Following our historic slate of Born to Run 50th anniversary events this August and September, the Center team hit the road! We just wrapped trips to Boston and Canada, during both of which the “Center for American Music” portion of our work took center stage.
Because remember: our mission is truly two-fold. The Bruce Springsteen Archives serves as the official repository for materials related to Springsteen and the E Street Band, including photographs, historic memorabilia, oral histories, and more. At the same time, the Center for American Music explores American music more broadly. We accomplish this by producing exhibitions, concerts, and educational programming that explores and honors the cultural impact of American music past, present, and future—hence our recent travel. So, what have we been up to?
On September 27, we partnered with the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame (FARHOF) for a one-day symposium titled Wasn’t That a Time: The Boston Folk Revival 1958–1965 at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge. The event explored Boston’s pivotal role in the American folk revival, featuring panel discussions and talks with musicians and historians like Peter, Paul, and Mary’s Noel Paul Stookey and singer-songwriters Ellis Paul and Tom Rush.
I opened the day moderating a panel on the “Origins of the Boston and Greenwich Village Folk Scenes,” interviewing Mitch Greenhill, a musician who also runs an artist management and production company known as Folklore Productions; Jim Brown, an Emmy Award-winning producer, director, writer, and cinematographer; Jim Rooney, whose memoir In It for the Long Run looks at his decades long career as a singer-songwriter in, and documentarian of, the folk revival music scene; and Tom Paxton, an artist who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy during the 51st Annual GRAMMY® Awards in 2009.
I’m someone who loves talking about music as a primary source to teach about the past—and folk revival music is an incredible tool for that. It preserved traditional music, inspired political activism, influenced popular culture, and connected generations, fostering awareness of social issues through powerful storytelling and grassroots expression. As an educator who has been using this music in my classroom for close to two decades, it was a true honor to moderate this discussion with some of those so involved in the scene. (Sidenote: if you’re an educator reading this, check out the resources our friends at TeachRock have prepared to help you bring music into your classroom, at any level.)
Our Executive Director, Bob Santelli, led panels as well. His interview with Peter Wolf, known for his work with the J. Geils Band as well as his solo career, was particularly engaging. I won’t give much away here because you definitely want to grab a copy of Peter’s recent memoir, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses.
Director of Public Programming Eileen Chapman closed the day with an overview of the BSACAM’s work for those unfamiliar. See the full Wasn’t That a Time schedule, here.
Overall, the event served as both a historical reflection and a launchpad for future programming, honoring the past while nurturing upcoming generations of folk artists and scholars. The symposium was a part of FARHOF’s broader mission to celebrate and preserve the legacies of folk, Americana, and roots music, building on other recent initiatives such as a Levon Helm exhibit and their inaugural 2024 induction ceremony at the Boch Center’s Wang Theatre in Boston. We look forward to hosting a companion symposium at our new home on the campus of Monmouth University next year.
This weekend saw us off to Canada for Echoes Across the Border: Laurel Canyon and the Northern Connection. The symposium was held at the National Music Centre (NMC) on October 4 and explored the rich interplay of Canadian U.S. musical influences, particularly through the lens of the folk/rock surge emerging from Laurel Canyon in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Featuring keynote speakers and panels with prominent musicologists, historians, journalists, and curators—including award-winning authors Rob Bowman and Nicholas Jennings—the summit examined how figures like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, among others, forged artistic paths that crossed borders both literally and artistically.
Bob and the NMC’s President and CEO Andrew Mosker opened the day with poignant remarks about music’s power to transcend borders and unite people. The message was more important than ever given the tumultuous and polarized times we find ourselves living in.
I moderated two panels. “From Concrete to Canyon: The Counterculture’s Rural Rebellion” featured Canadian historian and journalist John Einarson, GRAMMY-nominated American author Holly George-Warren, and Dr. Judith Klassen, an Ethnomusicologist and Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Canadian Museum of History. We explored what Laurel Canyon would have looked, smelled, and sounded like, and how space impacts an artist’s work.
My second panel was “Hitmakers’ Blueprint: Crafting Songs for the Airwaves,” featuring Canadian music journalist Lary LeBlanc and American author Alan Light. We discussed the formula for radio hits prior to the Laurel Canyon era, how it changed in the mid-late 60s and 70s, the commercial appeal of Laurel Canyon artists, and the similarities and differences between having a hit on the radio in the mid-20th century and via the Internet today.
Bob and Eileen served as moderators and panelists as well. Eileen’s experience as an Asbury Park councilwoman allowed her to offer particularly unique insights into how music scenes develop, thrive, and falter. See the full program here.
As co-organizers of this event, we at the BSACAM hoped to shine light on how ideas, sounds, and collaborations traveled north and south, influencing generations of artists. We look forward to hosting a companion to this symposium at our new home next year, as well.
As you can see, we take our commitment to being the Center for American Music seriously—at home and abroad!
Melissa Ziobro
Director of Curatorial Affairs
Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music
Monmouth University
October 5, 2025