23 August 2010 - Bruce Cockburn Continues Work On His New Studio Album

Bruce Cockburn continues to work on his new recording, his first studio album since 2006’s Life Short Call Now. At the present moment the album contains some 15 songs and instrumentals. The music being recorded is very acoustic, very rhythmic, and highly evocative.

The CD features performances from violin player extraordinaire Jenny Scheinman (Bill Frisell, Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux), recording artist Annabelle Chvostek and long time collaborators Gary Craig, Jon Dymond and producer Colin Linden.

The sessions have been done in Bath Ontario, Nashville Tennessee, and San Francisco California.

The album’s current working title is Small Source of Comfort and the record is now scheduled for a March 1, 2011 release, world-wide on the True North label and will mark six years between studio releases.

Following the release of the record Bruce will embark on a tour with dates beginning in Canada towards the end of March and into the US in May and then will continue on to the end of the year including a possible return to UK, Europe and points further afield.

3 August 2010 - The CockburnProject was informed by Bernie that Bruce's mother passed away on Saturday, July 31, 2010. We here at the Project send our deepest condolences to Bruce and his family.

3 August 2010 - New Album - Small Source of Comfort

~ Bernie Finkelstein, www.finkelsteinmanagement.com.

21 June 2010 - Bruce Cockburn Rd. 2 on Q TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHrEm2PWLc

Podcast of same interview here June 17.

30 June 2010 - Update!
Listen to most of the Luminato show at CBC.
( http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20100616lumin )

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - In the song business, they say the most convincing proof of a composer’s skill is in the adaptability of his or her work. The better the song, the more likely it is to cross genres, to bridge cultures and generations — in other words, to endure.

And though Bruce Cockburn probably won’t ever be able to buy a manse in St. Tropez with royalties from the scant number of cover versions of hundreds of his compositions — they’re just too tough, too profound, too complex for mass consumption — the quality of his craftsmanship over 40 years and some 30 albums was stunningly evident last night in an all-star celebration of his life’s work at Massey Hall, in the third annual edition of the Luminato festival’s Canadian Songbook.

About two dozen of the Ottawa-born songwriter’s gems — some well known, others not so — proved themselves perfectly ready for reinvention in genres as diverse as rap, rock, country, jazz pure pop, folk and blues, performed by an astonishing array of virtuoso Canadian musicians and singers, including acoustic guitarist Jason Fowler, jazz guitarist Michael Occhipinti, folk-rapper Buck 65, country rockers Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, country-folk singers Sylvia Tyson and Amelia Curran, popsters the Barenaked Ladies and Hawksley Workman, and folk-pop trio The Wailin’ Jennys.

That no song suffered in being transformed had a lot to do with the concert’s attentive and empathetic musical director and longtime Cockburn admirer, guitarist/arranger Colin Linden, who led a brilliant five-piece band that accompanied just about every performer, and stepped occasionally — donning a vivid embroidered jacket — into Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, alongside Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson.

Cockburn himself was front and centre for a burn-down-the-house version at the end of the first of two hour-long sets of his biggest "hit," " I Had A Rocket Launcher," in which Cockburn performed a punishingly percussive solo on acoustic guitar, and a blistering "Tie Me At The Crossroads," backed by both bands. "The only thing better than three guitars is four guitars," Linden quipped before counting in the gutsy rockers.

Earlier the audience had been treated to much more subtle reinventions of favourites in the Cockburn oeuvre:

• Fowler, a classically trained guitarist, served up a graceful, finger-picked version of "Sunwheel Dance" at the top of the show, referencing several other Cockburn songs in passing.

• Buck 65 complimented Cockburn on his "rapping skills" before performing "Slow Down Fast" and "If A Tree Falls," accompanied by drum loops on his laptop and tasty guitar licks from Linden.

• Sylvia Tyson, after a lengthy introduction by CBC Radio personality Jian Ghomeshi, whose tongue seemed to tire before intermission from enunciating an abundance of superlatives describing the evening’s stars, served up a plaintive "One Day I Walk."

• And Newfoundlander Amelia Curran performed two uneasy pieces — "Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long," a slow, menacing shuffle that required the voice of a serious belter, and a breathless, almost inaudible "All the Diamonds."

But the real star of the first set — the deadline for this review precluded taking in the second — was Occhipinti and his brilliant jazz ensemble. Their ethereal take on Cockburn’s "Homme Brûlant," all shimmering guitar spikes and golden trumpet tones, was unforgettable.

~from http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/article/824687--bruce-cockburn-and-friends-barrelhouse-all-night-long by Greg Quill.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 | 3:11 PM - Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn will be celebrated in a tribute concert in Toronto Wednesday night.

The man who's been called "a rocker with a mission" and "a troubadour for the common man" will hear his songs played by some of Canada's top musicians in the Canadian Songbook concert, part of the Luminato Festival.

Unlike Neil Young, who was similarly honoured in 2009, Cockburn will take to the stage during the tribute.

Singers such as Buck 65, the Barenaked Ladies, Sylvia Tyson and Hawksley Workman will perform works he's created over the last 40 years.

"It's fun to be feted in this sort of way — I'm looking forward to the bits of collaboration that I expect to get to do with some of the people performing and I look forward to hearing the peculiar things they do with my songs," Cockburn told CBC News.

Cockburn, who was honoured just last week on Earth Day for his commitment to the environment, has been outspoken about environmental and human rights issues throughout his songwriting career.

One of his biggest hits was 1984's If I Had a Rocket Launcher, a song he said he wrote in Chiapas, Mexico, after spending three days in Guatemalan refugee camps.

"The Guatemalan army was prone to making forays by air or land and raiding those camps and shooting them up and kidnapping people and butchering them in the forest, so there was this incredible sense of outrage and pain," he recalled.

"If I Had a Rocket Launcher had an unexpected impact because … I didn't ever imagine it would get on the radio," Cockburn added.

Cockburn grew up in Ottawa and began his career as a folk singer at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1967. His first self-titled album was released in 1970.

His hits include Wondering Where the Lions Are, Lovers in a Dangerous Time, Rumours of Glory and Last Night of the World.

"A concise way to describe how I get inspired is just to say God does it but it doesn't feel exactly like that," he said. "It's more complicated — it's beauty, it's an emotional response to stuff whatever it is … it can be horror at something that's been done to someone or to the planet, it can be sex, it can anything at all."

Participants in Wednesday's tribute say he has had an enormous influence on a new generation of musicians.

"Bruce Cockburn for me was a pinnacle moment in my musical development," Workman said. "It came at a time when I was open to the ideas of absorbing poetry and newness and images and ideas."

Workman said he admires Cockburn's legacy as an activist.

"I think he's probably one of the last adversarial voices — it's not fashionable to write protest music any more that's for sure and as the world gets more and more corporate it's even dangerous for your career to step out," he said.

Colin Linden, a guitarist who has had a long association with Cockburn, said he should be recognized as the great musician he is, as well as for his strong lyrics.

"I think Bruce's songs strike just a chord of truth to so many people for different reasons," Linden said.

"The lyrics to his songs continue to haunt you and inspire you. Sometimes with a great songwriter like Bruce or Bob Dylan the lyrics are so strong that people forget that the melodies and musical component is so incredibly powerful as well."

Cockburn said the reminder that he's been a singer for 40 years is both "amazing" and sobering.

"There's only a finite amount of time left to do whatever it is that's next," he said "I can't take any of this for granted. I don't know if my eyesight will hold out or my hands, or my brain will hold out — anything can happen."

CBC Radio 2's Canada Live is recording the Bruce Cockburn Tribute at Massey Hall and it will air on Wednesday, June 30.

Update: Listen to the Luminato Show.

~from http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2010/06/16/bruce-cockburn-tribute.html. There is also an audio clip on this page. With files from CBC's Margo Kelly.

Bruce Cockburn and Bernie Finkelstein chatting during the 40 Year Tribute sound check, 16 June 2010, at Massey Hall.

~from Bruce Cockburn's Official Facebook fan page. (Thanks Jeremie!)

15 June 2010 - To kick off its 20th anniversary, The David Suzuki Foundation is preparing a compilation called Playlist for the Planet. Lots of Canadian recording acts, including Broken Social Scene, The Trews, Rush and Bruce Cockburn, are committed to it. West Coast acts include DOA, Jessie Farrell, Randy and Denise Bachman and Todd Butler. In the course of gathering the album for a November release, the foundation is also running a contest with CBC Radio 3. Songwriters can register with the CBC and upload their song. The 10 most popular songs with listeners will be whittled down to two for the album. To register -- go to www.davidsuzuki.org/playlist.

~ from David Suzuki Foundation.

9 June 2010 -

Earth Day Gala from NOW Magazine on Vimeo.

3 June 2010 - Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, announces the full lineup for The Canadian Songbook: 40 Years of Bruce Cockburn concert on Wednesday, June 16, including Barenaked Ladies, Sylvia Tyson and Buck 65. Luminato takes place from June 11 – 20, 2010.

The Canadian Songbook Luminato pays tribute to the music of Canadian guitar-legend Bruce Cockburn as The Canadian Songbook returns for its third year at Massey Hall. Cockburn is joined by other renowned Canadian musicians who perform classics from Cockburn’s extensive 40-year musical catalogue. The Canadian Songbook is hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, with musical direction by Colin Linden, and produced in association with Massey Hall. The Canadian Songbook is presented by National Bank Financial Group. Wednesday, June 16, 7:30 PM at Massey Hall $55 – $85.

Complete Artist Lineup:

Amelia Curran: Native of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and recent Juno Award-winner for her album Hunter Hunter.

Barenaked Ladies: Canadian musical institution and multi-award-winning four-piece who just released their 11th studio album, All In Good Time.

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings: Juno Award-winning trio, Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing and Tom Wilson.

Buck 65: Canadian hip hop artist and radio host, whose sound incorporates blues, country, rock, and folk.

Bruce Cockburn: Canadian guitar legend, songwriter and activist, and the focus of Canadian Songbook.

Hawksley Workman: Prolific Canadian rock singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Jason Fowler: Toronto-based singer/songwriter, session guitarist and producer.

Michael Occhipinti: Eight-time Juno Award-nominee for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, also known for the album Songs of Bruce Cockburn featuring arrangements of Cockburn’s music.

Sylvia Tyson: A founding member of ‘60s landmark folk and country duo Ian & Sylvia, Juno Award-winner and member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

The Wailin’ Jennys: Juno Award-winning folk trio with members from Manitoba and New York.

~from Finkelstein Management

3 June 2010
by Greg Quill - The Toronto Star - Singer-songer-activist Bruce Cockburn is the focus of Luminato's all-star Canadian Songbook tribute Wednesday night at Massey Hall. He'll be the first honouree to take part in the proceedings.

Being the focus of Luminato’s all-star Canadian Songbook tribute on June 16 at Massey Hall makes Bruce Cockburn a little uneasy.

It’s not that he feels undeserving. After 40 years in the music business, more than 25 albums, and a load of profoundly affecting, politically and spiritually charged hits to his credit, the 65-year-old composer and virtuoso guitarist knows it would be disingenuous to claim he doesn’t have a place in the festival’s pantheon of great Canadian songwriters, along with previously celebrated peers Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young.

It’s just that he doesn’t like being singled out, even though he’ll be sharing the stage with musical friends and admirers — including a killer house band under the direction of Canadian roots music veteran Colin Linden.

"It’s odd to be the centre of that kind of attention," he said on the phone earlier this week from Battle Mountain, Nevada. He was taking a break on a solo, cross-continental drive from California, where he’d spent a few days clearing his head.

"It’s the same reaction I had in high school whenever a teacher called my name: ‘Who, me?’

"Prizes and tributes aren’t part of songwriting activity. I never think about them. My focus is on words and music and whether I can sing the notes and communicate with people."

Just who is participating in the event was also kept under pretty tight wraps till late this week when we spoke, even Cockburn was in the dark about the final bill, and who’s performing which of his songs.

The official list of performers, now confirmed, includes Amelia Curran, Barenaked Ladies, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Buck 65, Hawksley Workman, Jason Fowler, Michael Occhipinti, Sylvia Tyson and The Wailin’ Jennys.

"I’ve had no hand in the planning," Cockburn said. "I’ve been kept aware of how it’s shaping up. I think it’s neat that people want to do it."

He does know that he’s the first honouree in the Canadian Songbook series to take part in the proceedings.

"I’ve got to work," he said. "I think I’ll have a small spot of my own, and I expect to perform with others, just no idea of the structure. If I had a say in things, it would be to have Barenaked Ladies do ‘Call It Democracy.’ "

With a new album due and a book deal with Harper Collins freshly sealed — a memoir the songwriter said he’s terrified of beginning, because "I have to make hard decisions about what to include of other people’s lives, and I want to keep some of my friends" — Cockburn may have settled in the stately age of artistic life, but he’s still as passionate about exposing human greed and political corruption as ever was.

He gets his kicks on the road, driving long distances alone.

"It’s an obsession that may not be sustainable forever, but for now my carbon footprint in a car is not the same as if I flew everywhere," he said. "I love the peace of the road, especially in the West. I got infected by Kerouac’s On The Road in high school. It was like a whack in the forehead, that headlong sense of motion was completely captivating."

Though his latest songs explore the spiritual side of his consciousness — "but without a particular capital-letter methodology involved," he said — it’s his enduring humanity, outspokenness and activism that have drawn Cockburn’s largest audiences over the past four decades.

And keeping abreast of the burning issues that fuel his best songs — environmental destruction, land mines, financial and political skulduggery, military thuggery, First Nations’ rights, the dilution of democracy — is easier now for an artist and observer who has become something of a champion of the oppressed and dispossessed.

"I’m one of the few who actually reads the charitable stuff that comes through the mail," he said. "Sometimes it’s really interesting. It’s information from a different prospective, with more detail. I get a steady flow of that information now from various sources. It’s just living in the world, looking around, examining what I feel.

"Ongoing involvement in certain causes, like land mines, involves the absorption of knowledge, as well as travel and public speaking.

"But on a songwriting level, it’s all about emotion."

He doesn’t feel the need to immerse himself in the details of every complex issue he tackles, he added. But it helps to be prepared — in more ways than one.

"It’s important to know what you’re talking about. It’s sometimes possible to carry it off emotionally without a deep knowledge of the topic, but it’s better to have something to back up your opinions, because a lot of people want to talk about what they’ve just heard you play.

"I’d like to think the songs are truthful, and that means being aware of both sides of the issue."

His political transparency sparks debate in the unlikeliest circumstances.

"People get in my face very rarely these days, but it does happen now and then," Cockburn admitted. "Sometimes they have good things to say, and sometimes their timing is really off, so I never get to find out.

"A while back I was at the Horseshoe, listening to some friends play, and a guy behind me started talking politics. I was polite for a while, then I gave him the brush-off. He got angry and yelled, ‘I think you should stand behind what you say!’

"I was just trying to listen to the music, and he didn’t get it. In another context, it might have been a really good conversation. Bad timing – that happens a lot."

As one of the darlings of the new 'left,' Cockburn often finds himself being scrutinized for things that have nothing to do with his music of beliefs.

"People are often critical in blogs and Internet news groups of things that have nothing to do with my songs or performance. They don’t like the kind of shoes I was wearing at a particular concert, or my clothes. In my head I ask them, ‘Is that all you took away?’

"It’s part of my nature to please people, but I also have a clear idea of what I’m allowed to do as a sovereign human being. It all comes back to this: I try to make art out of what I believe to be true. The rest is bullshit."

Notoriously reticent to discuss his personal life, Cockburn finds that people are more willing to take him at face value these days.

"I don’t show up so often in the media any more. As people get older they calm down. Fewer people want to pry or argue. They’re generally friendly. Sometimes they want to converse, or for me to sign an autograph. The thing I never get used to is that you never really know when it’s going to happen, that public recognition thing."

But sometimes it works to his advantage. When he applied recently to go to Afghanistan to visit his younger brother, John, a doctor who recently enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces, the renowned anti-war activist deliberately played into the hands of military brass seeking a priceless photo opportunity.

"I was proud of my brother, and maybe a little envious," Cockburn said. "It was a shocking move on his part in the family context. Our other brother, Don, wasn’t quite as taken with the idea, but John was under the influence of Roméo Dallaire’s book about Rwanda, and it made him think about the army in a different way.

"He was looking for a change, and after years as an anesthesiologist in emergency rooms, he thought he could use that experience in Afghanistan. The Canadian Forces were actively recruiting doctors, so he signed up at the age of 50, and did a gentled-down version of basic training in Haiti, helping the flood victims there. I wanted to give him my support.

"In Kandahar the one song they wanted to hear from me was ‘If I Had A Rocket Launcher,’ which I willingly played, while a general walked up behind me carrying an actual weapon and the cameras were whirring and buzzing. It was certainly not in the spirit of the song at all.

"They wanted to make PR capital out of it. But they took the thing away pretty fast when my finger started moving toward the controls …"

Bernie Finklestein has been Bruce Cockburn’s relentlessly fierce and protective mentor/manager for the Canadian songwriting legend’s entire professional life. No one knows Cockburn as well as Bernie does. No one gets to hear Cockburn’s songs before Bernie. And over the years, Bernie says he has been rocked, shocked and enlightened time and again by the depth and potency of Cockburn’s politically charged compositions. We asked him to name five that have left the deepest impression. Here’s Bernie’s list:

"If A Tree Falls" ( Big Circumstance, 1988)
All you need to know about global warming and the environment, written and recorded 22 years ago! And it was a hit as well.

"Call It Democracy" ( World Of Wonders, 1985)
Bruce’s take on the international banking system and more. The first verse sums up the situation pretty well and the song gets more insightful from there. Too bad nothing has changed.

"Padded with power, here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor"

"Stolen Land" ( Waiting For A Miracle, 1987)
We were doing a benefit concert to help the Haida nation in their fight to stop the logging on the Queen Charlotte Islands, and Bruce wanted a song that would relate broadly to the situation. He nailed it. Not his only song about the Aboriginal people and their circumstance, but probably his best.

"If I Had A Rocket Launcher" ( Stealing Fire, 1984)
Written in a fit of anger and depression over what he had been witness to in Central America. We almost didn’t record it, but thankfully it made it to record and people are still listening to it, still recording it. Marty Balin, ex of the Jefferson Airplane, is the latest to do it, and it’s a bit like time travel — like the Airplane in the ’60s doing Bruce’s song from the ’80s. This song will certainly outlast me, and I’m planning to be around for a while longer.

"Slow Down Fast" ( Life Short Call Now, 2006)
I love this song. Bruce is still laying things squarely on the line. Take it or leave it but here it is:

"L ron N ron every kind of ron con
Neo-con old con got to put the brakes on
Slow down fast
Lights out veins plugged zap it with another drug
Genejacker pharma thug say hello to superbug
Slow down fast"

~ from The Toronto Star, by Greg Quill, June 3, 2010.



From Bruce's management
Recording and Touring Info

18 May 2010 - CockburnProject editor, Suzanne Myers, contacted Bruce's manager Bernie Finkelstein, for some news on the upcoming recording session and the new touring dates. This is his response:

Bruce will be in the studio just about right after the Luminato tribute (June 16, 2010). Colin Linden will be producing. We'll be recording in Canada and the US. (at various studios, at this time undisclosed)
The question of who's in the studio with Bruce is still being sorted out, and I'll let you know when that is set. I don't think there will be any more summer tour dates due to the recording.

We hope that the album will be finished by the time Bruce goes to the Maritimes ( October tour dates ) but you never know. This tour will be solo.

The most likely release date for the CD, world-wide, but certainly in Canada and the US will be March 1, 2011. At the point when the CD comes out, look for Bruce to be very active on the touring front with plenty of dates.

For those who went to the west coast dates, Bruce did most of the new material although not all on any one night. However a few of the songs he didn't do at all during that tour.

~from Bernie Finkelstein

21 April 2010 - SAN FRANCISCO - HarperOne and HarperCollinsCanada announces today the forthcoming publication of celebrated singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s memoir, sold to HarperOne’s Senior Editor Roger Freet by Bernie Finkelstein—Cockburn’s 40 year management partner and founder of True North Records and of The Finkelstein Management Company. Cockburn’s long awaited memoir is set to publish in April 2012.

Since 1970, with 30 albums and numerous awards to his credit, Bruce Cockburn has earned high praise as an exceptional songwriter and pioneering guitarist, whose career has been shaped by politics, protest, romance, and spiritual discovery. His remarkable journey has seen him embrace folk, jazz, blues, rock, and worldbeat styles while travelling to such far-flung places as Guatemala, Mali, Mozambique, Afghanistan, and Nepal, and writing memorable songs about his ever-expanding world of wonders.

"Bruce’s decades-long devotion to social justice and spiritual depth is a perfect fit for our list. We’re excited to be publishing his memoir," said SVP/Publisher, Mark Tauber.

"Over the years, the notion that there should be a book about me has popped up now and then, along with offers to write it," said Mr. Cockburn. "It always seemed too soon, and I've felt all along that such a book should be mine to author. When HarperOne expressed their interest, it finally did seem timely, so here we go! It's very gratifying to be associated with this important publisher."

"Bruce’s music has enriched my life, and the lives of so many, over the years," said Mr. Freet. "I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with Bruce as he shares his amazing life story."

BRUCE COCKBURN: Born in 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, the Canadian music legend began his solo career with the self-titled album in 1970 released by Bernie Finkelstein’s newly founded label True North Records. Cockburn’s ever expanding repertoire of musical styles and skilfully crafted lyrics have been covered by such artists as Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, Barenaked Ladies, Jimmy Buffett, and k.d. lang. His guitar playing, both acoustic and electric, has placed him in the company of the world’s top instrumentalists. And he remains deeply respected for his activism on issues from native rights and land mines to the environment and Third World debt, working for organizations such as Oxfam, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Friends of the Earth, and USC Canada.

About HarperOne: HarperOne, a division of HarperCollinsPublishers, strives to be the preeminent publisher of the most important books and authors across the full spectrum of religion, spirituality, and personal growth literature, adding to the wealth of the world’s wisdom by stirring the waters of reflection on the primary questions of life, while respecting all traditions

About HarperCollinsPublishers: HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollinsPublishers (http://www.harpercollins.com) .

~ For Immediate Release - www.finkelsteinmanagement.com

April 2010 -

Deforestation, land mines, mass extinctions – these are just some of the environmental and humanitarian issues that Bruce Cockburn sings about, inspiring activists and ordinary citizens the world over to act to end injustice and environmental destruction.

"My role is as an attention-getter," said Cockburn. "People come to me with a request to help get attention and raise awareness about something."

And the Canadian singer/songwriter has been doing just that for the bulk of his career. This year he was presented with Earth Day Canada’s Outstanding Commitment to the Environment Award, in recognition of three decades of being an outspoken voice on issues relating to the environment.

"There’s a steadily unfolding tragedy out there," said Cockburn. "And it’s enough to piss us all off."

In addition to producing a repertoire of 30 albums, Cockburn has performed benefit concerts for a myriad of small environmental organizations in the U.S. and Canada, including an upcoming concert for the Siskiyou Land Conservancy scheduled for April 23 at the Arcata Theatre Lounge.

One of Cockburn’s most popular songs, If a Tree Falls penned in the mid-‘80s, poignantly evokes the devastation wrought by overlogging. The song later became the title cut for a 1996 album produced to benefit Southern Humboldt’s Trees Foundation.

Although some interpret the lyrics to describe the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest, Cockburn said that the song was inspired by a radio documentary on the disappearing woodlands in Borneo along with his own experiences driving through the diminishing forests in British Columbia.

"It was easy to make the connection between the tropics and the northwest rainforest," said Cockburn.

Born in Ottawa in 1945, Cockburn attended Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early ‘60s, but gave up jazz guitar for rock ‘n’ roll and folk music. His 1979 hit, Wondering Where the Lions Are, gained him recognition on this continent when it reached the top 25 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

Cockburn said he learned to love the wilderness as a young child during summers spent at a camp at Algonquin Park in Ontario.

"We would go on extended canoe trips, sometimes a hundred miles," he said. "Paddling through that wilderness and seeing traces of where there had been logging in the past drove a respect for the wild into me, and that shaped my whole attitude toward the world."

His awareness of the fragility of the environment grew in the early ‘70s, Cockburn said, when he lived in a truck and spent much of his time traveling through western Canada.

"You’d see something for the first time and it was amazing," he said. "Then the third time through you’d notice it wasn’t there anymore – it’s got a development sitting on it."

"There’s a heartbreak in that," he said. "It’s like this was a beautiful thing and it ain’t there anymore and it’s never coming back."

Music isn’t the only medium that Cockburn uses to raise awareness about environmental and political issues. During the late ‘90s he was deeply involved in creating the film River of Sand about the effects of desertification in Mali, and 2008 saw the release of the Canadian film, Return to Nepal in which Cockburn examines the connection between humans and the environment.

"The desertification of Mali is a lot about deforestation. When you talk to the old people in those villages, they can remember looking up at the hillsides and seeing them covered with trees," said Cockburn. "And there were animals in the bush - lions, birds. And it was all cut down for firewood – there’s no more animals, there’s no more trees, there’s no more water."

The musician has worked since 1995 on the international effort to ban land mines worldwide.

"Landmines are evidence that war is the biggest polluter of all," he said.

The musician joined with activists in an effort to bring about a international ban on the destructive military practice.

Enough pressure was brought to bear that an international treaty was signed in 2007 banning landmines, said Cockburn. Around 450 countries, including Canada, are signatories to that treaty.

"But the big ones haven’t signed yet," he said, noting that the U.S., China and Russia have resisted signing the treaty. Cockburn has performed several benefit concerts to raise awareness on this issue and to galvanize grassroots support in compelling the U.S. government to sign the treaty.

Whether your pressing issue is deforestation, species extinction, climate change or another manifestation of a world out of balance, Cockburn says to get involved in whatever way you can.

"To the extent that we still have democracy you’ve got to keep pounding your representatives in government about this stuff – because they run on votes and if they think they’re gonna get voted out they’re gonna listen," he said.

"It’s a slow and frustrating process but it’s the best thing we’ve got right now – other than taking direct action of course and getting in the way."

Cockburn acknowledged that the direct action route is not open for everyone.

"That is an option of course for those who can do it and are inspired to do it," he said. "But for everybody else, the 9 to 5ers, those with kids in school or other concerns – it’s through the political arena that we can make things happen."

He pointed to the Siskiyou Land Conservancy (SLC) as a positive effort to make effective change. The organization purchases land parcels to hold in conservation.

"The strategy is effective and it’s a way to do an end run," he said. "This is how we got the land mine treaties signed, they did an end run around the formal political processes and went ahead and fixed it."

Finding ways to circumvent obstacles makes good activism, Cockburn said. "If the government isn’t going to protect the land in question, buy it and protect it yourself."

You can’t take on everything, Cockburn tells those who would change the world. "Go for the thing that looks like you can grab it. If everybody did that I think the world would be in a less dire state than it is," he said.

"And for those that are spiritually inclined at all – pray like hell."

~Reprinted here with permission from ECONEWS - Northcoast Environmental Center, written by Sarah O'Leary.

Related Links

~bobbi wisby

25 April 2010 -

Canadian songwriter/guitarist Bruce Cockburn's breakthrough to the U.S. market came as something of a surprise. MTV started running a video for his 1983 song, If I Had a Rocket Launcher, a tale of revolutionary anger inspired by a visit to a Guatemalan refugee camp. It caught on and became his biggest hit. While his environmental anthem, If A Tree Falls, is another with a political bent, much of the work on his 30 albums is more personal in nature. He's just as likely to write a love song or one about life on the road. (He says he "fell under the spell of Jack Kerouac at a very vulnerable point.") Right now he's assembling material for recording sessions set for June, so those who hear him perform at the Arcata Theatre Lounge can expect some road testing. When he called the Journal's Bob Doran from Santa Barbara Sunday afternoon, Cockburn was on day two of a tour of the West Coast that brings him to Arcata Friday night.

Journal: I understand you've been assembling songs for a new album, whatever that might mean.

Bruce: It may mean I'm still in the process, or it may mean I've got all the songs. I'd be happy if it was the former, but I do have a bunch of new songs, and we have plans to record in June.

Journal: Are you road testing them first?

Bruce: I like to perform them for people before I go into the studio if possible because the songs kind of mature in some way, or maybe the emotional approach to them undergoes a kind of adjusting when you perform them in front of people over a period of time. I like to have that done where possible.

Journal: Do you look at putting together an album as an assignment that's due at some specific time? I know some writers will do that and start writing when they're getting ready to record. Or is it more like you're writing songs all the time, as they come to you?

Bruce: I write whenever I think of an idea and when I'm in a situation where I can actually grab it and wrestle with it. A lot of times ideas go and go - you're in the middle of something you can't interrupt to write songs. So those sometime fall by the wayside, but I really depend on some kind of trigger to get going. I don't have an understanding of people who can sit down and turn out work on the clock like that. It doesn't work for me.

Journal: What are some things that have served as song triggers recently?

Bruce: Among the group of songs there are love songs; there's the road, which continues to figure prominently in what I'm writing.

Journal: The road?

Bruce: Not the Cormac McCarthy Road exactly, but the road, travel.

Journal: Metaphoric....

Bruce: Yes, and literally. I do a lot of long distance driving when I'm not on tour. It's how I've lived, at least for large chunks of my life. I'm much more at home on the road than / I am in a house, so that's always been a big part of things for me.

Journal: I guess as a professional musician it comes with the job.

Bruce: There's that, but it's also that I fell under the spell of Jack Kerouac at a very vulnerable point. And our family had traveled, so I learned to like it as a kid. There's a headlong rush of motion that's the feel of that book On the Road, it swept me away and I never got over it. One of the reasons I do what I do is that it includes that. I don't think I'd be all that happy as a session player, even if I was qualified.

Journal: Don't you think you're qualified? I'd say you're a pretty good picker.

Bruce: I can do what I do. I'm not being immodest. But there's a special ear and a generalized approach to playing required of a studio musician, and of course amazing chops. Most of the people I've encountered who make their living that way have better technical abilities than I do.

Journal: There's definitely a different skill in being able to sit down with just a piece of paper and be able to add something valuable to a musical conversation.

Bruce: Of course I'd love to have their abilities. If you think of the Jim Keltners and the Booker Ts, Greg Liesz, all these people who are known as studio players - they have an ability to fit. It's an enviable quality to have. That said, I don't want to live their lives. I like my life. I like where I've been able to go with the music too. There's always somewhere new to go.

Journal: Where are you going next?

Bruce: Where am I going? I don't know. I like to keep it open. I like to experiment with things as they come up, pertinent to songs. There's a difference to my approach between instrumental music and songs. The songs are very lyric-driven. The music applied is at the service of the lyrics. In an instrumental piece that's not a consideration so the music can go where it will.

Journal: So in general, you'll write lyrics for a song and come up with music to fit them?

Bruce: Pretty much. I've used the analogy elsewhere but it fits. It's very similar to scoring a film. The imagery, the characters maybe, a theme that show up in the lyrics wants to be supported by the music but not obliterated by it. So the music is applied to the lyrics in a similar way to what you'd do scoring a film.

Journal: I'd say one of the things I like about your songs is the cinematic quality. You take the listener into a scene and introduce characters both with lyrics and the music.

Bruce: It's nice to hear that. That's how I hope it works.

Journal: When you mentioned things you're writing about -- love, the road -- you did not mention anything political. I know there are times in your career when politics played more of a role, other times when you looked inward. Where are you now?

Bruce: There's not a plan. At least no plan that I make. When I'm confronted by things that trigger a strong emotional response, they end up in songs.

Journal: Last time we talked you'd just returned from Iraq, an experience that you ended up writing about...

Bruce: You know I was in Afghanistan in the fall...

Journal: I was going to ask about that...

Bruce:There's a song that came from that, but I don't know that it's what you'd call a political song per se. It's basically a description of what it feels like to be at a ramp ceremony. On our way into Afghanistan we stopped at a base that's a staging area for flights into Kandahar...

Journal: A ramp ceremony?

Bruce: I'll tell you what that is. In Canada, it's a familiar thing. We haven't lost the number of troops that the U.S. has, because we haven't had the numbers over there, but we've lost quite a number of people there. There has never been any attempt to suppress that information. In the States you don't hear about the people who come back as casualties, either dead or injured.

Journal: It was only recently that the American military allowed publication of photos of flag draped coffins.

Bruce: The difference is, in Canada, the term ramp ceremony is familiar because they're on TV. Every time a Canadian dies in Afghanistan, their body is repatriated to a particular air force base and the families or anyone else concerned greets the arriving deceased. The coffin comes down a ramp off the C-130 cargo plane with a flag over it and is carried off. There's a ceremony where they play a hymn, maybe 'Amazing Grace' on bagpipes. The personnel on the base will line up on the tarmac. The commanding officer will say something; maybe a religious person will say a few words. So we were at this base in the Middle East, waiting for the next flight to take us to Kandahar, and before we could leave, a plane came in with the bodies of two soldiers on it, so there was a ramp ceremony at the base. We lined up with the rest of the soldiers and it was extremely moving. It was so touching, the vibe among the soldiers, the atmosphere of respect and sobriety, the depth of feeling present. The day after I got back from the trip I wrote the song.

Journal: Your brother is over there?

Bruce: He was over there at the time. He was nearing the end of a six-month tour as a doctor.

Journal: Does the fact that you're visiting him give you a different level of access?

Bruce: Maybe. It gave a personal connection aside from the going over to sing for the troops kind of thing. John would introduce me to his friends, I wasn't there long enough to make friends, but I got acquainted and had some conversations that taught me things. I think it made a difference.

Journal: So it wasn't like a USO thing...

Bruce: It was a bit like that, but that was how to get there, from the Army's point of view. John and I approached it from different angles. John, my brother, who had a career as a doctor, joined the Army a few years ago, so there was a press angle the Army was interested in.

Journal: I read somewhere that at some point while you were there someone handed you a rocket launcher.

Bruce: That actually happened on a couple of occasions, but one in particular made the papers. We went on this fantastic trip by helicopter out into several of the forward operating bases. There were a couple of other artists along beside me, so we did a show at one of these bases. We'd each play a song for the guys -- they're mostly guys on those bases, the women aren't right at the front. There they were; they appreciated us being there and showing solidarity etc. and getting a little diversion from the horrible routine. I sang If I Had a Rocket Launcher at these occasions because it seemed the appropriate thing. They, of course, had a slightly different understanding of the song from mine. It was a little more concrete for them. They got into it. So at the end, one of the military guys traveling with us came over and said, 'Don't put your guitar away just yet; hang in for a second.' He kind of backed off and I was looking at the troops applauding and grinning and I see they're grinning at something else. Next thing I know, this general, the commander of the Canadian forces in Afghanistan, popped up next to me with one of those portable single-use rocket launchers and hands it to me. The cameras were popping; it was their big press moment, you know, 'Cockburn finally gets his rocket launcher,' that was the headline. I was laughing my head off holding this thing. They took it away really fast before I could get my finger on the trigger.

Journal: Sounds pretty surreal. It's hard to know how to react.

Bruce: For me, you know I'm interested in that kind of stuff. You don't have to fit into any philosophical or social category to think that was is bad. The people who fight wars think they're bad. They think they're necessary, but nobody goes out and does it because they love it. I think there are some perverted people who do end up that way, and they include some journalists I've met, but no sensible person wants war. Whether you think about it, that it's just part of human life or whatever your reasoning, speaking only for myself, I've always been interested in military tactics, and in military gear, all that stuff, so I felt quite at home surrounded by the hardware. Of course if I'd been shot at right then, I probably would not have felt so at home at all. But the gear is interesting -- for instance, the trucks they have are the best on the planet. So being handed a rocket launcher was like being handed something I'd seen in a Clint Eastwood movie. Of course I've also seen them in other places and situations. I remember riding in the back of a truck in Mozambique, a dump truck full of people traveling from one town to another. There was a soldier standing next to me. I kept feeling something bumping the back of my head. I turned around and he had an RPG slung over his shoulder and the tip of the rocket was banging the back of my head. So, being handed a rocket launcher by a Canadian general, it was shocking, it was funny.

Journal: Another thing I read on your website is that you are about to be honored by Earth Day Canada with the Outstanding Commitment to the Environment Award.

Bruce: There's no accounting for some people's vision (laughs) but it's nice to be thought of by those folks and it's nice to be able to be part of these kinds of exercises publicizing the work they do and the need for that work.

Journal: Obviously environmental issues have been an ongoing concern for you...

Bruce: They are an ongoing concern, maybe the biggest ongoing concern other than my own personal crap that I'm not going to talk about (laughs again). The environment is us. The environment is everything. And without everything working the way it's supposed to, we aren't going to do well or even do at all. Of course when you start looking at how to address environmental issues, you immediately enter the realm of politics...

Journal: And money...

Bruce: Well, money is also the realm of politics especially in North America.

Journal: They go hand in hand, which doesn't bode well for the environment...

Bruce: Or anything else, other than the ability to be able to buy the stuff we're convinced we need, the latest jeans or whatever. That's what corporate rule gives you, for now at least. Before long it will only give it to the several hundred billionaires who will live in Dubai. They'll be able to shop for what they want while the rest of us will be scrounging around in the deserts we're reduced to. Unless we really do something about environmental degradation, we're going to be in a lot of trouble, we humans. I may not be alive when the worst of it hits, but my granddaughter will be, so it matters. Of course the politics is such that you don't get anything done without somebody being willing to spend money or stop making money or refusing someone's offer of money or something. It's all on a piecemeal basis. There's no overview. The overview would be to totally change the system, but that isn't going to happen, at least not in any way I'm able to contribute to.

Journal: The system has to change so that money isn't the end-all and be-all of everything...

Bruce: I think that's an issue for the human heart, which can and should be addressed. I got into a conversation with a homeless guy on a bus not too long ago in San Francisco. He was saying, the thing that's wrong with America as he saw it, he was an older guy, roughly my age, as he saw it American had forgotten to care about each other, or how to care about each other. It's probably less true in rural areas, in fact I'm sure that's the case, but in urban America and urban anywhere else, the culture is so materialistic and self-oriented. Everything's about me and my ability to move forward, and my clothes, and how people see me. It's all that. That seems to be the prevailing ethos for society, if I can use a word like that. It's like this is what life is about. That's something we have to try to change.

Journal: I know the world's problems are huge and it may seem like just a drop in the bucket, but do you see your music, your songs as a means to bring about change?

Bruce: I think a drop in the bucket is all you can expect. I think that counts. It would be a mistake to believe that a song by itself is going to make a difference in the course of events, but a song as a rallying point for a whole bunch of people's opinion, does have that potential. It's not really the song that does it, it's the people's opinion, but a song can be an anthem for a movement or it can pull a movement together and help it to recognize itself as a movement.

Journal: On a different level, a song might just make someone aware of an issue...

Bruce: On the macro level it's about the body of popular opinion, on a micro level it's just that, you touch one person. My expression of my experience touches someone in a way they can relate to. I know from what some people have told me, that at least some people have been inspired to get involved in things because of hearing my songs. But I suspect that I just reinforced some tendency they had already.

Journal: You have a platform that allows you to point to things, perhaps making people aware that landmines are a problem in the world or that there's a growing mass of plastic floating in the Pacific, whatever it might be. Of course most entertainers are trying to distract people from their problems, to make them forget their troubles...

Bruce: Which is okay too. There's nothing wrong with that. It's a case of what you're good at and what you want. There are lots of times when people who are deeply involved in correcting the problems of the world get down and party.

Journal: I certainly have nothing against party music -- I love it -- but the artists whose music seems to resonate for me long term, are those who have something to say.

Bruce: I think what makes music interesting for me is the sense that there's something being explored. If I don't hear a sense of exploration in a piece of music, it's boring. That might be a subjective judgment on my part, and nothing has to follow any particular form, but it has to take a chance. That's what makes art interesting.

Photos and Interview by Bob Doran, used with permission.

~ bobbi wisby

27 April 2010 - Eugene, OR -

It must be that Canadian water. When I sit down and soak in Bruce Cockburn’s lyrics, I’m reminded of the heart-stopping poetry of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and (yes, even) Neil Young. Like these compatriots, Cockburn is generally characterized as an acoustic singer-songwriter. His studio albums tend toward the pop end of folk, with some jazz inclinations and a wide variety of instrumentation. He is best known as a writer of progressive political songs with a pastiche of imagery. Some of these images are drawn from his Christian faith; many others are snapshots from his travels through Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and just about everywhere else. Wherever he journeys, Cockburn’s attention is divided between beauty and destruction, grace and human heartache. I appreciate Cockburn for his warmhearted poetry, his intelligent lyrics and his luscious melodies. I went to his solo show at the WOW Hall on Sunday, April 25 expecting to hear songs I know and love, played in a simplified solo version in an intimate setting. Like so many wonders in this world, however, the experience felt much bigger than the sum of its parts.

The stage was set with huge wind chimes flanking the microphone. The chimes were attached to drum foot pedals, which Cockburn worked while playing guitar. He was ringed by a collection of other instruments including a dobro, a 10-string mandolin, one 12-string and two six-string guitars and a Tibetan singing bowl. Before the show even started, fans had left a small pile of tangerines and notes in front of the microphone stand. Audience members handed him flowers immediately after his first song and continued placing notes and artwork for him onstage throughout the show. At one point Cockburn joked with the audience that he’d be unable to continue playing because he owed it to people to stop and read the fan mail.

His onstage persona was casual, amused and interactive. The audience members shouted out song suggestions, quips and words of appreciation. One audience member commented that she was "just glad" he was not Sarah Palin, which made him laugh. When someone else requested an obscure song, Stained Glass, Cockburn started to excuse himself, explaining that he’d never played the song solo before. He then changed gears and said this was the safest place he could think of to give it a try. It was interesting to watch the creative process as he transformed the song from a multi-instrument cabaret jazz song to a solo guitar and voice piece.

I was not surprised that the WOW Hall was packed. There were a few teenagers and a sprinkling of younger adults, but most of us were sporting some silver hair. Folks were wearing a Eugene mix of business casual, tie-dye and jeans and fleece. People were boisterous, happy and participatory. Many swayed and danced that Saturday Market floating groove. It was a mutual love-fest between artist and audience. When he wasn’t on stage, the event had the feel of a relaxed potluck dinner party; chatty activists and professionals bubbling over with a wealth of information, goodwill and insights. I attended with my wife and two friends. She’s an accountant; they are a musician and a chemist. The folks around me, with whom I engaged in charming conversations between sets, were a carpenter and a teacher. I suspected that we were a good sample of the audience.

This show reminded me that Cockburn’s politics are more nuanced than a first-time listener might suspect. Bruce played a new song for the soldiers and other victims of the ongoing war in Afghanistan.[ This song is called Each One Lost ] It was written after a visit to his brother, who is serving there as a doctor in the Canadian army. He asked us to remember that the returning soldiers do not need the type of hostile reception that Vietnam-era soldiers experienced. He stated that the world does not need more division into "us and them." The song’s refrain reminded us that each one who dies is a loss to all. In a tribute to Bruce Cockburn at the Juno music awards, Bono cited Cockburn as a major influence, both as an activist and as a poet. (U2 helped themselves to a line from Bruce’s Lovers In a Dangerous Time: "You’ve got to kick at the darkness/ ‘til it bleeds daylight.") Two of Cockburn’s best-known songs, If a Tree Falls and If I Had A Rocket Launcher are direct, confrontational comments on forest destruction and a massacre.

In the encore, If I Had A Rocket Launcher gave us Cockburn’s reaction to the Guatemalan's government’s massacres of their refugees just before and after his visit there in the ‘80s. Backed by intense dobro work, Cockburn sang "If I had a rocket launcher, I would retaliate." The uncharacteristically crude lyrics were criticized by my musician friend as sounding somewhat jingoistic. My wife noted that in light of his comments about Afghanistan, "Rocket Launcher" perfectly expresses the conflicted feelings of a pacifist exposed to systematic horror, akin to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s decision to take part in a plot to kill Hitler.

I was knocked off my feet by Cockburn’s playing and the waves of sound generated with a single instrument. Somehow, listening to studio albums, I hadn’t noticed how impressive he is with a guitar. At times, he simultaneously picked complex melodies and cascades of notes and strummed rhythm. He used a full display of electronic foot pedals with his acoustic instruments. He often played passages through a delay pedal and then played a second third or fourth passage against his delayed passages, which occasionally bounced back and forth in stereo between the two sets of speakers. Combining the layers of guitar with chimes and percussion created further layers of sound. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen a solo artist weave such a dense cloth of melodies and rhythms. Our musician friend was speechless. The audience frequently roared. Bruce played two encores. The second was extremely well done, but I had the distinct impression it was not planned. He stayed after the show for an hour exchanging hugs and chatting with audience members.

This was my first Bruce Cockburn concert. I’m curious as to how typical of his shows it might be. A couple of my friends at this show who had seen him perform said this was the most relaxed and friendly interaction between Cockburn and an audience they had seen. I bought his new CD Slice O Life: Bruce Cockburn Live Solo, which contains some stage banter, Cockburn’s songs rearranged for solo performance and other details, such as sound check and impromptu playing. I gather from the CD that although this may have been a particularly friendly crowd and Cockburn may have been responding to that, he is usually willing to engage the audience. At one point he remarked that he’d been playing for audiences for 40 years, and wouldn’t still be doing it if it weren’t fun.

Reprinted with permission by David Evarts, original here: ( http://www2.registerguard.com/cms/index.php/guest-bloggers/comments/cockburn-relaxed-intricate-and-all-around-impressive-at-a-solo-gig-at-the-w/ ).

~ bobbi wisby

19 April 2010 - Fresno, CA -

10 March 2010 - TORONTO -



( direct link )

11 March 2010 - TORONTO - by Jane Stevenson, QMI Agency

Canadian folk singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, Montreal's Rufus Wainwright, banjo player Bela Fleck, and actor John Malkovich will be among the music performers at the Luminato Festival in Toronto from June 11 to 20.

Cockburn, 64, will celebrate his 40-year catalogue with a tribute that will include fellow musicians Hawksley Workman, The Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins, Toronto-based jazz guitarist Michael Occhipinti, Quebec's Michel Rivard, and guitarist Colin Linden performing his tunes at this year's Canadian Songbook night at Massey Hall on June 16 (tickets $55-$85).

"I thought, 'Yeah, 40 years feels like a milestone, let's do it,'" said Cockburn following Tuesday's unveiling of the Luminato music lineup.

"And I'm happy to be part of it, but the really exciting part of it is having all these other people being in on it and hearing their takes on my songs and me being able to participate with them. That's the most fun part of it for me. I'll be on stage a fair amount during the evening, I think."

Cockburn's hits have included Wondering Where the Lions Are, Coldest Night of the Year, Lovers in a Dangerous Time, If I Had a Rocket Launcher, and Waiting for a Miracle and everyone from Barenaked Ladies to Jerry Garcia to Jimmy Buffett have covered his songs.

The Ottawa-born Cockburn, who left Toronto for Montreal in 2000 and now calls Kingston home, said the Canadian songbook idea was mentioned to him about a year ago by his manager Bernie Finkelstein who was in discussions with Luminato.

"It kind of feels like my 50th birthday," said Cockburn. "Forty years just seems like a milestone. Thirty years didn't. I don't what the difference is other than 10 years. Forty feels like, 'Yeah that means something,' to have been around that long and to be continuing to put out new stuff through that period." Cockburn's last studio album was 2006's Life's Short, Call Now, but said he'll go into the studio in June with Colin Linden producing and violinist Jenny Scheinman (Bill Frissell, Ani DiFranco, Lucinda Williams) on board with plans to release the new disc in 2011.

The theme of this year's music program is the celebration of the Diva, East/West, and works that express human and artistic rights. Luminato tickets go on sale April 15 at Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 416-872-1111 or online at ticketmaster.ca. Check www.luminato.com for the full schedule.

~ from The Peterborough Examiner by Jane Stevenson, QMI Agency, 11 March 2010.

9 March 2010 - TORONTO -

Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, is pleased to announce its music programming for 2010. This year’s program features Canadian singersongwriter Bruce Cockburn, world music legends Béla Fleck and Bassekou Kouyate, and awardwinning actor John Malkovich in a performance with the Vienna Academy Orchestra. The music program supports the 2010 Festival’s celebration of the Diva, East/West, and works that express human and artistic rights. Luminato takes place June 11-20, 2010. Tickets go on sale April 15.

Perennial favourite The Canadian Songbook returns this year paying tribute to the 40-year catalogue of Bruce Cockburn, one of Canada’s greatest guitarists and singer-songwriters. Cockburn will share the stage with friends and fellow musicians in this one-night-only performance at Massey Hall.

The Canadian Songbook

Luminato pays tribute to the music of Canadian guitar-legend Bruce Cockburn as The Canadian Songbook returns for its third year at Massey Hall. Cockburn is joined by other renowned Canadian musicians who perform classics from Cockburn’s extensive 40-year musical catalogue. Artists confirmed to date include Canadian rock sensation Hawksley Workman, Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies, Toronto-based jazz guitarist Michael Occhipinti, Quebec’s Michel Rivard, and Juno Award-winning guitarist Colin Linden. The Canadian Songbook is produced in association with Massey Hall and presented by National Bank Financial Group. Wednesday, June 16, 7:30 PM at Massey Hall , tickets $55 - $85

9 March 2010 - TORONTO -

Forty years after his first solo album dropped, legendary Canadian artist Bruce Cockburn will take a look back at his storied career – live, with a little help from some friends.

The singer-songwriter is a headline attraction for Toronto’s fourth annual Luminato Festival in June, when he will join an array of other musicians to pay tribute to, well, himself. For the first time, The Canadian Songbook, a popular Luminato mainstay that gathers artists to celebrate a renowned Canadian musician with inventive covers of his or her work, will include the person being celebrated.

"The first time I heard people do my stuff, it was a bit like the first time I heard my own voice played back to me from a tape recorder. You sort of go, ‘Whoa, that’s a totally weird perspective.’ "

It’s Cockburn’s latest return to the familiar Massey Hall stage, which (he thinks) he first played when he opened for British folk-rock band Pentangle in late 1972.

"It’s a beautiful hall. They built them good in those days, you know? Especially for acoustic music," he said Tuesday at an announcement of the festival’s musical lineup, held atop the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.

To date, Hawksley Workman, Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies, jazz guitarist Michael Occhipinti and Montrealer Michel Rivard are confirmed, with more to come, though Cockburn isn’t revealing who might be added because he doesn’t "want to jinx it."

"'That’s one of the interesting parts of it, collaborating with people on their versions of my songs," he said.

Cockburn admits that he "sometimes&Quot; finds others appropriating his work a tad unnerving, but he has got used to it and mostly takes it as an expression of appreciation for what he has done. "The first time I heard people do my stuff, it was a bit like the first time I heard my own voice played back to me from a tape recorder. You sort of go, ‘Whoa, that’s a totally weird perspective,’ " he said.

During the festival, Cockburn may well cross paths with Rufus Wainwright, with whom he played at a 90th-birthday tribute to Pete Seeger last year. Wainwright will be in town for the North American premiere of his debut opera Prima Donna, but festival artistic director Chris Lorway also revealed yesterday that Wainwright will give a one-night solo concert at the Elgin Theatre, kicking off the North American tour for his new album, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.

But first, the festival opens with a pair of performances of The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer, starring Oscar-nominated American actor John Malkovich, on June 11 and 12. The show, written and directed by Michael Sturminger and described as “part theatre, part opera, part concert,” tells the strange tale of Austrian serial killer and recidivist Jack Unterweger, accompanied by the Vienna Academy Orchestra, which will also perform an afternoon program of Schubert, Haydn and Mozart on June 12.

As part of a thematic look at East-West dualities, Luminato has commissioned a new work, Dark Star Requiem, with Tapestry New Opera Works. It’s an oratorio on the history of HIV-AIDS in both North America and Africa by composer Andrew Staniland and poet Jill Battson, and features the Gryphon Trio and the Elmer Iseler Singers as well as soloists and percussionists.

For a free, outdoor experience, try 10 hours of Global Music: Rock the Casbah & An African Prom staged in Toronto’s Queen’s Park on June 12. The day-long festival features Algerian-born punk-rocker Rachid Taha as well as Bela Fleck and Bassekou Kouyate. The following Saturday, the same space will host another musical marathon, this time dubbed Global Divas and Global Blues and headlined by Salif Keita, tagged by some as the "golden voice of Africa."

The festival closes with TSO Goes Late Night: Beethoven Symphony 9, a concert with an 11 p.m. start time and a late-late after party. Luminato runs June 11-20 in Toronto, offering more than 150 performances and events at about 40 venues.

From -James Bradshaw From 9 March 2010, Globe and Mail

Info submitted by: Jeremie Poirier - Finkelstein Management

22 February 2010 - Earth Day Canada is pleased to honour Bruce Cockburn with this year's Outstanding Commitment to the Environment Award. For three decades, Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn has been an outspoken voice on issues relating to the environment. He has performed benefit concerts in support of the Haida Nation and the Stein River Valley and their fights against logging; spoke out against the destruction of tropical rain forests and the Exxon oil spill off the Alaskan coast; narrated a television documentary on the Mali desert; acted as honorary chairperson of Friends of the Earth; and of course wrote the anthemic "If A Tree Falls".

"The whole point of writing songs is to share experiences with people", says Bruce, looking back on a career that includes 26 albums, numerous international awards, including the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Tenco Award for Lifetime Achievement in Italy, 20 gold and platinum records in Canada, and countless concert performances since he released his first solo work in 1970.

Born in Ottawa in 1945, Bruce set his sights on a career in music after growing up listening to Elvis records. He landed at Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early '60s before moving back to Ottawa in 1965 to play in a series of rock bands. He eventually found his voice as a songwriter and developed a highly personal finger-picking guitar style that merged Mississippi John Hurt blues with modal jazz harmony, melodic lyricism and cycling rhythms.

Bruce was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1982 and was promoted to Officer in 2002. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) inducted him into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame. He has also received numerous honorary doctorates for his contributions to music, culture and social activism.

~ from www.earthday.ca/gala/bruce.php

12 February 2010 - Bruce is doing a TV show there [in Winnipeg] with one of Quebec's greatest stars, Michel Rivard. You might remember many years ago Bruce performed with Michel during a benefit concert in Montreal which also featured Crosby, Stills and Nash.

The TV show is being taped February 17 during the Festival you're referring to [Festival du Voyageur]. I don't have much more detail for you other than it's for the French CBC in Quebec and the French national network in english Canada. I don't have the air date.

Bruce will most likely do three of his songs with Michel (expected to be Pacing The Cage, Lovers In A Dangerous Time and Homme Brulant) and then do three French songs of Michel's. All six songs will be done with Michel in some form or another. This will all be worked out in rehearsal in Winnipeg.

More Info

23 January 2010 -

World famous Victoria tenor Richard Margison didn't always hum tunes from Il Trovatore or dream of performing at the Met.

As a young man he sang in Victoria's coffee houses and small smoky clubs, performed in his own rock band and preferred Gordon Lightfoot to Verdi or Puccini.

A film about those early days and the emerging talent, which took him to the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Covent Garden, Barcelona and Sydney Opera House, will be featured at 5 p.m. tomorrow on Bravo television. The hour-long film, The Folk-Singing Opera Star, is directed by local filmmaker Michael Maitland.

"I did some research on Richard and found his story fascinating ... his birth mother came from a very musical family, and when she gave him up she insisted Richard be placed in another musical family. He comes from a tremendous multi-generational musical gene pool," said Maitland.

Viewers will learn about Margison's folk-singing roots, hear a musical collaboration with Bruce Cockburn taped at Margison's cottage and listen to interviews with his beloved voice coach Selena James.

"Richard is such a great guy," said Maitland. "He's constantly on the road and performing in leading opera houses, but so well grounded and easy going. What really comes through in the film are his insights into the creative process, what motivates him. He was born with this incredible gift, but also talks about the responsibility of embracing and sharing it."

Maitland admits he was "blown away" by the international star's thundering volume and explosive high notes. "Filming about 10 feet away from him at the Victoria Conservatory of Music was just incredible. What an impact. His power is phenomenal."

Reached at his home in Toronto this week Margison chuckled about that, and noted an opera singer trains his vocal chords like a marathoner trains his body. "We may not look like athletes, but the devotion and practice and training we go through is gruelling. And a performance is incredibly athletic.

"It takes years and years of discipline to build up a support system in your body ... later you spend a lot of time with languages and memorizing. It's a life journey of self discovery."

Margison is performing with Metropolitan, Vancouver and Cincinnati operas this year, and is also passing on his knowledge through an opera studio course at his cottage in the Haliburton Highlands (highlandsoperastudio.com) on the southern tip of Algonquin Park.

He last performed with Pacific Opera Victoria in 1998, when he donated his performances as Riccardo for a summer run of Verdi's A Masked Ball.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist. By Grania Litwin, Times Colonist January 23, 2010.

Airing on BRAVO on January 24, 2010 - You can purchase the DVD or Download here. More info at www.thefolksingingoperastar.com.

Lovers in a Dangerous Time from Pan Productions on Vimeo.

20 January 2010 -

When you have the ears and the hearts of some of the leading musicians in the world, that is what you use to get people to give. Paste magazine today launched its creative response to the tragedy in Haiti with a “Songs for Haiti” Web site that offers access to MP3 tracks to those who donate. Tracks come from artists like Ludacris, Of Montreal, Andrew Bird, Hanson and Bruce Cockburn among 200 artists who contributed their work to the effort. Visitors can donate to the charities with whom Paste is partnered - Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross and Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund - or they can declare where else they have donated in order to access the Paste vault of 250 songs. It is on the honor system, the company says. As of this morning, the site reported over $45,000 in donations.

Paste says it is passing 100% of donations to the partnered organizations. Artists are being asked by the magazine to contribute songs to be held in the vault.

"We obviously don’t think people would need incentive to donate in this effort, but perhaps the campaign will inspire more music fans to get involved, or to encourage people who have already donated, to donate again," said Josh Jackson, Paste magazine editor-in-chief in a statement. "Music has always been a force that brings people together, and to have so many fantastic artists drop everything to contribute to this effort was very touching."

Bruce has contributed Waiting for a Miracle from Anything Anytime Anywhere.
[ this info from www.brucecockburn.org Thanks Daniel. ]

~by Steve Smith, www.pastemagazine.com/songsforhaiti

Canadian entertainer Bruce Cockburn was among entertainers who performed at a forward-operating base in the Panjwaii district of Afghanistan on Thursday. (Bill Graveland/Canadian Press)

27 August 2009 - Canadian songwriter Bruce Cockburn is known as much for his political activism as he is for his music.

His song, If I Had a Rocket Launcher, was written after he visited Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico that were attacked before and after his visit by Guatemalan military helicopters.

Cockburn, who has made 30 albums and has had countless hits, visited another war zone this week: Afghanistan. And the conflict involves a member of his own family. His brother, Capt. John Cockburn, is a doctor serving with the Canadian Forces at Kandahar Airfield.

"I was very curious. I have my own reasons aside from national pride and the love I feel for these people," said Cockburn, 64, who has a long history of being outspoken about human rights.

"The older I get, the more I see these young faces doing what they are doing and the chances they are taking — they feel like my kids."

Ottawa-born Cockburn has travelled to many countries, including Iraq and Mozambique, and written songs on political subjects ranging from the International Monetary Fund to landmines.

Arriving in a land that is rife with landmines, and with Canada in the middle of a war and with soldiers dying in the war-torn country, has given him pause to think.

"It's a long discussion on whether we should be in Afghanistan — whether anyone should be in Afghanistan," he said thoughtfully.

"But since we are, and since we've gone this far, I don't think it's appropriate to leave at this stage.

Ottawa-born Bruce Cockburn, left, visited his younger brother, Capt. John Cockburn, at Canada's Kandahar base hospital. (Bill Graveland/Canadian Press)

Troops 'believe in what they do'

"Certainly I have not had the idea that anyone I have talked to among these soldiers is hiding anything or been trying to slant things to a particular point of view," he said. "They believe in what they do and are witnesses to what they are doing, and I have to accept the truth in what they're telling me."

Cockburn spent some time visiting with his younger brother, John, 57, who joined the Canadian military two years ago. The former Canadian national ski coach was looking for something new to do.

"I had done a stint volunteering in Rwanda and it was the first time I really got a sense of the military and their medical role," John Cockburn said. "I thought I would be too old to join, but I wasn't, and I was interested in coming here and it all kind of worked."

Big brother Bruce was supportive about his decision to join the military.

"He was jealous," he said with a laugh. "He has always been interested, even as a kid, in military issues and hardware and explosions.

"I think that's just remained and, with all the various exposures he's had to conflict zones, I think he's accepted the reality that the military is necessary, like it or not."

Bruce Cockburn, along with other entertainers — including the group Finger Eleven and sports celebrities such as Guy Lafleur and Patrice Brisebois — got a rare look "outside the wire" of the main base in Kandahar when they were flown to a number of forward-operating bases in the Panjwaii district.

The reality of war hit home as the Canadian military responded after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police vehicle in a bazaar in the nearby village of Bazar-e-Panjwaii. Six police officers and three civilians were injured in the attack.

The experience was an eye opener for the members of Team Canada visiting Afghanistan.

Performed If I Had a Rocket Launcher

Cockburn drew wild applause when he sang If I Had a Rocket Launcher, which prompted the commander of Task Force Kandahar, Gen. Jonathan Vance, to temporarily present him with a rocket launcher.

"I was kind of hoping he would let me keep it. Can you see Canada Customs? I don't think so," Cockburn said, laughing.

~ from http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/09/10/bruce-cockburn.html.
Photo: Bruce and Rocket Launcher - The Canadian Press / Bill Graveland. (~ from www.brucecockburn.org/media.htm)

27 August 2009 - Bruce played at the Ottawa Folk Festival on August 22, 2009.

Cockburn creates magic with just voice, guitar
Performers display wit, wisdom, flair
By Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen

Freedom of expression was the order of the day at the Ottawa Folk Festival on Saturday, with a program that ranged from the politically charged music of Bruce Cockburn to the wacky comedy of the Arrogant Worms. Both acts are folkfest favourites in Ottawa, and have played at the Britannia Park site in past years.

Under a starry sky, the darkness was alive with possibility, as Cockburn sang in the 1986 song World of Wonders, with which he opened his headlining performance. Wearing a purple shirt and black jeans, the silver-haired troubadour performed solo, creating magic with little more than his voice and an acoustic guitar.



With Last Night of the World and Night Train, the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter went for the slow build, ensuring the spotlight was on his hypnotizing acoustic guitar work rather than his rather scratchy vocals. He spoke to the crowd a few times, but there were also long periods of silence between songs.

The familiar strains of If I Had Rocket Launcher banished any sleepiness in the crowd. A powerful version of the Cockburn protest song led into a Bill Hawkins tribute with The Trains Don't Run Here Anymore, which featured a guest appearance by cellist Anne Davison.

To the delight of the audience, the setlist also included terrific versions of two of Cockburn's most popular songs, If A Tree Falls and Wondering Where the Lions Are.

Earlier in the evening, the Arrogant Worms were in fine form, obviously comfortable during their 89th performance at the Ottawa Folk Festival (or so they estimated). Joking about being pushed back to an earlier time slot, they declared their unhappiness with their "diminished role" and asked to be traded to Chamberfest.

The trio displayed a quick wit and improv ability and gleefully teased the folkfest audience about the hydration stations, falafels, and their concern for the environment. The jokes were fresh, but many of the songs were familiar, including the Worms' declaration of love to Céline Dion and the misfortune of being Jesus' brother, Bob.

Another of Ottawa's favourite artists, ukulele wiz James Hill, surprised everyone with a bold performance, featuring his partner Anne Davison, a talented cellist. The couple debuted a new piece that combines a experimental ukulele sounds with modern dance. "Maybe it's because we feel safe in Ottawa," Hill said. "We always feel like we can take chances here."

Forget about stepdancing to jigs and reels; this was something entirely different. As Hill inserted a chopstick into a uke laid across his lap, he altered the uke's fundamental musical nature. Davison rose from her cello stool, lunging into a series of jerky dance moves that reminded me of Tinkerbell, while Hill created a techno backdrop on his uke, complete with throbbing bass. Kudos to Hill for constantly pushing the limits of the pint-sized acoustic instrument.

Last night's bill also featured excellent sets by the Good Lovelies and Digging Roots, as well as several brief between-set performances on the small satellite stage.

Canadian folk icon Bruce Cockburn performed at the main stage of the Ottawa Folk Festival, August 22, 2009.
Photograph by: David Gonczol, The Ottawa Citizen. Story by Lynn Saxberg.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
( http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Cockburn+creates+magic+with+just+voice+guitar/1921245/story.html )

25 May 2009 -

A photo book of Bruce at work is on the way by Daniel Keebler.

The book contains more than 110 photographs taken at soundchecks and performances from 1994 to 2008. The last series of photographs were taken at a recording session in Seattle in November 2008. The book contains both color and black and white images.

I (Daniel Keebler) am pleased to say the book will be released with the cooperation of Bruce and his manager, Bernie Finkelstein. The four page biography was fact-checked and amended by Bruce.

UPDATE: 8 July 2009 - The book is available for purchase at Blurb.com : http://www.blurb.com/user/store/keeb !!

Bruce Cockburn – a view from the Woodpile, is now available for purchase. I am publishing the book online through a Print On Demand (POD) publisher called Blurb (www.blurb.com). While this method is more expensive than the traditional off-set printing procedure, this is the only way I could afford to make the book available. Most of the retail price of the book goes to Blurb for printing. My cut is minimal. I did not set out to make piles of cash off the sale of this book, but rather to share my photos with fans of Bruce Cockburn, hoping it might offer a slightly unique view of him at work. I think this is the first book out there dedicated solely to Bruce.

This is a small project. There are people who might appreciate having the book but may never find it. I have no big advertising campaign. If you want to help spread the word about this book, I would welcome that and be most appreciative. Consider including a link to the book as part of the signature on your emails. If you have Twitter, My Space, Facebook, a blog, a website… a simple link to the book at Blurb would be all that is needed.

The book is available in two options:
paperback
hardback with a dust jacket

The book is 120 pages long and is ordered from the Blurb website and mailed directly to you. It contains photos from performances, soundchecks, a recording session and a few other locations, between 1994 and 2008. There is a two page introduction, a four page biography (Bruce assisted with the bio), a discography and a few other tour-related graphics.

The fact Bruce supported me on this project means a lot to me personally, but I also think it helps to validate the project in a broader sense. Since I started Gavin’s Woodpile in late 1993, it has been important for me to document Bruce’s work as accurately as I can. By trusting me, Bruce has helped me make that goal a lot easier. For that I am grateful.

My big thanks go to all of you who have supported Gavin’s Woodpile through the past fifteen years. It is lifting to know you are out there. ~ Daniel, July 8, 2009.

Bruce Cockburn Photo Book Bruce Cockburn Photo Book

Purchase the book here: Blurb.com.

19 May 2009 -

These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin, this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste

There is a sense of the world split open in the work of Bruce Cockburn, like a ripe fig pulled apart by strong hands, the innards tasted hungrily and savored with closed-eye wonder. Since his self-titled 1970 debut, the Canadian singer-songwriter has extended what Wallace Stevens termed "the palm at the end of the mind." There is an intensity of experience and colorful, wholly engaged beauty that runs from head to tail in his music. His lust for life makes one feel a bit more alive just for being exposed to his bold observations and gorgeous melodies.

A tireless veteran live performer, he's never achieved U.S. recognition on the same level as contemporary Neil Young, but the two share a number of striking similarities: a distinct voice in a field that makes individuality difficult, wicked guitar playing skills, a ribald and rebellious nature and an embrace of most of the finest, enduring traits of human beings. While widely celebrated in his native land, in the States he's only occasionally popped up on the mainstream radar with singles like "If I Had A Rocket Launcher." However, he's developed a devoted core audience in the U.S. and around the world that understands the pervasive oomph of his massive catalog and always-intimate concert appearances.

His newest release, Slice O Life (released March 31 on Rounder Records), is a double disc live collection that's as fine an introduction to Cockburn's work as any assembled. It presents his potent baritone tackling pieces from all across his career as well as signature influences like Willie Johnson's "Soul of a Man," with the lot embellished by entertaining, informative anecdotes that offer off-handed insight into one of the most complex, poetic men in contemporary music. Culled from live performances and soundcheck explorations, Slice O Life provides a winning snapshot of an artist of tremendous stability and unbroken quality.

Few things are simple with Bruce Cockburn. He likes to qualify and broaden his ideas and answers, but in the way the Japanese admire, where complication and clouding in language rarely points to one meaning, one destination. In this way, Cockburn's music is spacious, diverse and capable of mutable forms, drawing readily from blues, jazz, rock and folk to create a flexible, inviting hybrid overlaid with vivid imagery and open feeling.

Given JamBase's own love of variety and intense talent, we are tickled several shades of pink to have scored an hour of Cockburn's time, where we discussed spirituality, playing solo, his influences and much, much more.

JamBase: One of the challenges now after 30-some albums and almost 40 years of professional work is where does one jump in? That's a lot of music, man [laughs].

Bruce Cockburn: It's a challenge for me when somebody says, "Where do I start? What should I listen to?" I don't know [laughs].

JamBase: The new live album provides a pretty good foot in the door. It offers a pretty wide cross-section of what you've done.

Bruce Cockburn: It sorta does go back to the beginning, so I guess it is that [introduction], partly because it's solo and that strain of what I've done over the years, which is how I started.

JamBase: One man, one guitar. There's something very pure about that.

Bruce Cockburn: I don't think I was thinking purity, exactly, at the time [laughs]. There certainly is simplicity, in musical as well as practical terms. It was a choice. I'd come out playing in a bunch of bands in the second half of the '60s and I was tired of noise and tired of bad jamming, and I figured maybe other people were, too, and there might be a place for a guy doing things alone with an acoustic guitar. And I'd been interested in folk music and traditional music for a while, so it wasn't too big a leap.

JamBase: Had you been writing songs already at that point? It seems like you arrived on your debut with a fairly intact vision. There's a sense of personality to even the early records.

Bruce Cockburn: During that band period I was writing songs; originally I was writing songs for all the bands I was in and thinking, to some extent, of those bands when I was writing songs. But after a few years went by I noticed I had this little repertoire of songs within that that really worked better when I played them alone. And they were all the best ones [laughs]. When I came out as myself and not as the guitar player in somebody's band it was with a sense of the songs I wanted to do and an idea of how I wanted to see myself. In some sense, it was an embracing of the sensibilities of the era but also a reaction to the collective thing, which never really sat right for me. I never did very well as a hippie [laughs].

JamBase: There's very little hippie-like about your records in that period.

Bruce Cockburn: I just didn't fit with that. I never really fit with anything, which is partially why I sound like me and not somebody else. It was certainly true then. I felt like I'd learned a lot being in bands. I learned how to be onstage and what worked musically and what didn't, and certainly what I was capable of. There's always room for growth, of course, and you never really know what you're capable of, but I had a pretty good sense of it relative to what I'd been doing. So, it was a natural step.

JamBase: One of the things I'm struck by in your music, and it's there from the beginning, is, I wouldn't say an overt spirituality but an engagement with that type of subject matter. I've never found your work to be preachy but I've also never found it tenuous, which tends to be the case when people take on those types of concepts.

Bruce Cockburn: When we talk about taking on things in terms of songwriting, well, I guess if that's what you do it carries certain conditions and risks perhaps, but I never felt like that's what I've done. I always felt like I just wrote about what's sitting there. So, when it looks like I'm taking on something it's because I've been thinking about that thing and I'm having a reaction to that thing. If it's a political song, a spiritual song or a song about sex it's all the same. This is what I've experienced and how I feel about it, and it's kind of grabbing you by the lapels and saying, "You better listen to this!" I just need to convince somebody they should [laughs].

JamBase: I think terminology matters. I used the phrase 'taking on' but it's clear your work emerges from a more personal space. It's not like you have a cause you're trying to grind out. It's not like you're a cause person anyway, though you have been labeled as such by some over the years.

Bruce Cockburn: Yeah, I've been associated with all sorts of causes, and I don't really mind that generally. If I get labeled as an environmentalist because I care about the survival of the planet for my child and grandchildren to me that's not a cause, it's just, "Come on, let's stay alive! Let's get on with it! This is life!"

JamBase: Yeah, I guess if there's one unifying thing I've picked up on about your music as a long-time listener is it's about life, it's about being engaged with things and sometimes in a very earthy way, which wins you points with me.

Bruce Cockburn: Sometimes it's downright smutty! I think it's just about truth, and not wanting to sound pompous, it's about the human experience, what we are. And we are creatures of the flesh and we have the capacity to comprehend a larger reality than our senses can encompass but we feel is there. At some point in the future scientists may discover what spirituality really is, and if they do it's going to look something like capitalism [laughs]. I think there's going to be all kinds of mysterious strains in there, maybe reducible to numbers, maybe not. To me, that's at the core of everything.

JamBase: There's a tendency to divorce the physical aspects of humanity from the spiritual aspects.

Bruce Cockburn: It's unfortunate. The senses may lie – and do from time to time – but they always connect us to a bigger reality. And by senses I include whatever we consider to be extrasensory, too. I think that's just a word for senses we don't have a proper name for, but the capacity for feeling that bigger reality exists in all of us. In different ways, to different degrees, it gets expression in often radically different languages, and that expression suffers badly from the attempt to detach it from the flesh.

JamBase: When you take those two things away from each other they're both going to suffer.

Bruce Cockburn: There's no question of that, and you're probably going to go out and make someone else suffer, too!

JamBase: So true! When we carry some big wound or detachment in us there's a tendency to cause damage around us.

Bruce Cockburn: We project it out and blame other people for it. We blame Jews or we blame Communists or we blame Muslims or they blame Christians. It's all bullshit! It's all about projection of that interior wound.

JamBase: We're getting pretty lofty [laughs]. In more practical terms, I'm interested in the process of playing solo. How has that developed over the years?

Bruce Cockburn: For one thing, there's the obvious difference that when a band's playing it covers up a lot of what the guitar is doing. Even if we've been careful about keeping space clear for what the guitar is doing there's other stuff for people to notice, or should be; those musicians aren't standing up there to be models, they're playing their instruments and you want people to hear that. But, what happens when you don't have those musicians there is you have a greater focus on what the guitar is doing and how the guitar and voice relate to each other, which is how I write the songs. So, something more essential happens with respect to the song. It's less of a performance, though I hope the performance aspect is adequate and interesting to people. But it's less about that and more about the song itself as a composition.

JamBase: With the guitar work more exposed you have to carry a bit more on yourself but at the same time the original intentions of the piece are more naked. Your guitar work comes out of the blues tradition initially but I've always liked the echoes of the British guys I've long been mad for like Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and John Martyn.

Bruce Cockburn: It's interesting because I never listened to them but other people have said that. I attribute it to the fact that those guys and me all listened to the same things. And we're not coming at it from an American perspective, whatever that means. There is something different. There's no denying the whole vibe of England is much different than America, and different from Canada as well. The fact that I was filtering those influences through my Canadian experience may have been enough like the English thing for there to be similarities. Nick Drake is another guy that comes up a lot with me, and I've never listened to a Nick Drake album all the way through. I've listened to a few songs here and there because people said I should check it out and I didn't like it! It was okay, respectable stuff, but it didn't touch me particularly. The exception [in this area] may be Bert Jansch and his first album before there was Pentangle. Really, the people I was listening to were the old blues guys and, of course, Bob Dylan, and the world of finger-picking that was out there didn't escape my notice.

JamBase: That's interesting. Maybe the way things move in the world is they hit a few different places simultaneously, the lightning hits in a few spots at precisely the same time.

Bruce Cockburn: It's one of the really good reasons to not get a swelled head about all the really cool stuff you're coming up with [laughs]. There's a really good chance somebody out there is doing the same thing.

JamBase: How did this stuff come into your life? How did a young white guy in Canada discover that he really liked black blues music?

Bruce Cockburn: At first it wasn't black blues, it was the early Sun Records era of Elvis [Presley] that made me want to be a musician. I liked the music and wanted to play it before I even got a guitar. And Buddy Holly, too. It was white people playing things that were basically based on black music but where I grew up there weren't any black people! That's what you heard, that's what was on the radio. I loved rock 'n' roll and then when I started taking guitar lessons I was exposed to other stuff, and that wasn't very black either – Les Paul and Chet Atkins – a step removed from the rock thing – and then jazz. Eventually I came around. Towards the end of high school I met some people that played so-called folk music, and I was fascinated. I had never finger-picked before that; I was strictly flat-pick, a little jazzy and a little of that. So, I brought something to my contact with those guys that they didn't have in their background, but here were these guys playing Leadbelly and Brownie McGee songs and finger-picking. Once that door was open, well, you see what happened.

There was a club in Ottawa that I used to go to all the time that I eventually ended up doing dishes and making espressos at, and ended up playing at in time. You weasel your way into the scene. Chances are you don't arrive fully formed. This is a way to enter a scene. You're just a guy who plays guitar and you know a few things, and the way to gain entry to a group that's relatively closed is often social. You don't just crash your way in and say, "You need me because I'm a great guitar player." You do it by being friends with people, and when you're 17 and excited by this stuff you do it by washing dishes and hanging out and just being there.

JamBase: There's a vividness to your lyrics, a sense of scene that's cinematic and full of strong imagery. I wonder if poetry has had a strong impact on what you do. It does seem you draw a bit more from that world than the usual verse-chorus-verse folk singer kind of songwriting.

Bruce Cockburn: It's had a huge influence, and predates the effect of hearing Elvis. I was interested in poetry before I knew I wanted to play music. I remember somewhere in the middle of grade school encountering in English class studying what I think of as dumb rhyming, and it wasn't very interesting to me except for something like "The Highwayman," which had a kind of gothic quality. A lot of stuff we studied was just boring. Then, along comes this poem called "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish that I memorized, and it was kind of an abstract or surreal poem. That shocked the shit out of me and this world opened up right there. Words! A poem doesn't have to be defined by the strictures of rhyme or the need to tell a story or whatever kind of stuff we'd been taught. Language assumed a whole new significance for me right there.

JamBase: It is a different way of communicating ideas. There's a comfort level with making leaps that sort of poetry has that's closer to songwriting than structured poetry.

Bruce Cockburn: The leaps are what it's all about, really. There's a lot of different things that can be called poetry, and I guess justly so, but you can tell the story in a poetic manner and it doesn't have to be Beowulf or The Iliad. Those have their strengths and power but they too rely on their ability to create visual imagery. They paint word pictures you're invited to dive into – the shiny helmets and whatever it might be – even with Homer, who apparently couldn't see any of this stuff!

I've always loved movies, too. I think movies are as big an influence on what I do as poetry or old blues guys. The first movie I ever saw was a Roy Rogers movie my dad took me to, so it wasn't a good beginning but I really liked it. In the latter years of high school I got introduced to Fellini, Bergman and the more cutting edge people of the day, and I loved them, Bergman in particular because it related to that northern sensibility and because a couple of his films are set in medieval times, and I was always fascinated with that, too. Here were these movies that were SO not Hollywood and so intelligent that represented a realm, especially then, that I fantasized about being in.

JamBase: I think the title of the new live set, Slice O Life, almost suggests a film, and in a way you paint a series of scenes within it, especially because it jumps back and forth across your career.

Bruce Cockburn: I guess I thought when I was putting together the repertoire for these shows I wanted to do a cross-section; I always do that but I guess I thought about it a bit more here. We didn't know what would end up on the album. You throw all this stuff out there, and I spent weeks and weeks weeding through 40 hours of recordings to find the right performances of the right songs. It was quite excruciating actually [laughs]. But it was something that worked quite well in the end.

JamBase: The editing is crucial. It can pour out of you pretty fast but then you wonder, "What the hell do I do with all of this?"

Bruce Cockburn: Exactly! You wonder, "Does this make any sense?" I feel very fortunate to not have to answer to suits, but some of the same weeding process has to happen; you have to be tough with yourself. There are exceptions to this; Dylan does very well with this, creating songs that sprawl all over the place but are still powerful. Usually you need to edit what you're doing and weed out all the crap, though sometimes not weeding out the crap creates the strength of the "film." So, I don't know. I guess I back away from making any kind of generalization.

Ottawa poet Bill Hawkins, who was kind of a mentor to me when I first started writing songs, told me that when you're writing a poem just write what's coming out of your head and then go back and cross off everything that doesn't absolutely have to be there. And you're left with something like the finished poem. Although you wouldn't necessarily know that listening to my songs but it's been an important principle to me over the years. It's true and it remains true for me.

~from http://www.jambase.com/Articles/18077/Bruce-Cockburn-Water-Into-Wine/0 by Dennis Cook.

Photos by Kevin Kelly, Riddle Films Inc, and Janet Spinas Dancer.