The album that made me open my eyes back to Bruce Springsteen was an album that I feel many diehard fans rarely talk about that album is 1995’s, The Ghost of Tom Joad.

The Ghost of Tom Joad is Springsteen’s eleventh studio album. It was recorded between March and September 1995 and released on November 21, 1995, by Columbia Records. This was only Bruce’s second mostly acoustic album after 1982’s Nebraska. Interestingly enough, it was his first studio album to fail to reach the top ten in the US in over two decades, and this is reason number 700 why I love it so much.

Different from his previous albums, Bruce wanted to make his melodies uncomplicated. He writes about people who traveled light, who were transient and people who left behind hard, complicated lives in another country.

Bruce knew The Ghost of Tom Joad would not attract his largest audience, but like Nebraska, he was still very proud of it. He felt it represented what it stood for, a view from a different perspective. A perspective many folks in the United States have sadly forgotten exists or don’t care about.

The album was released on November 21st, 1995, which happened to also be the night Bruce performed his first full solo acoustic concert since the early 1970s. In a solo show, there’s just one man, one guitar and the audience. As Bruce later writes in his book,

“What’s drawn forth is the emotional nucleus of your song. If your song is written well, it will stand in its skeleton form. Unlike Born in the USA, this album was naked”.

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Joining me for episode #96, is author and professional songwriting coach, Greig Watts. Greig joins me from the UK and in this episode he and I talk about how songwriters, producers and recording artists can actually get their songs out there in the world – either being noticed by the industry or perhaps selling the rights to another artist.

Greig also has a book which we will talk about his book titled, KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE - A Songwriter’s Guide to Overcoming Rejection, Finding Success and Enjoying the Journey Along the Way.

Greig’s book is not an instructional guide on how to write songs, it’s more a manual for musicians and songwriters to get their music heard, noticed and possibly purchased! We talk about the rejection he faced growing up in the 80s and 90’s in Surrey, England and how he eventually changed his entire approach and process to become a Eurovision songwriting award winner several times!

For listeners in the U.S., Eurovision is a premier, annual competition for original songs, submitted by songwriters representing European nations that has been around since 1956.

I’d also like to take a second to talk about this podcast. believe it or not over 50% of the people that listen are not subscribed to this podcast on their preferred platform. So I encourage you to hit the subscribe button now. This will help me get more of my dream guests to continue entertaining you.

So, kick back, grab your pen and paper to take notes!! Please enjoy episode #96, my conversation with songwriting coach, Greig Watts. Let’s do this…

Pick up Greig Watt's book, KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE - A Songwriter’s Guide to Overcoming Rejection, Finding Success and Enjoying the Journey Along the Way at the Bookstore at ALBUMREVIEW.NET.

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Want to be a guest on The ALBUMREVIEW.net podcast? Send Greg Potters a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/albumreviewpodcast

Want to get your music heard by someone at ALBUMREVIEW.NET?

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Joining me for episode #95, is author Kevin Banks. Kevin was a guest on a previous episode of the ALBUMREVIEW.NET podcast, episode # 44 which was titled Rapid Fire Roundtable. Kevin was part of a 3-person roundtable where we answer rapid fire questions about music. The episode was titled, “Does Music Today suck?”

Kevin Banks is an Art Director and Author. He returns to Podcast to talk about his newly published book titled Sloane – The Art School Underworld of 80s NYC. Kevin’s book is about his experience living at 356 West 34th Street during his years as a college student at The School of Visual Arts in the mid 1980s. And not only does Kevin share some CRAZY stories about what happened in that building but he also did a fine job tying music into the story, or stories I would say.

In this episode, Kevin and I will talk about the grueling process of writing the book, what it was like growing up in his home town outside of Boston, and why those experiences might have been the catalyst to the outrageous events he experienced and participated in during his time at Sloane.

Pick up Kevin Banks’ book, Sloane – The Art School Underworld of 80s NYC, on Amazon and on his website, https://claymoregoboom.com/.

For more to go https://www.albumreview.net/podcast

Want to be a guest on The ALBUMREVIEW.net podcast? Send Greg Potters a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/albumreviewpodcast

Want to get your music heard by someone at ALBUMREVIEW.NET?

Create the opportunity to potentially get your music shared across our network!

Submit your music now to us via Groover here:
https://groover.co/en/band/signup/referral/influencer/18131/?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=widget_banner&utm_campaign=0.albumreviewnet&widget