Bruce Springsteen’s 2006 Seeger Sessions Tour is remembered primarily for its mix of vintage American folk songs and inspired re-arrangements of Bruce’s original songs.
But every now and then, Bruce sprinkled a third category into the mix: a cover of a more recent popular country or rock song that fit the tour’s theme or the band’s sound.
One of the very first of these was “Long Black Veil,” originally recorded and released in 1959 by Lefty Frizzell.
“Long Black Veil” is the story of a man falsely accused of murder who goes to his grave rather than own up to his alibi (he was having an affair with his best friend’s wife at the time of the murder). His lover keeps their secret but visits his grave in the dark of night, cloaked in a long black veil.
It was a story destined for a folk song immortalization, and Frizzell’s original (which peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot Country and Western chart) has been covered countless times, most notably by The Band (who recorded it on their debut album and performed it at Woodstock), Sammi Smith (who scored a Top 40 Country hit with it in 1974), and of course, the memorable television performance by Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell on the very first episode of The Johnny Cash Show in 1969.
Bruce worked up a full-band arrangement of “Long Black Veil” before the Seeger Session Tour even began. At the final rehearsal show, four days before the tour officially opened at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Bruce and the Sessions Band took the stage and opened with Frizzell’s classic.
While the song didn’t make Bruce’s Jazz Fest set, he debuted it a week later in London, early in the tour’s first European leg. “Long Black Veil” would go on to make a total of ten appearances that year, each one a showcase for the spectacular vocal and musical talent arrayed across the stage.
Here’s Bruce’s final performance of “Long Black Veil” to date, live in Rome late in the Seeger Sessions Tour.
Long Black Veil
First performed: April 26, 2006 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: October 10, 2006 (Rome, Italy)
