When news of Bruce Springsteen’s decision to record an album of Pete Seeger-inspired folk covers leaked on to the Internet this February, the earth didn’t exactly shake. Reactions among the Boss’s notoriously rabid fanbase were decidedly mixed, ranging from mere disappointment (“I thought he already did the folk thing with Devils & Dust last year”) to something altogether more ghoulish (“he should reunite the E Street Band before Clarence Clemons gets too ill to tour”). But the common denominator, from the casual fan to the hardcore, was that the record tentatively titled The Seeger Sessions wouldn’t be any great shakes: an interesting experiment, perhaps, worth a little NPR airplay or a few spins by Springsteen completists, but a vanity project first and foremost.

Boy, were we wrong. From start to finish, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions is exhilirating, an absolute blast. The music, recorded live in the studio with a group of some 13 musicians, is thrilling, vital, and alive, seamlessly transmitting the mix of social convictions and knees-up good-time music that was Seeger’s traditional folk through Springsteen’s trademark electrified passion.

And speaking of the man of the hour, he’s arguably in his best voice in years; not just finally living up to all those Bob Dylan comparisons – he howls these songs in a voice strikingly similar to Dylan’s in his early ’60s Woody Guthrie period – but digging deeper into the strain of American roots music that has always instinctively colored his songs, making good after 30 years on the notion of Springsteen as living, breathing culmination of America’s rich musical history, from gospel and blues to jazz to furious rock’n'roll.

As for the “vanity project” element, skeptics will be pleased (or disappointed) to hear that it’s largely not present. Actually, the material — which ranges from New Orleans-styled Dixieland jazz on “O Mary Don’t You Weep” to traditional Irish folk on “Mrs. McGrath” — feels surprisingly natural, never forced or pantomimed, even when Springsteen digs into traditionally African-American sounds. And the decision for this nominal “tribute disc” to feature almost all traditional songs, only two of which contain Pete Seeger writing credits (the title track and “Jacob’s Ladder,” themselves public domain tunes partially arranged by Seeger), suggests that something else is at work beyond simple reverence.

I’m not prepared to write a treatise about the function of folk music during Seeger’s era, but suffice to say it was a time somewhat before the cult of the singer-songwriter, when interpretation of previously existing material was valued just as highly (if not more) than an original song of readymade relevance. Coming as it does during a time of political turmoil and social conservatism — as did Seeger’s music — We Shall Overcome feels incredibly pointed, adapting age-old songs with age-old themes and, in the folk tradition, making them relevant without changing a word.

Springsteen may never bust out a song about Iraq, but timeless sentiments about the price of war are conveyed movingly in the aforementioned “Mrs. McGrath”; he may not deliver a scathing rumination on the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, but his feelings are unmistakable in the Orleans-flavored “Jacob’s Ladder,” whose lyrics (“every new rung just / just makes us stronger”) paint a powerful portrait of perserverence in the face of incredible adversity.

But in all honesty, it will always be the music that matters the most; and happily, it’s in that category, not in social commentary, where The Seeger Sessions triumphs most. His lofty accomplishments as a singer and songwriter aside, there’s a convincing case to be made for Bruce Springsteen’s greatest achievements lying with his ability as a bandleader – for proof of this, one need only marvel at one of the recordings of the E Street Band at their zenith. But here, Springsteen capably brings out fabulous performances in a group which hasn’t been playing together for over three decades, and he does it without the meticulous, Phil Spector-inspired studio construction which yielded classic albums like Born to Run.

The band captured on The Seeger Sessions may not quite reach the dizzying heights of a great E Street concert — few things do, I hear — but the palpable excitement in the room every time they played together is a joy to hear. And while I can’t say I’m opposed to the idea of getting the old band back together myself, let’s face it: if “Folk Bruce” is gonna sound as good as this, he could do a lot worse than to never look back.

Reviewed by Zach Hoskins