A ROCK ‘N’ ROLL MARRIAGE

It’s not easy being Bruce Springsteen’s wife. It’s harder being his wife and a musician as Patti Sciafla discovered

Of all the subjects Patti Scialfa might consider probing on her third album, you’d think her marriage would be low on the list.
Fans have been scouring her songs for Bruce Springsteen-related subtext since she released her first solo record, Rumble Doll, in 1993 — tiresome for an artist who has had much to say about her own eventful life. And, few would expect the public dissection of a relationship from the happily married wife of a rock god.

But Play It as It Lays, a weary, emotion-rich record is pointedly about Scialfa’s 16-year marriage to Springsteen. “My records always deal with a question I have that I don’t know how to answer,” she said. “The question this time was about the conflicts and the complexities in a long-term relationship, the real things that go on.

“For me it was more compelling and interesting to go into the areas where the conflicts are,” she added. “I find those things fascinating to write about — complexities, the darker stuff, the things that are under the rug, in the back room and in the cellar. It was a little scary, I have to say.”

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What comes through on the record, though, is not callowness but boldness, a determination to get right her many roles: Scialfa, 54, is the mother of the couple’s three teenagers as well as a solo artist and a member of both the E Street and the Seeger Sessions bands. The most discernible theme is a sense of domestic ennui.

“It’s easy to dull down a bit, to knee-jerk into cliches, when you’re raising a family,” said Scialfa, commenting on the opening song, “Looking for Elvis,” which is about personal reinvention. “And Bruce and I — I work on his tour, so I’m working a lot. So you want to keep yourself open to your own rhythms, but it’s hard. It’s hard to keep alive those original seeds you plant in yourself.”

Scialfa took 11 years between her first two albums, Rumble Doll and 23rd Street Lullaby in 2004, because of obligations with her family and with the E Street Band, and she regrets not touring behind Rumble Doll. And the making of Play It as It Lays which Scialfa will tour behind in 2008 after a flurry of television appearances, was put on hold because of scheduling with the Seeger Sessions Band.

She recorded the album at home; her backup band, which gave itself the silly name the Whack Brothers, consisted of the co-producer, Steve Jordon (percussion, acoustic guitar), Willie Weeks (bass), Nils Lofgren (guitars, pedal steel guitar, dobro), Cliff Carter (keyboards) and Springsteen (Hammond B3 organ, acoustic guitars, electric guitar, harmonica).

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Jordon’s presence grounded her, she said. “I needed to be surrounded by people who gave me my autonomy… who reflected back my own path.”

Scialfa is still subject to cries of “Bruuuuuce!” when she takes the stage; she often crosses paths with fans who say, “Oh, did he write that? It sounds like something he wrote,”.

Forging an identity apart from Springsteen’s can be an uphill battle, as any number of New Jersey rock artists pelted by requests for his songs have discovered. Scialfa had a final word of advice for them: “Just say no,” she said.
– TAMMY LA GORCE (NYT)