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After a year on Broadway, the Boss is heading west

Posted at 8:47 PM, Apr 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-25 20:47:49-04

Bruce Springsteen announced Thursday that his next album will be released June 14th.

“Western Stars” will be Springsteen’s first new studio album since “High Hopes” dropped in January of 2014.

Though his music has long been synonymous with the Jersey Shore, the 69-year-old musician says the 13 songs on the new album were partially inspired by the pop music created by the singer-songwriters who called Southern California home in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But no matter the influence, it appears fans should expect the type of lyrical storytelling that has long endeared him to his many followers.

“This record is a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping cinematic orchestral arrangements,” said Springsteen in a news release.

“Western Stars” will be released by Columbia Records, which has put out every Springsteen studio album since his debut “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” in 1973.

No tour has yet been announced, though fans in Central Virginia have been clamoring for a reason to yell “Bruuuce!” inside a local concert venue for years.

Springsteen hasn’t played a show in Richmond since August of 2008, though his relationship with the River City dates back nearly 50 years.

As a member of the band Child, Springsteen played an outdoor concert at Monroe Park in June of 1969. It was his first ever performance outside of the Northeast, according to the website Brucebase.

The Boss would regularly stop in Richmond on tours throughout the 70s, playing such venues as The Back Door (later Strange Matter), the Mosque (now the Altria), and the Coliseum.

It’s believed that he last stepped foot in the city in 2013, when he attended a relative’s graduation at VCU.

During that visit, former CBS 6 web producer Alix Bryan ran into Springsteen at Mamma ‘Zu.

The next day, the author (kind of a Bruce fanatic), along with his brother-in-law and former CBS 6 traffic reporter Raymond Hawkes, received word that Springsteen was dining at Joe’s Inn in the Fan.

After rushing over and seeing him through the window, they were able to get a table near the end of the bar.

They believed Springsteen would have to pass by when it came time for him to leave.

Several fried chicken sandwiches and many Budweisers later, they realized that Bruce had gone out the back.