I'll echo the other reviewers and say that this is undoubtedly the best live CD I've ever heard, a testament to a combination of the music, lyrics, players, and timeliness of the message.

Springsteen is almost impossible to review, but I'll just say that, as much as I loved the Rising, Live in Barcelona, and Devils and Dust, the Seeger Sessions and this live album have taken him into a musical stratosphere that maybe only Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson can touch -- pure Americana.

Most of the other reviewers have adequately pointed out the highlights, but I'll say that the mournful dirge that the band transformed "When the Saints Come Marching In" to made tears stream down my face when I first heard this version, especially as it comes in the set after "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live". Folk music is as relevant as it ever was.

If you like any strain of Americana roots music -- blues, folk, jazz, gospel, Western swing, roots country, mountain/Scots/Irish music -- this concert will blow you away and make you sing with the crowd.

"The fact is when Bruce kicked off at 20.30 pm on that Friday night in The Point Theatre, he played non-stop right to the very end very few performers can sustain such intensity and carry a gig off that would be to us punters unforgettable those night were UNFORGETTABLE!!!!!!!I thought Bruce was never gonna stop and the highlight of the night Bruce lying exhausted over the top of the piano as if he had not a breath left in the world. Dublin was a case of the time the music and the performer - A MOMEMT IN TRUE HISTORY FOR DUBLIN TOWN." IrishJohnny

"Live In Dublin' was one of those once in a lifetime events that we all wish we had attended. Every reviewer sings praise for this CD and DVD. Veteran concert goers and reviewers say this was the best concert they had ever attended. That is all well and good, but in the end Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band care about their fans. You can hear the fans singing along, 'Pay Me My Money Down ', 'Further On Up The Road', 'Erie Canal' and then there is 'Mrs McGrath' an obvious Irish favorite. Just when you think this CD could not get any better, the Boss kicks it up a notch. In fact I was singing along with the rest of'em. The ambience that the live audience gives to this CD is palpable. Springsteen and the audience must have shared the energy and the vibes from the Irish. You can feel the excitement in the air. I thought the Seeger CD was one of the Boss's best CD's, but the 'Live In Dublin' is undoubtabley the best. As my best friend has said, "This is one of the top five CD's ever".

Bruce Springsteen's manager Jon Landau said, "'Live in Dublin' charts the development of a band from an informal gathering in Bruce's living room to an onstage powerhouse. It also documents the growth in Bruce's vision of American music; it includes folk music, blues, Dixieland, country, swing, gospel, rock, down to and including his own writing. It's all performed with Bruce's classic energy and focus. I think it's some of the finest music he's ever made." The 23 songs on this CD are the best of the best. Included are many from his Seegers CD. They all belong in Springsteen's chest of dreams.

This CD and DVD are memorial for the emotions that are so evident in every song. Songs like the antiwar "Mrs. McGrath" and "O Mary Don't You Weep" benefit from these in-concert performances, "and a 17-piece band allows Springsteen to freewheel onto back roads" said Marty Lance. "If I Should Fall Behind" becomes a lovely waltz, "Open All Night" swings like Bob Wills, and "Growin' Up" and "Blinded by the Light" are new arrangements. "The high point, however, just might be "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live," the 1929 Blind Alfred Reed song that Springsteen has retrofitted with new lyrics about the government's bungling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Bruce's connection to folk protest deepens, on the rewrite of "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live". A Depression era classic that Springsteen found on a Ry Cooder album and then amended with his own brilliantly Bush-baiting verse is perhaps the most politically extreme and, as hammered home here, exultant performance of his career." Even more wonderful is "Eyes On The Prize", sung with Mark Anthony Thompson. "If I Should Fall Behind", a duet with Patty Sciafla, is one of my favorites, and "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "This Little Light Of Mine" rock free and easy. "In short, it's everything Springsteen's big-hearted thoughtfully impassioned take on Americana ever set out to be. Swing out sisters and brothers, swing out."

GAVIN MARTIN

Columbia Records released 'Bruce Springsteen With The Sessions Band Live in Dublin' a concert DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and separate two-CD set release, as well as a combination DVD/CD package. The two-CD set, DVD and Blu-ray Disc each feature 23 songs drawn from the band's performances in Dublin, Ireland at The Point on November 17, 18 and 19, 2006. The DVD can be seen on selected PBS stations and a glorious DVD it is;. PBS shouold reel in the cash after viewing this marvelous DVD.

There are not enough superlatives in my repetoire to register the delight of this CD. I have played it many times and will soon listen again.

The New Boss Lives On.

Highly Heartily Recommended. prisrob 06-05-07

DVD

Springsteen has a knack with live albums; you always feel his energy, his passion, his character. True, his voice isn't the best, and his songwriting is more simple than elegant, but nobody really cares--Bruce Springsteen is a performer, a rock and roll icon with a true love of music. No Springsteen album showcases this love better than LIVE IN DUBLIN.

It is a bit egotistical of Springsteen to include his own songs among these traditionals, but to his credit, they fit right in (and the audience loves them just as much; in fact, the audience helps make this record so amazing, as they clap and sing and clearly have as good a time as the band). Springsteen manages a feat that few artists ever achieve--he manages to reinvent songs he has already reinvented. From standards such as "Old Dan Tucker" and "This Little Light of Mine," to almost unrecognizable versions of his own tunes ("Further On Up the Road" and "Open All Night" especially) that are still purely enjoyable. He tackles acoustic rock, country, gospel, bluegrass, and simple layman balladry. He tells tales of outlaws and victims, of people down on their luck and people realizing what they are made of. Basically, though he only wrote a handful of these tunes (and recorded them all previously), this album reads like any other Bruce Springsteen album, going all the way back to GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. And the Sessions Band is a collection of some of the finest musicians you will ever hear; they aren't the E Street Band, but damned if they aren't good. Springsteen is still in fine form, and LIVE IN DUBLIN ranks with some of his best efforts yet. True rock 'n roll never dies, it just evolves, and Bruce Springsteen keeps evolving right along with it.

The Boss doesn't make bad CDs or bad concerts, I am told. I've wanted to hear him in concert since I heard his first songs. I actually was getting tickets to one of the shows that got cancelled due to a band member's illness and he's come to two cities--after I've left them. If I never make it, this CD is better than a lot of the live shows that I have been lucky enough to see.

I miss the E Street Band, but the Sessions Band he's gathered for this effort is excellent. His backup singers are soulful and the 17 piece band can handle anything from swing to Irish without missing a beat.

"Varied" is a mild description for this CD. Anyone else did this kind of concert, you'd have mixed reviews. Bruce can put folk next to swing next to gospel and then turn around and rock the house without ticking people off. He's also going international, doing American music right next to Irish traditional ballads and it appears the Dublin audience is eating it up.

Bruce breathes new life into the music here. I grew up hearing "Jesse James" but it wasn't like this. And "Jacob's Ladder" sure isn't what I heard in church.

He's also taken "Blinded by the Light" which was one of the first Bruce songs I heard and breathed new life into the live version.

"How can a poor man stand such times and live?" is one of the most heartwrenching protest songs I've heard. He really took the comments about the Dixie Chicks "Shut up and sing" to heart.

I don't like usually live CDs most of the time. Hate the staticky sussurus of the applause in the background and some idiot has got to yell the performer's name at least once per song. "Live in Dublin" is beautifully engineered. You get the 'feel' of the hall and the voices of the audience joining Bruce in song, yet the really annoying audience noise is minimized.

We watched this concert on PBS and my two and half year old son who LOVES music (he's a huge Dan Zanes fan) went wild when he heard the folky set.

We bought the cd and we pretty much listen to it everyday. He loves "Pay Me My Money Down" and "This Little Light of Mine". This is an excellent compilation and believe me, I have listened to it many, many times :)