America’s 250th: Born in the USA
Last week, Freedom 250, a White House organization created by executive order, announced the lineup for a series of concerts celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Almost as soon as the names were announced, the vast majority of musicians backed out, explaining that they didn’t realize that the even was a partisan one (or that they had been told explicitly that it would be nonpartisan).
As a result, unless you want to see Vanilla Ice or (maybe) Flo Rida (there’s some confusion about who has the right to call themselves C+C Music Factory and who has the right to call themselves Milli Vanilli), you’re out of luck.
But nonprofits (or, at least, a nonprofit) have leapt in the fill the gap! If you want to celebrate the history of our country with a lineup of incredible, genre-spanning musicians, you’re [checks the website] still out of luck, because it looks like Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us, presented by the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, is sold out.
That said, if (a) I were in or near New Jersey and (b) tickets weren’t sold out, the second day features both Trombone Shorty and Mavis Staples and I would go in a heartbeat.
All of this lead-up to say: I’m not interested in the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music. Mostly because I’m interested in the Bruce Springsteen part, though I’m also interested in the American Music part.
While I was unaware of the Center until, well, this weekend, it has apparently been tax-exempt since 2018. It was set up to support Monmouth University, and particularly focuses on archiving to preserve and promote Springsteen’s legacy, as well as the legacy of other American musicians.
I’m absolutely fascinated by music-focused and -adjacent tax-exempt organizations, and especially those that focus on popular and profitable music like the Boss’s. And I’m definitely interested in looking into the Center more to see how it operates.
Also, since we’re thinking about Bruce Springsteen, there’s never a good reason not to listen to “Sherry Darling,” unless you don’t want to have literally the most catchy tune humanly possible stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
