Wreck These Speakers "The Phase-Techs in the living room are history. Damn it, Bob. I loved those speakers. I guess I love your new CD more..." My review of Face the Promise is here. "The vocal on the chorus brings to mind 'Something Like' from the end of the 'Brand New Morning,'..." "It's a rocker in a category with Lucifer..." "...the sort of thing Springsteen used to do a lot..." "I defy any Seger fan to tell me this isn't the CD they've been waiting for..." "Seger comes through with the driving rock..." "I found myself head banging again like I was eighteen." "...best album since "Stranger in Town..." "...such an amazing album..." "I just hope we don't have to wait another 11 years..." "God, I've missed that sound!" I knew reviewing Seger's first new album in 11 years would be too big a job for one person, so a variety of Seger File readers pitched in to help. The reviews are finally posted. Check out them here. October 1, 2006 The Tour Is ON! Seger on Letterman: "We're announcing it tonight. It's for sure. We're going on tour the second week in November." As rumored earlier, the tour will most likely kick off in Grand Rapids. More below. September 27, 2006 Seger Media Links Seger performed "Wait for Me" on ABC's The View on Thursday, September 28. Excerpt here. It's official! Seger announced the tour on Letterman on Wednesday night after performing "Wreck this Heart." Photo's below, with a video link. Face the Promise now holds the No. 11 spot on the Billboard charts. The CD sold 150,833 copies in its first week, entering Billboard's album chart at Number 4. The same sales figures two weeks earlier would have put Seger at No. 2. Details below. Almost exactly 20 years ago, Letterman joked about Seger after he cancelled on Dave twice. Listen to the mp3s here. For a history of Seger's TV appearances (and a transcript of the mp3s), click here. Still more traveler's tales of fans who saw Leno, here. The fantastic photos of Seger on Face the Promise ought to be credited, don't you think? A little light is shed on the missing photo credits here. And take the quiz: see if you can find the difference between the first version of the cover and the released version. The "Gene Pool" slams Seger! And the Seger File slams the "Gene Pool." The gory details are below! Update: The Gene Pool guy responds! The November issue of Guitar World Accoustic features Seger on the cover and includes an excellent interview. Seger lists the five songs that put Face the Promise over the top for him, tells how the narrative songs of Kris Kristofferson influenced his early writing and reveals what he considers his own songwriting weakness. Summary below, article here. Seger appeared on Extra on September 21. You can watch it on here until YouTube takes it down. Seger looked and sounded great on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on September 14. Still shots here, and some Quicktime clips here. Billboard/Reuters files a Seger interview titled Seger makes good on "Promise" with hard-rocking set. Seger reveals that he doesn't own an iPod and calls Patty Loveless "my favorite country singer of all time." On of the best interviews I've seen or heard with Seger in recent years is on WDIV-TV in Detroit. Seger talks with Devin Scillian about why Nashville reminds him of Ann Arbor, (and why he's thought about moving there, but won't), about what Joni Mitchell told him about his range when he lived across the street from her in LA, about the best piano in Nashville, and more. You can watch it here. Thanks to Segernet for the link. Seger was also interviewed on WXYZ-TV in Detroit. The clip, which ran September 12, can be viewed on their site. The Detroit Free Press ran "Seger Track by Track" on September 12. The article is reprinted here. Seger did nationwide radio interview from WCSX with J.J. Johnson in Detroit on Sept. 12. If you've read the McCollum, Whitall and Graff print pieces, you know most of what was covered. One piece of news: November 8 is the tentative date for the tour to begin (presumably in Grand Rapids.) There was some interesting talk about Live Bullet outtakes and the process of rehearsing. The entire interview is online here. Seger was on the Jim Rome show on WKNR in Cleveland. (Reader and fellow Oregonian Joel Fowlks summarizes in an email: "Seger said he was a big fan of Rome and said he watched his TV show all the time. They talked a little about the album and some about the Pistons and Tigers. Seger mentioned the Who as one of his early inspirations and Rome asked him if he was more of a Who or Rolling Stones guy. Seger said he liked the Stones.") Gary Graff of the Oakland (MI) Press returns with a longer piece, and says a Letterman appearance is being considered: Bob Seger's "Face the Promise" album gives fans what they've waited for. Excerpts below.   The AP files Bob Seger puts out first studio album in 11 years, and the International Herald Tribune, among others, picks it up. Excerpts below.   Brian McCollum's interview with Seger in the Free Press reveals that the CD may be reissued in December with four additional tracks. Read it at Bob Seger: He's back, upbeat and ready to roll. (September 10). McCollum also reviews the album. Three mp3 clips of his interview with Seger are included. Excerpts below.   Susan Whitall and the Detroit News go all out with an interview, a review, and four mp3 excerpts of her interview with Seger. The article is at Seger fires it up. (September 9.) Excerpts below.   Friday, the News ran Whitall's teaser piece, Seger tuning up for fall tour. Excerpts below.   Brian McCollum and FREEP also did their teaser piece Friday. Seger tells Brian McCollum the tour is all but a done deal -- starting in late October at Grand Rapids' Van Andel Arena. Read it all at Seger's eager to tour. Excerpts below.   Former Freep writer Gary Graff has A Tour for Seger in the Oakland Press. Seger tells Graff that medical tests are scheduled for the week of Sept. 18 to make sure he's in good shape to tour. Excerpts below.   Online Rock Radio has Bob Seger worked outside Silver Bullet on new album and offers some new details. Excerpts below.   BobSeger.com is out with a new "Seger Sampler" that plays the video and parts of the album.   Reuters talks cars with Seger. Former Chevy pitchman Bob Seger prefers Porsche. September 5. Excertps below.   UPI weighs in with Hall of Fame fueled Bob Seger's new album, (9-5-06) in which Seger says he's 80 to 85 percent sure he'll tour. Includes one particularly juicy quote: "I don't want to put some dog meat out there if I'm in the Hall of Fame -- know what I mean?"   Seger interviewed in the New York Times. Article here, quotes below. (9-3-06)   Seger was on Entertainment Tonight on September 4. Summary below, video here.   Brian McCollum's piece in the Freep says Seger will appear on ABC's The View on September 28 and is leaning toward touring. Decision by month's end, supposedly.   Positive tour comments also in the current Rolling Stone. (See post below.)   Seger will perform "Wait for Me" on The Tonight Show on September 14.   Wait For Me video on www.myspace/bobseger   Or watch it in Quicktime here -- (smaller resolution, better quality) Face the Promise -- Reviews East Valley Tribune (Arizona) review is here. The Winnipeg Sun review is here. The Ocala Star-Banner (Florida) review is here. The Appalachian News-Express review is here. MonstersandCritics.com review is here. The Flint Journal Review is here. The Boston Globe review is here. The Billboard review is here. The Rolling Stone review is here. The LA Times review is here. The New York Daily News review is here. The San Francisco Chronicle review is here. The Detroit News reviews the album here. The Free Press review is here. The About.com review is here. The Ft. Worth Star & Telegram review is here. The Seger File reviews are here. Tour News The Detroit News summarizes Seger's announcement on Letterman here. The Free Press has tour news here. The Grand Rapids Review says the tour will start in the Van Andel Arena. Details about dates and ticket sales are expected in the next few days. Thanks to VvMax1200, Bill Cook, Mark Morris, dhawksongs, Rick Bentley, David Owsiany, Mary Duffy, Scott Fader, Jimmy Raines, Rosemary, Charlie Keegan, Rosemary in Bay City, GeoffShac, Diane Burkey and Joel Fowlks. Seger on Letterman: We're Going Back on Tour Stunning. That was the only word for it. Here's Letterman's intro: "I don't even know where to begin to [introduce] this next guest. This guy, this guy was rock and roll, he was Mr. Rock and Roll when rock and roll was still rock and roll. The string of hits this guy had one after another... "He epitomized the excitement and the freedom that was rock and roll: get on the open road, take a bead on the northern plains and just roll that power on -- I'm talking about the great Bob Seger...and also the Silver Bullet Band." (Click here to listen.) And not only did Seger rock -- but he announced the tour as well. It's for sure, he said -- starting the second week in November, all over North America. Seger didn't play the single -- he played "Wreck this Heart" instead. Maybe Seger just wanted to rock, or maybe they're trying to push the album instead. In either case, his performance was great. Watch an excerpt here. The Detroit News has a summary here, and the Free Press here. September 28, 2006 Seger Rocks the Charts Face the Promise currently holds the No. 11 spot on the Billboard charts. The album entered the charts at No. 4 last week, selling 151,000 copies in its first week. Some details from the Free Press: "'Face the Promise' was the top-selling album in the Detroit market, moving more than 17,000 copies -- an unusually strong one-week figure. That means Detroit was responsible for more than 11% of Seger's total sales. But those close to Seger say they thought that percentage would be even higher -- meaning they're pleasantly surprised by the album's strong national performance. ...A Seger representative attributes this week's strong showing to a perfect storm of buzz that included promotion by Capitol Records, a sizable Internet presence and high-profile media coverage." Brian McCollum, The Detroit Free Press, September 21, 2006. "Bob Seger hits No. 4 on the national charts." And from The Classic Rock Insider, via WCSX: "That was a better debut showing than the latest albums by contemporaries such as Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, and better than the first two weeks of Paul McCartney's "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard" in 2005...Sales of [Seger's]"Greatest Hits" were up 17 percent to land at No. 3 on Billboard's catalog chart." Gary Graff, The Classic Rock Insider, September 20,2006. Indeed, I can't think of any other recording artist who has been making records as long as Seger -- four decades -- who is selling as well as Seger, except for one: Bob Dylan. Dylan's album debuted two weeks ago at No. 1, selling 192,000 copies. If Face the Promise had been released that week, its total of 151,000 would have placed it at No. 2, directly behind Dylan. As the chart below shows, Dylan's Modern Times was one notch down from Seger at No. 5. Speaking of the two Bobs, here's the photo the Free Press should have dug out of its files for its update. My mom clipped it for me twenty years ago. I've been saving it for those two decades, waiting for the perfect moment to post it. The moment has come. (Note how the caption writer helpfully tells you which one is Seger. Also, the hard-to-read photo credit is for Gil DeNeve. Gil, get in touch and let us know what song they were playing.) Update: I didn't hear from the photographer, but Mac Brantley of Okemos, Michigan sent this info: "This was taken during Dylan's True Confession tour (with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) at DTE Music Theatre. Seger joined Dylan, Petty etc. for one song during the encore -- Knocking on Heaven's Door..." Thanks, Mac. I always wondered what would have inspired Dylan to invite Seger onstage. It makes a little more sense that Petty would have invited him. Other chart details: The Detroit News has Punch Andrews saying "he's not sure Seger's ever had a bigger sales week." And the Freep runs this helpful sidebar listing Seger's other Billboard album debuts. (Everyone who enjoys bashing It's A Mystery, please note: Mystery debuted higher than Live Bullet.) No. 34, "Live Bullet" (1976) No. 8, "Night Moves" (1977) No. 4, "Stranger in Town" (1978) No. 1, "Against the Wind" (1980) No. 3, "Nine Tonight" (1981) No. 5, "The Distance" (1983) No. 3, "Like a Rock" (1986) No. 7, "The Fire Inside" (1991) No. 8, "Greatest Hits" (1994) No. 27, "It's a Mystery" (1995) No. 23, "Greatest Hits 2" (2003) No. 4, "Face the Promise" (2006) September 23, 2006 Gene Pool -- Clueless or Merely Ignorant? You Make the Call. Last Thursday's strip from "Out Of the Gene Pool" by Matt Janz. A) Seger's is on iTunes. B) Seger's album entered the charts at No. 4 nationally. C) Matt who? A big thanks to Ears Two, who tipped me to the strip and took the trouble to write Mr. Janz the following note: "Your timing was bad. Check iTunes and you'll see that Seger's new album, "Face the Promise," is there. So is the "Night Moves" collection. True, most of Seger's back catalog isn't on iTunes yet. But that's also true of a band called The Beatles, and it hasn't made people forget about them, either." Matt WHO? Aside from his gratuitous slap at Seger and Brooks, Janz also has school kids standing around their lockers, reading the paper. Just like real life! I'm sure Mr. Janz would love to hear from lots of Seger fans! His email address is janz@outofthegenepool.com. September 23, 2006 Janz Feels the Wrath Apparently a lot of people have sent their glad tidings to Janz. Including this message from original Seger DEW-liner Jesse: "As you've heard by now, Seger is at #4 nationally. Maybe 1st graders haven't heard of him, but that's to be expected. Your cartoon, unfortunately, is the real joke here. How was that rip of two artists even funny? It was a gratuitous slap." The beleagured cartoonist replies: "hello, irritated comics reader...I received enough reader e-mails complaining about that strip that I decided to type one encompassing response, which I apologize for... most of the e-mails I received were pretty much the same message anyway "you suck and bob seger rocks!" ...since I work weeks in advance, I was not aware..." etc., etc., etc. He goes on to say something about Rush being one of his favorite bands. Ears Two, who started this whole thing, got the final shot in, replying, "Use some capital letters, dude." My thoughts exactly. September 26, 2006 A Glimpse Into Seger's World The November issue of Guitar World Acoustic show us many of Seger's favorite guitars. It also includes one of the best interviews with Seger that I've come across in a long while. Seger gets into some details that haven't come out in previous sessions, including this: "I knew I was after something, so I kept working on the songs, writing and re-writing them. Sometimes when you do that, songs become worse. But in almost every case, my songs just kept getting a little bit better... "Then, finally, in January of this year I wrote five more songs -- "Simplicity," "No More," "The Long Goodbye," "Won't Stop" and "No Matter Who You Are" -- and I think that was the breakthrough I'd been waiting for. Each of those songs is just a little better and a little deeper than the earlier stuff. They are different and unusual, and I think that's why I waited." "No Matter Who You Are," he says, "is about selling your soul to the corporation. I was thinking about the world my kids will face and questioning my own career decisions and desires." And this: "This may surprise people, but I go back and study the Beach Boys about every six months. Brian Wilson was such an innovator -- his chord progessions are out of this world. I recently wrote a song called "Hero," which didn't make Face the Promise, which was inspired by him. "...I recently learned "All the Roadrunning" by Mark Knopfler. And not long ago I heard a John Michael Montgomery tune with such a great chord progression that I had to figure it out. " (And this quote, from a different article, also intrigued me: "My confidence in my playing was knocked for a loop from being cast as a 'pin-up,' but making this instrumental record has definitely given me a huge boost. My chops are up!" That's not Seger talking -- it's Peter Frampton, whose 1976 record, Frampton Comes Alive, competed with and, according to some reports, led the way for Live Bullet. Thirty years later, Frampton also has a new album -- but not at the top of the charts like Face the Promise. It's another reminder of Seger's amazing career.) All in all, the article by Brad Tolinski and the photos by Clay Patrick McBride make the issue worth owning. Buy yours while you can; until you can get to the newstand, here's a closer look. September 24, 2006 Seger on Leno Seger's first national TV performance. See a clip here. Seger appeared genuinely charmed and enthused to be on Leno last night, even giving us his infectious, boyish smile in the opening of "Wait for Me," which sounded great. The band included Alto Reed on acoustic guitar, Chris Cambell on bass, Mark Chatfield on lead guitar, Craig Frost and Matt Frost on keyboards, as well as Laura Creamer, Shaun Murphy, two other backup singers, Steve Brewster on drums and percussionist I couldn't identify. Seger talked with Jay for about three minutes after the song. Leno asked him why he had waited so long to perform on national TV -- "Were you waiting for the color to be perfected?" Seger answered "HD!" followed by the famous Seger laugh. They talked a little about cars and motorcycles. Leno asked Seger if he took his motorcycle with him on tour. Seger said, "I will this time. For sure." Seger fan Peter Schelstraete was in the audience for the show: "Even though I live in Phoenix and could not secure a ticket before I left, I was able to not only get in, but sat in row two in front of where Seger performed, maybe only 18 feet away from him  It took a lot of effort, but the tickets were free and I met the best fans in the world, Bob Seger fans. If it had not been for your website, I would have never even known about the Tonight Show and Bob Seger. Thanks and Rock on." Annette Drury writes: "I wasn't surprised that someone came from Phoenix just to see Bob!My daughter (I raised her on Bob's music) and her husband flew from Louisville, Ky to LA just to see that show. They arrived the day before and were at the studio at 6:00 AM. "They stood there (and sat on a concrete bench) all day for tickets. They too, were in one of the rows right in front of Bob when he sang. They flew back the next morning and said it was worth every penny of the $1500.00 they spent! "I hope someday to get that close to him himself!" And Randall Walker adds: "I am one of the fortunate ones who got to see Bob Seger at the Tonight Show on 14 September 2006, in Burbank, CA. I was the 5th person through the door after waiting all day in line (a very small price to pay). I was seated on the floor seating section directly in front of the stage where Bob and Silver Bullet performed.  "The couple next to me, who flew in from Kentucky just to see Bob Seger, asked if it was ok to stand up when Bob played. I said it depends. I was thinking that security would tell us to sit down or something. However, the girls behind me were eager Seger fans and I decide to stand up and enjoy the show. People around me stood up after seeing me.  "There was a contingent of Detroit fans whom I met and talked with and we agreed to shout out "Yeah, Detroit" on the count of three, which we did when Jay Leno interviewed Bob after he sang. I also recognized one of the background vocalists, Shawn Murphy, whose brother and I were best friends in Detroit as teens, who did some playing and recording together."    And one more report from Roger and Latisha Beets: "This is KY couple -- Hi all (hey Pete, Randall and Mom) the show was the best ever. Bob looked so great and sounded even better in person. It was so worth the trip and even more worth the wait. My husband suprised me and and flew me out to LA to see Bob which was a LIFE LONG dream of mine that FINALLY came true. I was so close I could see the whites in his eyes. The other fans I met were amazing... And Kate Karwowski writes: I was one of the girls behind Randall at the Tonight Show on Sept 14th.  We never sat down once they lifted the curtain on Seger.  We rocked that place!!!  I'm convinced that the "boyish smile" he flashed was directed right at all of us!  I remember talking -- all day -- with Peter and the rest of the Seger gang that had showed up early.  I only had to travel from Torrance -- about a 40 minute drive, but had to get up at 4:30am.  I'm a dedicated night-owl and NO ONE gets me up at that hour!  I was wearing a "classic" concert shirt from Pine Knob  -- vintage 1978.  Chris Campbell and a man I have still not identified were peeking out from backstage and seemed to be pointing at me.  The guy who wasn't Chris Campbell came over to me and started talking to me about the shirt.  I showed him the back, which had about 7 dates, SOLD OUT AGAIN across it, and "I was there" printed on it.  He said "I was there, too".  Wish I could find out who he was -- he was clearly with the Seger crowd.  I asked him to tell Bob that "Kate from LA says 'hi back'" because my boyfriend was able to get thru on the Sept 12th radio interview and got Bob to say "hi" to me.  He said "oh I remember that".  Hope he passed along my message. Now all he has to do is tour, so the rest of us can see him too! Seger and band on The Tonight Show. September 15, 2006 -- Updated 9/24/06 The Oakland Press -- A Letterman Appearance in the Works? When I started the Seger File eight years ago, Gary Graff was the journalist I wasl always quoting about Seger. Here are excerpts from his most recent interview On the title track of "Face the Promise," his first album of all-new material in 11 years, Bob Seger declares that "I've got fevered dreams, mighty plans." And his home studios compound on a wooded Clarkston lot about 25 minutes north of the family's residence certainly looks like a place where those plans are realized. Silver Bullet Band gear is laid out in the upstairs of the barn/ garage while the group rehearses for some upcoming TV appearances - and, perhaps, a tour, which Seger says is "80 to 85 percent sure" to happen. Guitars and a ProTools computer recording rig fill the living room of the nearby house. ...Seger reckons he worked on around 45 songs since "It's a Mystery." He even had a Silver Bullet Band album called "Blue Ridge" ready to go in the late '90s but scrapped it because he felt the sonics [didn't] measure up to what he was hearing on the radio. ..."Simplicity" was inspired by the Detroit Pistons' 2005-06 season ("They were, like, 38-5 at the time I wrote the song, and they were doing it with team play, fundamentals," Seger notes) ..."Bob is one of the most thorough and methodical artists I've ever worked with," says David Cole, who's been Seger's main recording engineer for the past three decades. "He takes his job seriously. He agonizes over every single square inch of a record. He really wants to make sure he gets it right." ...Most of "Face the Promise" was recorded in Nashville with session players, although two of the songs - "Won't Stop" and "The Long Goodbye" - were done at home with Seger playing most of the instruments. Working with the Nashville musicians, Seger notes, was simply "an expedient way of doing things." "With the (Silver Bullet Band), I'd write the song, then I'd have to teach 'em the song here. Then we'd have to go (into the studio) and get a sound. ... All those steps were eliminated when I just used studio guys. "I just walked in with a fresh song and, boom, four takes later it's a monster. Eight takes later it's either better or you go back to Take 4, or Take 2. It was very fast, and it would get me to the next step, which was singing them and mixing them and doing overdubs." ..."We've got a bunch of ballads that didn't make it. They're not bad ballads, but these were just a little better, so we put 'em on. Why not use the best songs?" ...Seger and the Silver Bullet Band will perform the album's fi rst single, "Wait For Me," on Thursday - two days after the album's release - on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "We've been playing that about 10 times a day, every time we rehearse, 'cause we want it to be utterly second nature," Seger says. ...The group also is slated to perform Sept. 28 on ABC's "The View." Some other Seger TV appearances are being considered, including "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS and a possible CMT "Crossroads" episode that would pair Seger with an admirer from the country music world. Read the whole piece, here.   September 11, 2006 The Associated Press -- Agonizing Over Every Square Inch Excerpts from the AP piece as it appeared in the International Herald Tribune: The engine of Bob Seger's white Ford GT roars as he maneuvers his way through the long driveway leading to his secluded studio. Seger, dressed in a green Naples, Florida, T-shirt, shorts and sandals, looks relaxed at his suburban Detroit hideaway as he pulls out a stack of clothes from his trunk -- a variety of outfits for a day's worth of photo shoots. ...The 61-year-old rock legend took extra care on the album's songs while working at his own terms from the 20-acre (8-hectare) property that is surrounded by wetlands. After all, no one can hear him here. "I can be loud any time night or day. I can be rip-roaring on the electric guitar up in the studio or have the drum machine real loud. I just work alone." ...He calls "Face The Promise" his first solo record. It did not start out that way, but Seger says he shunned off advice from everyone and instead mastered the album just the way he wanted it. "If you hate this one, hate me," Seger says with a thunderous laugh. "He just agonizes over every square inch of the music," says engineer David Cole, who has worked with Seger since 1978. "He works with every note of music and each sound until he's got it just right." ...Seger kept coming back with new songs and updated versions. He would mix from his cabin in the woods and over time it became more of a rock record, Cole says. It was sparked by the concept of Leonard Cohen's 1992 album "The Future." Seger says he liked the idea of laying out "the future as he sees it." "Having young kids, you start thinking: 'Well what are they going to face that I faced,'" he says. "As a very razor-thin concept it's about what to expect and where we're going and where we hopefully won't end up." Seger, who has sold 50 million albums in his career, says he recorded more than 30 songs for the album and in the end picked the best 12. ...As Seger brews up some instant coffee and grabs an ashtray, he talks about how excited he is to have the Silver Bullet Band back at his studio practicing. They have not really played together since the band helped him record a 1997-98 album that never was released -- none of those songs showed up on this record, he says. Silver Bullet veterans Alto Reed, Craig Frost and Chris Campbell along with Mark Chatfield, who has moved to lead guitar, have