Bruce Springsteen Drops New Song and Video, ‘Tucson Train’

By Jem Aswad

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – This morning Bruce Springsteen released “Tuscon Train,” a third song from his forthcoming album, “Western Stars.” The clip was directed by Thom Zimny, who helmed the Netflix special of “Springsteen on Broadway” and other projects with the Boss over the years. The black-and-white video features many of the musicians who appear on his new album, including his wife/backing singer Patti Scialfa and several string players.

While the song continues the sound Springsteen has described for the album in  Variety’s 2017 cover story — “Southern California pop music of the ’70s: Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, those kinds of records” — unlike the previous two songs he released, “Hello Sunshine” and “There Goes My Miracle” — he sings in a very Springsteen voice: deep, guttural and unmistakable. Its debt to the influences lies in the strings and the subject matter, which is quite similar to Webb-penned hits for Campbell such as “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston.”

However, it’s unclear how much attention he will be devoting to the album after its release on June 14 — he recently revealed that he’s already written songs for a forthcoming E Street Band album that he plans to tour behind.

“It just came out of almost nowhere,” he told Martin Scorsese at a Netflix event in Los Angeles. “And it was good, you know. I had about two weeks of those little daily visitations, and it was so nice. It makes you so happy. You go, ‘I’m not f—ed, all right? There’ll be another tour!”