5 Bruce Springsteen Songs Displaying a Country Influence

Bruce Springsteen stands as one of the torchbearers for American rock and roll. It’s a role that he has always inhabited with great pride. But he also occasionally branches out into sounds and song structures more associated with other genres.

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Throughout his career, Springsteen has occasionally taken a stab at songs that, if they were any other artist that had recorded them, would seem earmarked for a country music audience. Here are five classics from The Boss that fit the category.

“Factory” from ‘Darkness At The Edge Of Town’ (1978)

After three albums filled with free-spirited characters who seemed to live out in the streets, Springsteen came back in a starkly different mood on Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Suddenly, the heroes and heroines of his songs were tired, stressed, and lacked the escape routes that his earlier protagonists were able to take (or at least dream about taking).

“Factory” largely puts away the heavy guitars, instead strolling along at a loping pace while keyboardists Danny Federici and Roy Bittan do the heavy lifting. Over that somber musical bed, Springsteen muses on the drudgery of “the working life.” He ends up sounding like Johnny Cash’s Jersey relative in the process.

“Wreck On The Highway” from ‘The River’ (1980)

Bruce Springsteen struggled to figure out what form The River would take. At one point, he had a single LP ready for release, but then he decided to shelve it. He finally decided on a double LP that would encompass a little bit of everything. Story songs rife with social consciousness sat right alongside silly rockers.

But the last song on the album might have been the biggest departure from the album as a whole. Partly inspired by a Hank Williams song, “Wreck On The Highway” finds Springsteen mewling out a haunting tale of how a random death can shake the living left behind to the very core.

“Highway Patrolman” from ‘Nebraska’ (1982)

It’s well known now how Springsteen tried to do anything he could with the Nebraska demos except release them as they were. Once he finally settled on that latter approach, it meant that the album would be only Springsteen’s guitar and vocals throughout.

The worry would be that you’d end up with some sameness of sound from song to song. But Bruce keeps switching up the feel and the point of view, so that it’s almost like an anthology of stories told by different characters. By also adding different musical feels, like the sauntering country vibe of the heartbreaking “Highway Patrolman”, he makes sure listeners have all the variety they need.

“One Step Up” from ‘Tunnel Of Love’ (1987)

Bruce Springsteen was still married while writing and recording the songs that adorned his 1987 album Tunnel Of Love. Based on the material, however, it wasn’t all that surprising that his marriage crumbled shortly after the LP was released. The songs are full of deceit, regret, and a general unease about once-solid relationships.

“One Step Up” leans into its country feel, as the narrator deals with all kinds of calamities, including an uncooperative truck and a bird who won’t sing. Most of all, it’s his love life that’s troubling him. By the end of the song, he’s contemplating cheating, while still clinging to memories of better days with the love he’s poised to leave.

“Moonlight Motel” from ‘Western Stars’ (2019)

We all love the E Street Band. But sometimes fans overlook Bruce Springsteen’s non-rock albums at their own peril. Western Stars, released in 2019, deserves a look as one of his finest post-millennial albums. Many of the songs dip on the record dip their toes in the country pool. Most that do stick with the California country sounds of the 60s favored by artists like Glen Campbell.

But “Moonlight Motel” takes a dustier approach, sounding like some long-lost Townes Van Zandt track. Springsteen gets deep inside the sorrow in this one. His narrator keeps going back to the titular establishment, both in his mind and his heart, expecting the past to reappear. It never does.

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