American Land / Body of an American?

[Eamo]

Anyone know anything about this song called "American Land", Bruce Springsteen has being opening his Seeger Sessions shows with lately? It sounds very like "Body of an American". It was the first song he played at Madison Square Garden last week and also at the two shows at PNC in NJ over the weekend. I actually turned to the person next to me and exclaimed "Jaysus, I come all the way from Dublin to hear Springsteen play in New Jersey, and he starts off with a feckin' Irish song"!

Its not on the album and I can't see it credited anywhere as a Pete Seeger song. Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers!

[euchrid]

I don't think it sounds much like "Body of an American". Good song though. A music blog called ickmusic had a live mp3 of it and this information:

Another tour debut the other night at Madison Square Garden. The working title we’re going with is “American Land”. It’s not really known yet whether this is a new Bruce tune, but according to Backstreets, “More likely a traditional song with some new Springsteen lyrics.”

“This is an immigrant song for New York City,” Springsteen said before tonight’s new opening number — no, not a song off Led Zeppelin III, but at the moment we can’t tell you exactly what it was, either. A new Springsteen song? More likely a traditional song with some new Springsteen lyrics. On the setlist as “American Land,” it had a recurring refrain of “home in the American land,” but it wasn’t “He Lies in the American Land,” despite that song’s association with Pete Seeger and the similarity in title. Watch this space for more as we know it…. In any case, it was certainly a world premiere, an Irish reel with a Clancy Brothers/Tommy Makem feel to it; lyrically, a vivid portrait of the immigrant experience in the vein of Ry Cooder’s “Across the Borderline.” At the end, Bruce had one more dedication for it: “for all you travelers out there.” - - from Backstreets

http://ickmusic.com/index.php/category/irish/