Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream now with KPBS Passport + Encore Sunday, Jan. 5 at 6:30 p.m. on KPBS 2
Recorded on four-track cassette in his New Jersey bedroom, Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album "Nebraska" has proved to be one of his most enduring works, a raw, haunted acoustic record populated by lost souls searching not for salvation but simply a reason to believe.
On Sept. 19, 2023, at Analog at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, famed music biographer Warren Zanes — author of "Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska" — hosted an in-depth exploration of the album and the musician’s process. Springsteen’s songs were performed by multiple legends in their own right, with Zanes’s spoken word storytelling in between. "Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska: A Celebration In Words And Music" was Filmed exclusively for PBS!
“I wrote a book about 'Nebraska' because the recording stayed with me over decades,” said Zanes. “Every time there was trouble in my life I reached for 'Nebraska.' When I started doing events around the book’s publication, I quickly realized the best of them had music. When I went to Nashville, I had a remarkable cast of musicians to help me tell this story.”
Musical performances from "Nebraska" include Emmylou Harris (“The Price You Pay,” “Nebraska”), Noah Kahan (“Atlantic City”), Lyle Lovett (“Used Cars,” “My Father’s House”) and The Lumineers (“Mansion on the Hill,” “State Trooper”). Two additional songs from "Born in the U.S.A." are performed by Eric Church (“Dancing in the Dark”) and Lucinda Williams (“Born in the U.S.A.”).
Between songs, Zanes offers insights from his book, about which The Boston Globe wrote: “Anyone interested in how music gets made — both the inspiration and the process — will be fascinated by 'Deliver Me From Nowhere,' an amazing chronicle of one of the most unlikely albums ever recorded. And for students of Springsteen, it’s an absolute must.”
