One day in late 1973, the mailman delivered a review copy of Bruce Springsteen’s just-released second album. I’d barely heard of him before the LP arrived but the more I played it the more captivated I became. So I called the publicity department at Columbia Records and said I’d like to talk with Bruce. A couple of weeks later, on January 15, 1974, he phoned me at home and I interviewed him for an article that ran that March in a then-popular national music magazine called…

In my new book Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters,  I talk about interviewing the Boss in early 1974, when he was too poor to even afford a record player.

He wasn't the only soon-to-be-famous musician I encountered that year. Shortly after I spoke with Springsteen, I scheduled an interview with a then up-and-coming duo called Carlson & Gailmor. A publicist at their record label, Polydor, asked whether I'd mind if another fledgling duo joined us for…

Listening to “Worried Man Blues,” the banjo- and mandolin-spiced opening track of Elliott Murphy’s umpteenth excellent album, you might think you’re in for his version of Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions. Wrong. Murphy’s cover of this traditional number, good as it is, turns out to be rather atypical of a mostly hard-rocking program. 

That starts to become clear with “Angeline,” the second track, which features a strong beat and a touch of falsetto in the extended…

The Wailin’ Jennys’ Ruth Moody hits the ball out of the park on this atmospheric second solo album, which profits from her poetically crafted love songs and lilting vocals. The understated but passionate “One and Only,” which reminds me a bit of Lucinda Williams’s “Right in Time,” is among the most seductive ballads I’ve heard in a while. Also here are the exquisite “Make a Change,” about a love that “passed by like the cars”; “One Light Shining,” which features Jerry Douglas on…

Funny how things work out.

Back in January 1974, shortly after Bruce Springsteen’s just-released second album had  turned me into a serious fan, I interviewed him for a then-popular music magazine called Zoo World. At the time, he was earning $75 a week and complaining about how difficult it was to keep a band together on a shoestring.

The next year, I interviewed an equally struggling Tom Waits for Britain’s Melody Maker.

Fast forward about three…