It's a little-remarked part of the concert experience: the music that plays before the star gets onstage. Some bands leave the choice to the sound crew; others put on whatever CD was playing in the bus the night before. And others, slightly more obsessive, create their own compilations to set the appropriate mood. With his current solo tour, which returns to North America next month, Bruce Springsteen is one of the obsessive ones, and for fans who have heard the songs and want to track down his choices, he has listed them on his Web site (www.brucespringsteen.net/live/walkinmusic.html).

It's a rootsy selection, overwhelmingly American, that dips into country and blues and reaches back to folk-revival inspirations like Dock Boggs and Mississippi John Hurt. And it keeps returning to gospel, from Mavis Staples to the Swan Silvertones. The list includes some obvious musicians (Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Woody Guthrie, Jackson Browne) doing non-obvious choices, like Mr. Dylan's "Dear Mrs. Roosevelt." There are also plenty of old and obscure recordings. There are songs that share Springsteen titles: Robert Mitchum's "Ballad of Thunder Road," Sleater-Kinney's "Promised Land" and Mr. Dylan's "Lonesome Day Blues." The list has train songs, traveling songs, drinking songs, political songs, death songs and redemption songs, and it's not all oldies; there's current alt-country (Neko Case, Calexico), indie-rock (My Morning Jacket) and a hip-hop track, Nas's "Bridging the Gap." And, yes, one's in the family: "Valerie" by Mr. Springsteen's wife and backup singer, Patti Scialfa. It's the collection of a music fan who's not afraid to admit where he picked up a few ideas.