Elevator folk

I don't care for the politics of either Bruce Springsteen or Pete Seeger, but I've always liked their music, so I was looking forward to Springsteen's "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions." But I had to give up at about track 5, and I haven't listened again. I like my folk songs rough and raw, and this sounded like elevator music. The songs were allegedly done in one take to capture a "spontaneous" feel, but they surely sounded rehearsed to death. And the 12 musicians sounded like an orchestra -- violins, horns and a grand piano on folk music? Come on.

Apparently, I'm one of the few people who think it's awful. The 319 customers who reviewed in on amazon.com gave it four stars out of five. The reviewer who wondered why "the best country music of the past ten years" is on a Bruce Springsteen record has not been listening to much country music.