I don't really care that much for Bruce Springsteen's music when Bruce is singing it. He's one of those cases where I find him an interesting song writer but there's something about his voice or delivery that just doesn't appeal to me (my other heretical view on this subject is that it goes even more so for Bob Dylan). I have seen Springsteen live in concert, however, during the Born in the USA tour, and he is a consummate showman even given the limitations of his vocal range. If James Brown hadn't already co-opted the title, "Hardest Working Man in Show Business," Springsteen would have earned it easily (I suppose, now that Brown has left us, that Springsteen can assume the mantle).

I do like it when other people cover Springsteen. One of my favorites is a version of "Reason to Believe" done by Aimee Mann and Michael Penn. From that same album comes this version of "State Trooper" performed by Deana Carter, the daughter of June Carter Cash and step-daughter of Johnny Cash (inadvertently connecting to the last song I wrote about--iTunes random synchronicity, I promise you, as I have no control over the selection process). More than half of the reason why this song works so well for Carter is the great production on it, with her wispy spoken vocals on full reverb over a hauntingly moody bass line filled out by a repeating acoustic guitar pattern and a Pink Floyd-ian selection of sounds in the background later in the song, incorporating what sounds like an underwater radar, a police scanner, the click-clack of a train over a crossing, and some pretty otherworldly screams/moans/laughs.

The song itself is typical Springsteen fare, concerning someone driving on the highway with limited options, begging/warning any patrolmen out there not to stop her. For some reason, every time I listen to this song I connect it to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, although there's no real reason why the protagonist might have done something quite so horrible. I think it's because Springsteen and Carter evoke the flat lands of Nebraska and highways that go on endlessly and straight, cornfields to either side, that remind me of Capote's descriptions.