Bruce Springsteen may have skipped St. Louis on his 2023 tour, but Springsteen fanatics can find some solace in being only a handful of cities for Aoife O'Donovan's limited run of shows in which she will perform Springsteen's Nebraska album in its entirety.
O'Donovan, who spent a decade as frontwoman of progressive string band Crooked Still, is well-known to Americana lovers for her sensual songcraft, shadowed folk-grass and exquisite ballads. She is currently busy recording the follow-up to her most recent solo album, last year's elegant, thrice-Grammy-nominated Age of Apathy.
O'Donovan can also be heard on dozens of collaborations, including The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, and she is one-third of the siren-summit supergroup I'm With Her with bandmates Sara Watkins and Sarah Jarosz. That trio picked up a Grammy for "Call My Name" from its debut album, See You Around, in 2020. O'Donovan says another I'm With Her album and tour is only a matter of time.
But first, Aoife O'Donovan Plays Nebraska hits the Sheldon on Saturday, April 15. Aoife called from her home in Orlando to talk about her deep dive into Springsteen's 1982 dark masterpiece.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How did the idea to cover Nebraska come about?
Back in 2011, when I was still in Crooked Still, before I had really embarked on my solo career, I got a Monday-night residency at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. I was doing different sets every Monday, and one week I was like, "I'm going to cover Nebraska start to finish." So I learned the whole record, and this was before I was really playing a lot of guitar, so looking back, it was kind of a bold move.
Then, over the years, I would sometimes play "Nebraska," the song, and I did "Atlantic City" a couple of times live, but it wasn't a big part of my repertoire. During COVID when people started doing live streams, I decided to do two shows — one of original music and one that was just Nebraska. It was really fun because, 12 years after first doing it, I was able to relearn the songs with much more facility on the guitar. A year later, we listened to the audio, and my manager was like, "You should release this," so we put it on Bandcamp, and then I decided to play some shows with it. So we're doing nine shows in the U.S., and we may add a couple on the West Coast, but it's a very limited engagement.
So the Bandcamp audio is from the livestream?
It is, and it's coming out on vinyl, too. It's really cool now because the Bandcamp recording was just a one-off. I knew the songs, but I hadn't quite internalized them yet. And now I've done three Nebraska shows. Everything is so deeply in there and memorized now, and I'm having much more fun with it.
So you have all the lyrics to "Open All Night" down?
Oh, yeah! I've been doing "Open All Night" in my set for the last year with my band, so I could sing that one in my sleep. But all of them now are just so deep in there, and they are all so interwoven. It's just really fun to sort of put yourself in Bruce's shoes while he was writing it. I really love the record.
Do you remember the first time you heard the Nebraska album?
The first time I heard it, I remember being very scared of "State Trooper."
Yeah, it's spooky.
It's very spooky. I remember being in the back of a car and hearing Bruce sort of yipping and hollering, and I was like, "Ah! Turn this off!"
Your parents were Springsteen fans?
Big Springsteen fans. Big music fans. I really credit them with turning me on to so much.
Does your love of Bruce extend far beyond Nebraska?
Nebraska is my favorite Bruce Springsteen album, but I have nothing but respect for the Boss. And there is this connection because Greg Liszt, the banjo player from Crooked Still, took a leave of absence to go on tour with Bruce and the Seeger Sessions band [in 2006]. I feel like I'm one step removed! I'm a huge fan.
What about your arrangements on the Nebraska songs? Did you mess with those much, or did you play it all pretty straight?
I played it all pretty straight. Nothing is really reworked. I definitely make the songs my own, but nothing is drastically reworked the way you might take a traditional song and change it up and reharmonize it or play it totally differently. I kept the songs pretty true to the originals.
Bruce's vocal character sometimes changes across these narrative songs. Did you find yourself inhabiting some of the characters vocally for this record or even from song to song?
I did. I think you approach a song like "Used Cars" differently than you do for "Johnny 99." Those songs are sung by two totally different people. So I really tried to make each song have a distinct personality. But there are overlaps. I mean, maybe the character in "Johnny 99" shows up in "Used Cars," but after a really hard set of circumstances.
Did you take away some things about songwriting from studying Nebraska so closely?
Oh, 100 percent. The way he uses these images that come back from song to song. I just love the image of a radio jammed up, for instance. In "Open All Night," he says, "The radio's jammed up with gospel stations / Lost souls calling long-distance salvation" and then in "State Trooper," he says, "The radio's jammed up with talk-show stations / It's just talk, talk, talk, talk until you lose your patience." He sort of takes these images and these ideas and thinks of ways to make them sparkle and make them jump out at you in ways that you weren't expecting.
I think what's unique about Nebraska is how much of a record it is from start to finish. The way it ends is just so brilliant: "At the end of every hard day, people still find a reason to believe." After this whole record about people who are down on their luck — misfits, murderers, felons — people still find a reason to believe. There's still a reason to get up in the morning, still a reason to keep going. It's so hopeful.
What can we expect from the show at the Sheldon?
I'll play Nebraska start to finish, just me and the guitar. Then I'll close the show with some songs from Age of Apathy, and the Westerlies and I will collaborate together.
The Westerlies, who are opening the show, are an incredible quartet out of New York. Two trumpets, two trombones. They are some of the most exciting musicians I've ever worked with. They are just deep, deep lovers of music and incredible virtuosic players. I think people will be really blown away. n
Catch Aoife O'Donovan Plays Nebraska with special guest The Westerlies at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 15, at the Sheldon (3648 Washington Boulevard, 314-533-9900, thesheldon.org). Tickets are $26 to $37.
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