WESTERN STARS

Album version

I wake up in the morning, just glad my boots are on
Instead of empty in the whispering grasses
Down the Five at Forest Lawn
On the set the makeup girl brings me two raw eggs and a shot of gin
Then I give it all up for that little blue pill
That promises to bring it all back to you again

Ride me down easy, ride me down easy, friend
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again

Here in the canyons above Sunset, the desert don't give up the fight
A coyote with someone's Chihuahua in its teeth skitters 'cross my veranda in the night
Some lost sheep from Oklahoma sips her Mojito down at the Whiskey Bar
Smiles and says she thinks she remembers me from that commercial with the credit card

Hell these days there ain't no more, now there's just again
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again

Sundays I take my El Camino, throw my saddle in and go
East to the desert where the charros, they still ride and rope
Our American brothers cross the wire and bring the old ways with them
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again

Once I was shot by John Wayne, yeah it was towards the end
That one scene's bought me a thousand drinks, set me up and I'll tell it for you, friend

Here's to the cowboys, the riders in the whirlwind
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again
And the western stars are shining bright again

Tonight the riders on Sunset are smothered in the Santa Ana winds
And the western stars are shining bright again
Come on and ride me down easy, ride me down easy, friend
'Cause tonight the western stars are shining bright again

I woke up this morning, just glad my boots were on

Info

WESTERN STARS is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and released on his 2019 album Western Stars. The above lyrics are for Bruce Springsteen's album version of WESTERN STARS as released in 2019.

Single and Music Video

WESTERN STARS is the fourth single from Western Stars. It was released on digital platforms globally on 14 Jun 2019 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time (4:00 a.m. GMT).

A music video for WESTERN STARS was simultaneously released on Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel to coincide with the single release. The video features Springsteen in scenes inspired by the song's lyrics, performance footage, and vignettes shot in Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. The video was also included on the Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- compilation album.

Video credits:

Director: Thom Zimny
Producer: Thom Zimny, Paul McGuire
AP: Adrienne Gerard
DP: Joe Desalvo
Art Director: Kris Moran
Editor: Thom Zimny
Conform and Color: Brian Miele
Desert Footage: Danny Clinch and Josh Goleman

Springsteen announced the release of the upcoming video on 12 Jun 2019 on his social media accounts. He included a still from the video shoot with the announcement.

Writing and Recording

Just like almost all other songs on Western Stars, a demo of WESTERN STARS was first recorded with Toby Scott at Stone Hill Studio in Colts Neck, NJ, most likely in 2010 (see the "Western Stars" section below for more details).

Track credits:

Bruce Springsteen: vocals and multiple instruments throughout the album (see album credits below)
Ron Aniello: background vocals and multiple instruments throughout the album (see album credits below)
Matt Rollings: piano
Jon Brion: electric guitar, Moog synthesizer
Matt Chamberlain: drums
Marc Muller: lap steel guitar
Rob Lebret: electric guitar and baritone guitar
Lenny Castro: congas, tambourine
Michelle Moore: background vocals
Curtis King Jr.: background vocals
Cindy Mizelle: background vocals
Curt Ramm: trumpet
Barry Danielian: trumpet
Dan Levine: trombone
Rachel Drehmann: French horn
Leelanee Sterrett: French horn
Alden Banta: bassoon
Andrew Sterman: alto flute
Charles Pillow: oboe
Stone Hill Strings: string section

Western Stars

Western Stars is Bruce Springsteen's nineteenth studio album. It was officially released on 14 Jun 2019 on Columbia Records. It consists of 13 new tracks, all written by Springsteen, and clocks at 50:50. This marks Springsteen's first studio album since 2014 and his first of completely original material since 2012. On the album's release date, producer Ron Aniello stated on his Instagram page that work on the album "started in 2010... finished in 2014... finished again in 2018."

Bruce Springsteen -- Western Stars

Springsteen has long had recording facilities set up at different properties he owns or owned at some point in the United States. These were named "Thrill Hill Recording", or sometimes referred to as "Thrill Hill East" or "Thrill Hill West" depending on whether it's on the East Coast or on the West Coast. In 2009, he set up Stone Hill Studio, a permanent recording facility at Stone Hill Farm, his horse ranch in Colts Neck, NJ.

Since 1987, Springsteen has recorded much of his material at his home studios. He would have an idea in mind and would bring in recording engineer Toby Scott for impromptu sessions to experiment with new sounds or new lyrics. "We don't really do demos," Scott told Uncut in 2019. "As I said to Bruce, 'You don't do demos either. You sing in key and in time while playing the guitar.' We just make recordings that don't get released." As per Scott's estimation, they recorded about 200 songs this way at seven different locations around the country. "He doesn't have any preconceived conceptual ideas for most of these songs," Scott said. "He'll try different instruments and different parts. If it doesn't sound good, he'll say, 'Eh, just delete that. Forget it.'" A song may be completed in two or three hours, sometimes they come back to it days later, and sometimes they just move on.

Work on what became Western Stars started in 2010. Springsteen recorded most of the basic tracking during sessions with Toby Scott at Stone Hill Studio, setting to tape stripped-down performances that he later elaborated upon. "Some of the parts were good, but they were only an indication of what they could be," Scott told Uncut. Scott thinks that 40 songs were recorded in 2010. Some of the songs were recorded early in the year, then work shifted to the outtakes for The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story box set, and then the rest of the songs were recorded around September or October.

In late November or early December 2010, Springsteen invited Jon Landau to for a listening session. They both felt the new material needed to be fixed up before any release. "[Springsteen] did some of the parts on a synthesizer or sampler, but they wanted to fix those parts up and use real strings and horns," Scott told Uncut. Ron Aniello first went to Colts Neck on 09 Jan 2011 to help Springsteen finish arrangements for the project. "Those were about 30 or 40 songs," Aniello told Andy Greene in a December 2013 interview for Rolling Stone. "They were very unique for him, unlike anything I'd ever heard."

After they had been working together for about a month, Springsteen started writing songs that were different in style to what they've been working on before. As Aniello told WCHR-FM's Tom Cunningham, "things just started steam rolling into this other record, you know, not sure what was going around in his mind." Springsteen was bringing in more songs and it was evident that the direction of the music was changing. Jon Landau came in, listened to the music, and after a discussion with Springsteen they decided to do a new album. This led to the Wrecking Ball album and the original project was shelved.

Aniello later wanted to work on these songs, to help arrange them or give Springsteen ideas for a potential release, but the project was set aside again and instead they ended up working on the High Hopes album. "Those are lovely songs," Aniello told Rolling Stone in the December 2013 interview. "I would compare them to Aaron Copland. It has a very open landscape feel and I guess... You wouldn't call it country. It's just very hard to describe. You'll just have to wait. I'm actually working on some of the songs now and going through them. He's looking for a way to approach that album." At the end of the interview, Aniello said that he doesn't know if any of those pre-Wrecking Ball songs are going to be released someday. "There's an amazing record there," he said. "It's all up to Bruce. I know they're going on tour in January. Hopefully sometime in 2014 they'll be interested in hearing my record."

The High Hopes Tour ended in May 2014 and Springsteen did not tour again until 2016. This would have been a good opportunity to finally finish the project, and it seems that this was accomplished based on the above-mentioned Instagram post by Aniello. But the project was again sidetracked; the focus shifted to The Ties That Bind: The River Collection box set. In a December 2015 Backstreets.com interview by Christopher Phillips, Springsteen explained that initially he was not planning on touring in support of the box set. "It was a surprise to us," he said. "We were kind of heading on a slightly different path — I had some new music, which was a little more of a solo record. I thought that I'd be out on that next. But then the box set came out, and we started to fool around with the idea of playing maybe a show... then, well, maybe two shows... and that turned into a short leg that we have going here in the States." Springsteen ended up touring with The E Street Band in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, from January 2016 till February 2017.

In the last three months of 2016, Springsteen also embarked on a book tour promoting his autobiography Born To Run. This was the catalyst to his five-shows-a-week Springsteen On Broadway concert residency that lasted till the end of 2018. In an interview published in the October 2017 issue of Variety, while Springsteen On Broadway was newly underway, Springsteen told Jem Aswad that he's still planning on releasing the solo album. "I've just been caught up in other projects," he said. "It's kind of waiting for its moment. Good music doesn't go away!" When asked what it sounded like, he said that it's influenced by Southern California pop music of the seventies. "Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, those kinds of records," he explained. "I don't know if people will hear those influences, but that was what I had in my mind. It gave me something to hook an album around; it gave me some inspiration to write."

In 2019, finally, the time was right and Western Stars saw the light of day. The album was officially announced on 25 Apr 2019. In anticipation to the announcement, Springsteen dropped hints on his social media accounts over the course of the previous three days. On 22, 23, and 24 April, he shared each morning a photo of a desert scenery, without any caption or comment. These were photographed by Danny Clinch on a 2019 trip with Springsteen to Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.

Western Stars was recorded primarily at Stone Hill Studio. Some of the musicians who appear on the album worked directly with Springsteen and Aniello at Stone Hill Studio and others recorded their parts at studios in California and in New York. Percussionist Lenny Castro recorded his parts at Ocean Studios in Burbank, CA. "This was my first time working for Bruce," he told Uncut. "My sessions were really quick. I don't sit around and overthink things. If you can't grab it off the top of your head, then it's not worth it as far as I'm concerned." Charles Giordano recorded his parts at Stone Hill Studio. He told Uncut's Petter Watts in 2020 that he thinks he recorded overdubs before even The River Tour 2016. "Some of the tracks on Western Stars were from a long time ago and I did my contributions over a period of several years."

In 2014, drummer Gunnar Olsen received a text message one morning from audio engineer Ross Petersen asking him that he comes in the afternoon for a recording session at Springsteen's ranch in Colts Neck, NJ. "That text changed my life to say the least," Olsen wrote on his website in 2019. He drove down from his home in New York, and when he got there, it was just Petersen, who's a friend of his, and producer Ron Aniello in the studio. As expected, Springsteen was not present. "They explained they had these songs and they wanted to try out some drum ideas," Olsen told Uncut. "I was just going to give them some options and ideas." He didn't expect that any of his parts would end up being released, or that a Springsteen album was in the works. But then Springsteen randomly showed up at the studio and soon it became clear that the music that Olsen was contributing to was already highly developed. "The stuff I was playing was stuff they'd been working on for a little while," he said. "It had a direction already. It wasn't like starting from scratch." After spending the day at the studio, the session ended and Olsen was thanked without being given any further information. "I guess [Springsteen] liked what I was doing, so they kept calling me back. I did four or five days over the course of a couple of months. Some days it would be a few songs and some days it was only one. Sometimes he was there. Sometimes we were adding stuff to songs and sometimes we were all recording together. But I didn't think I was going to be on the record."

Western Stars was produced by Ron Aniello with Bruce Springsteen, mixed by Tom Elmhirst, mastered by Bob Ludwig, and engineered by Rob Lebret, Ross Petersen, Toby Scott, and Ron Aniello, assisted by Joe Visciano. Aniello also plays bass, keyboard, and other instruments throughout the album. Patti Scialfa, the only E Street Band member that appears on the album, provides vocals and contributes vocal arrangements on four tracks. The musical arrangements include strings, horns, pedal steel, and contributions from more than 20 other players, as well as guest appearances by David Sancious, Charles Giordano, and Soozie Tyrell.

• Bruce Springsteen appears on all of the album's tracks (vocals, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, synth strings, banjo, percussion, electric guitar, B3 organ, piano, orchestral samples, celeste, organ solo, 12-string guitar, Mellotron).
• Patti Scialfa is Springsteen's wife and a member of The E Street Band since 1984. She appears on track 2, track 8, track 9, and track 11 (backing vocals and vocal arrangements).
• Ron Aniello is the album producer. He appears on all of the album's tracks (upright bass, piano, electric guitar, percussion, vibraphone, bass, synth strings, orchestral samples, acoustic guitar, drums, B3 organ, celeste, loops, synth, background vocal).
• Charles Giordano recorded and toured with The Seeger Sessions Band and became an unofficial member of The E Street Band in 2008. He appears on track 5 (accordion) and track 9 (piano).
• David Sancious was a member of The E Street Band between 1972 and 1974. He appeared on Springsteen's first three albums, and later on Human Touch in 1992. He appears on track 2 (piano) and track 6 (B3 organ).
• Matt Rollings is a Grammy Award winning composer, musician and record producer. He plays piano, organ, and keyboards. He appears on track 3, track 4, track 8, and track 13 (piano).
• Jon Brion is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and composer. He appears on track 4 (electric guitar and Moog synthesizer), track 5 (Farfisa and Moog synthesizer), track 10 (timpani), track 11 (Moog synthesizer and timpani), and track 13 (drums and celeste).
• Gunnar Olsen is a New York-based professional drummer and producer. He appears on track 3, track 5, track 6, track 8, track 10, and track 11 (drums).
• Matt Chamberlain is a musician, drummer, producer, songwriter, and session player. He previously appeared on Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album. He appears on track 2, track 4, and track 12 (drums).
• Marc Muller is a multi-instrumentalist who mainly plays string instruments. He previously appeared on Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album. He appears on track 4 (lap steel guitar), track 6 (pedal steel guitar), track 7 (pedal steel guitar), and track 12 (pedal steel guitar).
• Rob Lebret is a studio engineer who's been working with Bruce Springsteen since around 2010. He appears on track 4 (electric guitar and baritone guitar).
• Marty Rifkin is a multi-instrumentalist and producer. He previously appeared on Springsteen's The Ghost Of Tom Joad and Devils & Dust albums and toured with The Seeger Sessions Band. He appears on track 9 (pedal steel guitar).
• Greg Leisz is a multi-instrumentalist mainly playing lap and pedal steel guitars, guitar, mandolin, and bass. He previously appeared on Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album. He appears on track 13 (pedal steel guitar).
• Lenny Castro is a Los Angeles-based professional percussionist. He appears on track 4 (congas and tambourine), track 5 (congas and shaker), and track 11 (tambourine and shaker).
• Toby Scott is a music recording engineer, mixer, and record producer. He has been working with Springsteen since as early as 1977 and almost exclusively from 1987 and 2017. He appears on track 3 (loops and programming).
• Soozie Tyrell previously appeared on most of Springsteen's albums since 1992 and started touring with The E Street Band in 2002 and toured with The Seeger Sessions Band in 2006. She appears on track 2 (background vocals), track 8 (background vocals), and track 9 (violin and background vocals).
• Michelle Moore is a gospel singer and member of the Victorious Gospel Choir. She started performing with Bruce Springsteen as a backing vocalist in 2001 and has appeared on most of his albums since then. She appears on track 4 and track 11 (background vocals).
• Curtis King Jr. is a background singer and vocal arranger. He previously appeared on Springsteen's High Hopes album and toured with The Sessions Band in 2006 and The E Street Band between 2009 and 2014. He appears on track 4 (background vocals).
• Cindy Mizelle is a singer and songwriter. She previously appeared on Springsteen's Wrecking Ball and High Hopes albums and toured with The Sessions Band in 2006 and The E Street Band between 2009 and 2014. She appears on track 4 (background vocals).
• Matthew Koma is a singer, songwriter, DJ, and record producer. He previously worked with Springsteen when he co-produced the "Modern Mix" of ROCKY GROUND. He appears on track 11 (background vocals).
• Curt Ramm is a trumpet and flugelhorn recording artist, composer, arranger, and producer. He previously appeared on Springsteen's The Promise, Wrecking Ball, and High Hopes albums and toured with The Sessions Band in 2006 and The E Street Band between 2009 and 2014. He appears on track 2 (trumpet and flugelhorn), track 3 (trumpet), track 4 (trumpet), track 5 (trumpet), track 8 (trumpet), and track 11 (trumpet).
• Barry Danielian is a trumpet player, producer, and arranger. He previously appeared on Springsteen's The Promise and High Hopes albums and toured with The E Street Band between 2012 and 2014. He appears on track 3, track 4, track 5, track 7, track 8, and track 11 (trumpet).
• Clark Gayton is a multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, and musicians' rights advocate. He previously appeared on Springsteen's Wrecking Ball and High Hopes albums and toured with The Sessions Band in 2006 and The E Street Band between 2012 and 2014. He appears on track 5, track 8, and track 11 (trombone).
• Dan Levine is a New York City based musician who plays several horn instruments. He previously appeared on Springsteen's The Promise and Wrecking Ball albums. He appears on track 3 and track 4 (trombone).
• Ed Manion is a saxophonist, who plays both tenor and baritone sax. He previously appeared on Springsteen's The Rising, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, The Promise, Wrecking Ball, and High Hopes albums and toured with The E Street Band in 1988 and 2012-2014 and The Sessions Band in 2006. He also shared the stage with Springsteen on many other occasions since 1976, most notably as a member of The Miami Horns in August 1976. He appears on track 5 (saxophone).
• Rachel Drehmann is a French horn player based in New York City. She appears on track 2, track 3, track 4, track 7, and track 10 (French horn).
• Leelanee Sterrett is a French horn player based and a member of the New York Philharmonic. She appears on track 2, track 3, track 4, track 7, and track 10 (French horn).
• Alden Banta is a freelance bassoonist based in New York City. He appears on track 3 and track 4 (bassoon).
• Andrew Sterman is a composer, saxophonist, and flutist and member of the Philip Glass Ensemble. He appears on track 3 and track 4 (alto flute).
• Charles Pillow is a jazz musician based in New York City. He appears on track 3 and track 4 (oboe).
• Luis Villalobos is a violinist and a member of the violin trio the Villalobos Brothers. He appears on track 6 and track 10 (violin).
• Avatar Strings is a string section consisting of Rob Mathes (conductor/arranger), Sandy Park (contractor), Lisa Kim (violin), Hyunju Lee (violin), Joanna Maurer (violin), Sharon Yamada (violin), Annaliesa Place (violin), Suzanne Ornstein (violin), Liz Lim (violin), Jung Sun Yoo (violin), Emily Popham (violin), Robert Rinehart (viola), Vivek Kamath (viola), Desiree Elsevier (viola), Alan Stepansky (cello), and Nathan Vickery (cello). They appear on track 1, track 7, track 8, track 10, and track 12 (strings).
• Stone Hill Strings is a string section consisting of Scott Tibbs (conductor), Sandy Park (contractor), Lisa Kim (violin), Hyunju Lee (violin), Joanna Maurer (violin), Shmuel Katz (viola), Rebecca Young (viola), Alan Stepansky (cello), Toby Scott (production coordination), Shari Sutcliffe (musician contractor), Sandy Park (string contractor), Lisa Kim (concertmaster), and Kevin Buell (guitars and technical services). They appear on track 2, track 3, track 4, track 6, and track 11 (strings).

New York City-based creative director and graphic artist Michelle Holme, who had done a lot of work for Springsteen since 2005, designed by the album's artwork. For the front cover, she used a photo taken by Swedish photographer Kalle Gustafsson.

Bruce Springsteen's first new studio album in five years takes his music to a new place, drawing inspiration in part from the Southern California pop records of the late '60s and early '70s. "This record is a return to my solo recordings featuring character driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements," Springsteen said. "It's a jewel box of a record."

Western Stars is available as a single-disc CD and as a two-disc LP set, as well as digital download and streaming. Four editions of the vinyl release were issued: a regular edition on black vinyl, a limited edition on dark blue marble vinyl exclusive to Bruce Springsteen's official webstore, a limited edition on light blue marble vinyl exclusive to independent online retailers in Europe, and a limited edition on clear vinyl exclusive to Barnes & Noble.

Western Stars topped the charts in many countries, including the UK and Australia. In the United States, it debuted and peaked at number 2. This makes it Springsteen's 20th U.S. top 10 album.

Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits-

Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits- is a Bruce Springsteen compilation album released by Sony Music Japan in 2023. The compilation, which was exclusively released in Japan, consists of previously released 35 audio tracks and 62 video tracks. The collection is part of a 26-title reissue campaign to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's debut album. The series, issued in three waves (25 Oct 2023, 22 Nov 2023, and 20 Dec 2023), includes 25 albums originally released between 1973 and 2014 plus a new compilation album that includes all of Springsteen's singles released in Japan from 1975 to 1999. All audio CD's were manufactured using Sony Japan's Blu-spec CD2 format.

Bruce Springsteen -- Japanese Singles Collection -Greatest Hits-

Other Official Releases

The album version of WESTERN STARS was released on a Black Friday Record Store Day exclusive single.

Bruce Springsteen -- Western Stars

7" single - Columbia / Sony Music (19075989957) - Europe, 2019
7" single - Columbia (19075989957) - USA, 2019

Limited edition single sold exclusively at independent stores that participated in the 10th annual Black Friday Record Store Day campaign (29 Nov 2019).

A1- WESTERN STARS
B1- THE WAYFARER

Other versions of WESTERN STARS were also officially released.

The live April 2019 version of WESTERN STARS was released on the Western Stars - Songs From The Film album in 2019.

Live History

Bruce Springsteen has never performed WESTERN STARS live.

Covers

At least one artist has recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's WESTERN STARS.

Heaven Is Shining -- Born In The USA

Digital album - Rosenklang (unknown catalog number) - Germany, 2021

This is a download-only digital Bruce Springsteen tribute album.

Request

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Available Versions

List of available versions of WESTERN STARS on this website:

Page last updated: 19 Dec 2020