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As these words are being published, we’re in Day 10 of the U.S. government shutdown, with no end apparently in sight.  Could Joe Grushecky have picked a better time to release his seventeenth and latest solo album, the poltiically-charged and socially-conscious Somewhere East of Eden (Schoolhouse/Warner Nashville 2-535518, 2013)?  Grushecky has always evinced that he cares deeply for America, and for its citizens – particularly the blue-collar, working class.  On Eden, the rootsy singer-songwriter (frequently categorized alongside the likes of John Mellencamp and Bob Seger as a proponent of “heartland rock”) directs one track at the “politician man,” but though he seethes on that song and elsewhere, the album is more than just a polemic.  It’s a deeply personal statement of who he is, where he’s been, and where he’s going.  Eden is very much in the spirit of Grushecky’s past work, but though the terrain is familiar, the artist has managed to find new corners to illuminate.

This release from Grushecky’s Schoolhouse Records is being distributed by Warner Music Nashville, and though Eden is not a country album proper, the focused collection of twelve songs is certainly imbued with a hint of that flavor.  But more often, the attack is straight-ahead, guitar-driven, melodic rock and roll from a plain-spoken narrator with a fire in his belly.  “Don’t you know these days, it’s the cold, hard truth,” the singer asserts on the album’s opening lines.  “All my money goes to guys in suits/Who always take more than they need/Don’t even try to hide their greed…”  With its chorus of “the rich get rich and the poor stay poor,” Grushecky is mad as hell in the hard-rocking opening salvo, “I Can Hear the Devil Knocking.”  The up-tempo groove of the pointed “Prices Going Up” is similarly blunt in its take on modern life (“I’ve been workin’ too hard, bustin’ my butt/I’ve been breakin’ my back…I can’t afford the gas…I can’t afford the bread…”) and ends with perhaps the only response possible: a pained wail.

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Over a tropical backing of piano, Latin percussion, horns and Spanish-style guitar, Grushecky narrates (more speaking than singing) the atmospheric “When Castro Came Down from the Hills.”  “The people were so poor…,” he sings numerous times in the song.  Though the lyric is set in 1958 Cuba, the track feels of a piece with his other stories of the struggling people in modern-day America.  One of those real-life characters is that of a veteran “fresh from my second tour of duty in that shithole of Iraq” returning to Grushecky’s home base of Pennsylvania.  Grushecky brings this hero to life in the title song, “Somewhere East of Eden.”  “I started drinkin’ every night and doin’ drugs and listenin’ to Robert Johnson singin’ the blues,” he frankly and matter-of-factly asserts in this sometimes-graphic depiction of the inner turmoil faced by far too many vets in similar situations.  It’s no surprise that Grushecky would reference a novel by John Steinbeck in the song and album’s title, as Steinbeck’s writings addressed concerns relevant to Grushecky like loneliness, prejudice, treatment of the mentally ill, and especially the plight of the underprivileged and working class.

Grushecky, a special education teacher for decades, is empathetic to his protagonists, and likely is writing from experience in “Who Cares About Those Kids.”  It could fairly be described as a vintage Bruce Springsteen-esque rocker, although Springsteen and his pal and frequent collaborator Grushecky came from the very same tradition.  This slice of life story about a kid from the wrong side of the tracks coping with life’s difficulties with drugs and violence isn’t as maudlin as the title might lead you to expect, and in fact, the use of the derisive “those kids” is bitterly ironic as Grushecky makes it clear that he will indeed be a voice for them.  Education itself is the subject of the acoustic “The First Day of School,” perhaps the most heartfelt piece on the album.  The song smartly shifts perspective from a youngster experiencing that milestone to an older person now teaching and setting the rules himself.  A simply strummed reflection on time and change, it’s Grushecky at his most genuine.  The thematic tissue is also present in “Changing of the Guard.”  This track addresses the inevitability of change and ceding to the younger generation as a youthful chorus chimes in with “Can’t stop the world from turning…”  Indeed, not.  Grushecky gently ribs his own age on “Still Look Good (For Sixty),” the lightest song on Eden.  As elsewhere on the album, some of the rhymes are a bit of a stretch (“The girls all used to think I was sexy/Well now I just look good for sixty…” or “Now I’m lucky if once a month I feel frisky/But I still look good for sixty…”) but it’s a likeable enough diversion, with bop-shoo-bop rock-and-roll backing vocals.

Despite the levity of “Still Look Good (For Sixty),” the blues run deep in Grushecky’s weathered voice.  He sounds most often like a cross between Tom Petty, Southside Johnny Lyon and of course, The Boss, but that’s no slam. He hands over one track on Eden to the blues, namely the traditional call-and-response song “John the Revelator.”  The gospel staple was popularized by Blind Willie Johnson in 1930; Grushecky adorns it only with stomps and handclaps.  The album’s other cover is of a more modern vintage: Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman’s Drifters hit “Save the Last Dance for Me.”  Sung in an intimate, breathy tone, Grushecky’s honest reading proves the durability of the timeless Brill Building tune…not that it was ever in doubt.

The album’s production, by Grushecky and longtime friend Rick Witkowski, occasionally employs modern flourishes (such as the drum track on “Magnolia”) but is largely in what might be called a classic rock vein.  The swaggering “I Was Born to Rock” (“from early in the morning, all around the clock….”), with its searing electric guitar, is as valid a mission statement as any.

Joe Grushecky has long written widescreen-style, focusing on down-to-earth characters but in a big, universal, anthemic manner.  Those that have enjoyed his songwriting in the past will doubtless find many pleasures – and food for thought – on Somewhere East of Eden.  Those unfamiliar with this workingman’s troubadour might do well to explore this album, too, as it’s as good a place to start as any.  He still sounds good – for sixty or any age.

You can order Somewhere East of Eden at Amazon U.S. and at Amazon U.K.!