty helping of straight-on-til-the-dawn American rock & roll as only E Street can bring.
