Of musical legacies

HIGH NOTES

- "Old Dan Tucker" (An antique fiddle tune, often used for square dances, made famous around 1843 when Dan Emmett, one of the greatest early minstrel singers, wrote a version of these lyrics for his group, the Virginia Minstrels)

After the war-drenched effort that was Bruce Springsteen's last album titled Devils and Dust, it was with a pinch of scepticism that I pressed the play button on the boss' latest offering, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

But running through the album is American folk music tradition in the hands of arguably America's most revered contemporary songwriter. To his credit, the songsmith isn't about to let anyone down with his present-day interpretations of folkie classics that ruminate on war ("Mrs McGrath"), poverty, crime, religion ("O Mary Don't You Weep"), the American hinterland and its simple living.

Springsteen's famous ability to engage an audience shines through this record with a growling baritone that edges on grating and is backed by a bandit band of folkie veterans wielding instruments that include violins, tubas, trumpets, banjos and accordions. But if anything, it's the heartiness of this record that's its winning tip.

Recorded over a three-day period live with musicians Springsteen had never played with before, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions shines with a kind of joie de vivre that actually conjures pictures of a bar in Oklahoma with revelers thigh-slapping, square dancing and generally spitting themselves silly.

It's really quite hilarious when you hear the boss sing with a significant drawl and twang a no-brainer line like, "Makes no difference where I'm walkin'/ I can hear my chicken squakin'/ I can hear my wife a-talkin' in the air". At other times Springsteen's low and irresistible growl and his masterful supporters can move your senses with a ballad so soulful and innocent that it's easy to let slip that you aren't even half folkie yourself.

Step across to the other side of the musical bandwagon and what you have are an often bare-bodied quartet of four rock veterans who release their ninth album called Stadium Arcadium (their first UK and US #1 album) touted by many to be the album that 2006 has been waiting for and will be remembered for.

Interestingly, this Red Hot Chili Peppers is a mammoth 28-track double disc (Jupiter & Mars) that packs as much punch as the Peppers have been able to deliver in the 23 years that have seen them, to most people's surprise, cull out album after album without faltering.

It's on this highly ambitious work that the Peppers delve into a signature style whose maturity seems more evident than ever. With longtime producer (aide) Rick Rubin, Stadium Arcade runs the gamut of the band's previous excursions on earlier albums without testing too much new ground and yet managing to stay perfectly far from assembly line re-production.

The approach as heard on tracks like the classic lead single "Dani California", or the arpeggio-driven, "Snow (Hey Oh)" to the ballad "Strip My Mind" to more unusual musings on tracks like "If" and "Desecration Smile", is fresh to say the least.

And as always, every band member "" from Flea's legendary bass taps to John Frusciante's searing backing vocals and innovative guitar to Chad Smith's effortless rhythms patterns "" ensures that they are putting their musical gifts to ultimate use.

"All I want is this moment to make you happy, and take this moment to make you my family and finally you have found something perfect," Anthony Kiedis sings on the song "Hard To Concentrate", signifying that the Peppers are probably ready to shake off their Sex loves California attitude and in its place delve into a musical legacy that's given the band exactly what they have asked for in this world. An original and honest musical voice.