As big a Bruce Springsteen fan as I am and I ve seen the man in concert 32 times I was not exactly crazy onboard for the project when it was first announced last year. I just figured that after a year of Springsteen doing the acoustic thing on the album and tour, that he d gotten the folk bug out of his system. Like a lot of Springsteen fans, I was ready for some E Street Band action.

So, the last thing I wanted or expected in 2006 was what sounded suspiciously at the time to me like another round of Springsteen getting his folk on. To me, it seemed too much like another vanity project. But when I voiced that opinion over on the message boards at Backstreets Magazine, I was damn near chased out of town by angry Springsteen fans.

Seems some of those folks knew something I didn t. And it turned out, they were right. One listen to the joyous noise made on the track O Mary Don t You Weep, and any doubts I had about were wiped clean off the map.

In a gruff voice reminiscent somewhat of a born again Tom Waits, Springsteen summons all the fire and brimstone of Moses himself as he belts out the lines about how Pharoah s army got drownded while his gospel army of singers and musicians wail on in rapturous delight. As my fellow Blogcritic Lisa McKay put it in an email just the other day, O Mary Kicks Ass. Yes it does, Lisa.

, the new concert CD/DVD document from last year s tour is worth owning for the inclusion of that track alone. Although this album comes in both CD and HD-DVD only versions, your best bet is to spring for the deluxe version which includes the entire 23 song performance on both the DVD and 2 CDs. This is a concert that needs to be seen as much as heard.

The setlist here runs the gamut from the Springsteen Songbook to the Smithsonian. You get the Seegerized versions of Springsteen classics like Atlantic City, Blinded By The Light, and Growin Up. You also get well chosen covers from the folk tradition like We Shall Overcome, straight up Dixieland jazz in the form of When The Saints Go Marching In, and even spirituals like This Little Light Of Mine.

In performing these songs, The Sessions Band (shortened here from it s original Seeger Sessions Band moniker) draw from multiple uniquely American music traditions including New Orleans Jazz, Southern Gospel, and even Roadhouse Blues to create a ruckus that is quite unlike anything you have ever heard. In their own way, these guys make every bit the noise with their banjos, trombones, and fiddles that the E Street Band does with their own guitars and drums. Like those legendary E Street shows, the crowd also gets into the act quoting entire song verses in unison.

And Springsteen himself appears to be having the time of his life here. The highlights on this set are too numerous to mention. They include a reworking of Springsteen s Open All Night where the stark number from becomes a boogie-woogie workout, complete with a mid-section featuring four female vocalists (led by Patti Scalfia) trying to out doo-wop four male vocalists doing their best to keep up.

Bruce gets into his best tent-revival preacher s mode here leading the call and response.