Bruce Springsteen says he has a new album "coming out soon"

Bruce Springsteen has a new album on the way, which he says will focus largely on the American West.

The Boss's next effort will be his 21st studio album. If it arrives in 2021, it will be his third album in as many years, following his Western Stars solo album in 2019 and his Letter To You album with the E Street Band from 2020.

Springsteen alluded to a new LP in remarks he made Friday while accepting the Woody Guthrie Prize.

Speaking with Guthrie's daughter, Nora, Springsteen recalled how the folk music icon inspired him as a young musician to think more broadly about his songwriting. He noted how Woody "took in the whole country and a whole vision that I found very, very compelling and necessary and attractive... I wanted to try and fill just a little tiny bit of those shoes."

He continued: "California was an enormous influence on some of my most topical writing through my '90s, 2000s and even now. We have a record coming out soon that's set largely in the West."

Western Stars was described by Springsteen as a tribute to the California-pop country sound of the '60s and '70s, exemplified by artists like Glen Campbell and Burt Bacharach.

The Woody Guthrie Prize is awarded annually (since 2014) to an artist who "best exemplified Woody Guthrie's spirit and work by speaking for the less fortunate."

Previous honorees include Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Kris Kristofferson and others.