Bruce Springsteen 1995 Radio Hour

In 1995, after temporarily reorganising the E Street Band for a few new songs recorded for his first Greatest Hits album (a recording session that was chronicled in the documentary Blood Brothers), Bruce Springsteen released his second solo guitar album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and by Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, a book by Pulitzer Prize-winners author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson. The record was generally less well-received than the similar Nebraska, due to the minimal melody, twangy vocals, and political nature of most of the songs, although some praised it for giving voice to immigrants and others, who rarely have one in American culture. The lengthy, worldwide, small-venue solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour that followed successfully featured many of his older songs in drastically reshaped acoustic form, although Springsteen had to explicitly remind his audiences to be quiet and not to clap during the performances. On 9th December 1995 Springsteen performed at Philadelphia's Tower Theater, a number of tracks from which were broadcast across the US on a variety of FM Radio Stations, as part of a radio programme called 'Bruce Springsteen's Radio Hour'. In addition to the 10 songs broadcast, Bruce also completed a lengthy 35-minute interview with DJ/Presenter Bob Castos - also aired as part of the radio hour - which was recorded a few days earlier at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Brick, New Jersey, during which The Boss gave his own, detailed take on his new acoustic album.