Power to the People Festival, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD, 10-3-2026, Part 10 - Bruce Springsteen

Here's the tenth and last out of ten albums of the October 2026 Power to the People Festival. This one stars Bruce Springsteen. But it also featured a number of special guests, and ended with all the stars from earlier in concert on stage for a couple of finale songs.

This was a rather strange set by Springsteen. I was expecting a more typical set from him, which are often long and mostly filled with songs he wrote. But the set was rather short by his standards, under an hour, and most of it felt like an extended finale. Weirdly, he only played two songs that he wrote, "Streets of Minneapolis" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Both of those had obvious political relevance for the festival's progressive themes, especially the recently written "Streets of Minneapolis." The covers were also along the same lines, such as "Clampdown," the Clash's song against dictators and fascism, and "Fortunate Son," the Creedence Clearwater Revival song about the unfairness of who fight in most wars.

There were special guests on almost every song, many with prominent roles. For instance, Springsteen sang a duet with Joan Baez on Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom." And festival organizer Tom Morello was heavily involved, which was fitting, since he's been in Springsteen's touring band in recent years. He even was the main lead vocalist for Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," including singing some verses that were mostly forgotten over the decades because of their overtly political nature.

I hope listening to the sets from this concert has helped inspired you to vote for the upcoming midterm elections, if you're an American citizen. Let's kick the bums out. Power to the people! 

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 talk (Tom Morello)
02 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
03 Streets of Minneapolis (Bruce Springsteen)
04 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
05 Chimes of Freedom (Bruce Springsteen & Joan Baez)
06 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
07 Clampdown (Bruce Springsteen with Tom Morello)
08 The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello)
09 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
10 Fortunate Son (Bruce Springsteen with Dave Matthews, Tom Morello & Nathaniel Rateliff)
11 talk (Bruce Springsteen)
12 Rockin' in the Free World (Bruce Springsteen with Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews & Tom Morello)
13 talk (Tom Morello)
14 This Land Is Your Land (Tom Morello, Bruce Springsteen & Everyone)
15 Power to the People (Tom Morello, Bruce Springsteen & Everyone)
16 talk (Tom Morello, Bruce Springsteen & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/foUCzyi6 

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/w3zdlbyzpLHKDZi/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. From right to left in the front row: Bruce Springsteen, Jordan Edward Benjamin of Grandson, Tom Morello, Joan Baez, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Dave Matthews.