The Ghost of Tom Joad

Released on November 21, 1995, The Ghost of Tom Joad is Bruce Springsteen's eleventh studio album and only his second largely acoustic record, following 1982's Nebraska. It was written and recorded mostly alone at his Los Angeles home studio between the spring and fall of 1995, shortly after a brief, one-off reunion with the E Street Band to cut new material for a greatest-hits compilation^[1].

The album takes its title and central image from Tom Joad, the protagonist of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, by way of Woody Guthrie's earlier musical tribute to the character and John Ford's film adaptation of the novel. Springsteen has said he encountered the film and Guthrie's ballad before he ever read Steinbeck's book, which he didn't pick up until after the album was finished^[2].

Beyond the title track, the record is built from quiet character studies of migrant laborers, undocumented immigrants, and the economically displaced across the American Southwest and Mexico, inspired partly by motorcycle trips Springsteen took through the desert border region^[1]. Its sparse arrangements, hushed vocals, and minimal percussion drew a divided critical response: Rolling Stone's Mikal Gilmore called it Springsteen's strongest album in a decade, while Robert Christgau described it as the most depressing release of its year^[1]. Commercially it marked a step down for an artist of Springsteen's stature, debuting at only No. 11 on the Billboard 200, his first studio album in over two decades to miss the US top ten^[1]. It went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and Springsteen supported it with a solo acoustic tour running from 1995 into 1997.