News at Aleven (Back Page): [Bruce] Springsteen recalled being influenced by,

of all people, Frank Sinatra for the way his songs resonated with everyday people.

"He sang colloquially, the way people speak," he said. "The minute the needle goes down on the record, a world is summoned up. I wanted to catalog my times in that way."

The two men, joined at times by Harding, performed their works separately and together. [Robert] Pinsky's poem "Shirt" segued into Springsteen's "The River," and Springsteen read Pinsky's "Samurai Song" as a prelude to his own "Darkness on the Edge of Town," played on 12-string guitar.

from The Associated Press: Springsteen, Pinsky team up at NJ festival

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