In haar maandelijkse nieuwsbrief schrijft singer-songwriter extraordinaire Gretchen Peters dat zij met haar man en pianist Barry Walsh naar New York vlogen om Bruce Springsteen’s one man show op Broadway te zien.
Ze beschrijft dat optreden als: ‘the most unguarded, honest, open-hearted performance I’ve ever seen. I was in tears throughout much of it. I was as moved by his spoken words as I was by his songs. It was that powerful.’’ en: ‘What I left the theatre with was both a sense of affirmation and humility. Springsteen’s very un-cynical belief is that music can be our church, our salvation, a place where our stories are told with insight and compassion. I have always believed that, but the music bsiness is a harsh and cynical place which works hard to beat that idea out of its artists – for an artist who understands the transformative power of music is a dangerous person; a person who isn’t afraid of telling the truth. There was much truth-telling in the two and one-half hours of Springsteen on Broadway, and it was both eloquent and unflinching. His testimony to the power of art is deeply affirming; his gift is profoundly humbling.’
Ze besluit haar oordeel met een veelzeggende conclusie. Tenslotte tilde zij haar teksten op ‘Hello cruel world’ en ‘Blackbirds’ al naar een nog hoger niveau: ‘I took it as an offering and a challenge to try to make better art, to tell deeper truths, to be less afraid, to speak louder, more thoughtfully, more compassionately, to see with clearer eyes so that I can tell more important, truer stories.’
Dat is niet alleen het besluit van een even prachtige als oprechte lofrede, maar ook een veelbelovende aankondiging…….