Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival and Outpost in the Burbs invites you to spend the evening ‘Finding Nebraska’, a words-and-music show about one man’s love affair with Bruce Springsteen’s album Nebraska on Friday May 5 at 7 p.m.
Combining storytelling and performance, author Warren Zanes will be joined by guests including Laura Cantrell and James Maddock, all backed by a house band featuring David Mansfield, Ray Kubian, and Chris Harford.
Born of the experience of writing this book but different in character, Zanes’s show ‘Finding Nebraska’ is a moving, funny, insightful exploration of life falling apart, of art’s redemptive power, and of the lasting place of Bruce Springsteen in American life and culture. Zanes tells stories, recalling the ways in which Springsteen was, for him, a touchstone from adolescence forward. Punctuated by the songs of Bruce Springsteen, this is the emotional, humor-filled one-man show that brings Nebraska to life in new and unexpected ways.
Warren Zanes first met Bruce Springsteen in 1984, when Zanes was still a teenager and Springsteen was riding high with his biggest album, Born in the USA. They crossed one another’s paths in North Carolina, at Greensboro’s Rhinoceros Club, capacity one-hundred-fifty. Zanes was there with his band The Del Fuegos getting ready to hit the stage, when Springsteen walked into the group’s small dressing room. Springsteen joined The Del Fuegos that night, letting a little small town magic flood the room.
Zanes would meet Springsteen at a few other points throughout his life, but he would always see Springsteen as “the guy who made Nebraska”. Eventually, forty years after the album’s release, Zanes would sit with Springsteen, just the two of them talking for hours about how Nebraska was made, why it was different, and what it means to release such an imperfect, unfinished, strange and unexpected recording. Those conversations became the spine of a book about that recording and Springsteen’s life at the time, entitled Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.
“This book, more than any other, reveals the hidden corners of Bruce Springsteen’s creative world.”–Judd Apatow
Tickets to hear Warren Zanes and guests cost $45 for one person/$75 for two, and include one copy of the book Deliver Me from Nowhere (value $28). Books will be available to be picked up from Festival partner watchung booksellers after the book’s publication on Tuesday May 2, 2023. Books will also be available for collection at the event.
This event will be held in The Sanctuary of the First Congregational Church, 40 South Fullerton Ave, Montclair, 07042. We are currently not requiring any Covid safety precautions but we will review closer to the time. Precautions may include mask wearing and social distancing inside the venue. If you require any special accommodations to attend, please email montclairliteraryfestival@gmail.com before the event.
Warren Zanes is a Montclair-based author, musician, and NYU professor. His NYT-bestselling biography of Tom Petty was a Rolling Stone top 10 book. A former member of The Del Fuegos, Warren has released four solo recordings and is currently a member of poet Paul Muldoon’s Rogue Oliphant. He is a Grammy-nominated producer of the PBS Soundbreaking series and a consulting producer of the Oscar-winning Twenty Feet from Stardom. At one time a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame vice president, Warren has written for the Los Angeles Times, Oxford American, and more, is the editor of collections on Jimmie Rodgers and Tom Petty, and written books including Dusty in Memphis and Revolutions in Sound: Fifty Years of Warner Bros. Records. His latest book, Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, is coming out on May 2, 2023, and has been described by writer Nick Flynn as “one of the greatest books about the creative process ever written.”
This event is co-produced by Succeed2gether and Outpost in Burbs. Non-profit Succeed2gether offers free after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. Outpost in the Burbs is a nonprofit organization now in its 35th year, dedicated to building community through music and volunteerism.
You can read more about Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival at succeed2gether.org/montclair-literary-festival/.
