I walked by the entrance to the Belcourt Theater exactly 2 hours before show time. There was already one woman standing by herself, in line. I stopped to ask her if she were really standing in line already? Yes, she was. By the time I went across the street for a sandwich and cold one, a long line had stretched down the sidewalk. The young and rich Vanderbilt kids walked by and looked at all the gray hairs with bemusement.

In line, the chatter all centered around how rare it is that we get to have Bruce in our part of the world; remembrance of past shows, and the like. Soon, the doors opened and we all streamed in.

The Belcourt is a very small theater which holds less than 250 people. Initially, I was worried as there were less than 100 of us inside. Bruce's sound guy was playing some bizarre house music that ranged from contemporary and very mellow jazz to opera. I started talking with folks around me, taking some pictures of Bruce's stage setup, and soon the theater was nearly full.

The stage was set up with huge chimes on both sides of Bruce. Between the chimes, was a single wedge (stage monitor speaker) which I thought odd since Bruce uses IEM's (in ear monitors). Later, I would figure that the wedge was there for when Colin would join Bruce.

His main mic was centered, with another mic over the dulcimer mounted up high on a modified piano stand. In between was his array of guitars. Both green Manzers, the National Steel, a 12 string, and another 6 string. He has a large rack of gear all lit up behind him that he never touches. He uses the top for his drink, capos and such. Sound was pretty good. Bruce had brought his own sound guy/guitar tech, and his own complete sound system. I went back to admire the sound gear which was all very good equipment. I won't talk more about it since I know that nobody here cares about such. There were 2 mics onstage pointed towards the audience so I was thinking that they might be recording the show. I checked all the sound gear and did not see any recording devices. An old time hippy sound engineer approached me as he'd also been back there to check out the gear. He figured out that the audience mics were so that Bruce can hear the audience during performance. Brilliant!

20 minutes past the 8PM start time, the audience was getting a bit restless and started clapping. The sound guy was still tweaking Bruce's guitars, but when I saw him exit the stage and walk back towards the sound board, I told everyone around me that it was show time, and it was! The lights dimmed.

Bruce walked out unannounced to a fairly enthusiastic greeting. It takes a lot to impress a Nashville audience. Many of the people in the house are great musicians, sound engineers and music industry folks. Bruce seemed to be a little rusty perhaps from some time off. He missed a chord or two, forgot a line in Each One Lost, and struggled a bit with some of the high notes when singing. But as the show went on and he warmed-up, he got in the groove.

We got nearly a 2 hour show, not including the VERY long intermission. So long, that the couple next to me walked to one of the restaurants, ate, and made it back before Bruce started the 2nd set. Before the show, when I was back at the sound board area, Colin Linden walked in with his wife. I said hello and shook hands with him, and he intro'd me to his wife before they took their seats. During the 2nd set, Bruce would invite him up twice; initially for a stunning version of 5:51, and then for the encores.

There was clearly a chemistry and joy between the two men that can only come from many, many years of friendship and music together. I have some nice pictures, a few of which are already up on FaceBook. I'll try to put some into the files section of Humans if I'm able, or share them in some other way. There are a few that I know all of you would really enjoy seeing. [Editor note: All of Ramcey's photos are up on the CockburnProject's Facebook page.]

Bruce came out into the lobby where a long line had formed to meet him and get things signed. I have many autographs from Bruce and have met him numerous times, so I just stood there talking with friends and watching the activities for a few minutes absorbing the last of the good vibes before heading out the door into the cool Nashville night and driving out to the hills.

--------------- 1st Set
1 Last Night of the World
2 Lovers in a Dangerous Time
3 Child of the Wind
4 Bohemian 3-Step
5 When You Give It Away
6 Iris of the World
7 Strange Waters
8 Boundless
9 Arrows of Light

--------------- 2nd Set
1 Lord of the Starfields
2 Pacing the Cage
3 Called Me Back
4 Five Fifty-One
5 Put It In Your Heart
6 Each One Lost
7 Wondering Where the Lions Are
8 If a Tree Falls

-------------- Encore
1 God Bless the Children
2 All the Diamonds
3 Gifts

(Bruce had "Comets written on his set list for the encore but chose not to do it since he invited Colin up to finish the show with him).

Thanks for making it down "South", Bruce. Go get 'em in Atlanta tonight.........Ramcey Rodriguez

There are also some YouTube videos from this show, you can search from here.

~ bobbi wisby

27 June 2011 - As Bruce continues touring to promote his 31st album release, Small Source of Comfort, I, once again had the great pleasure of seeing // hearing Bruce and Jenny play a fabulous set of music. I saw them with Gary Craig on drums at the Uptown Theater in Napa on June 2.

The Kate Wolf Festival is a 3 day /night camping music festival. This year the temps were in the 80's with Sunday being the hottest day. This show had been promoted as a solo show, but a few days earlier I heard Jenny was going to be playing as well. And as it should be, Jenny grew up just a couple hours drive from the venue, you could say it was a family affair for her to be playing so close to home. And she did have the crowd in her pocket.

Sometime around mid-afternoon, (very hot) Bruce and Jenny did a short short sound check. The stage was full of people including the Festivals Childrens Grateful Parade with Wavy Gravy MC-ing. We heard a bit of Last Night of the World, Jenny's song, Littlest Prisoner, Iris of the World and Put It In Your Heart.

Their set started at 7:40pm. The sun was just going down behind the trees and stage (thankfully), and the lighting was great. Wavy Gravy gave Bruce a wonderful introduction, and they started into Last Night of the World, but stopped as Bruce's capo was placed wrong.. once fixed they took off.

One of the things that really stand out for me watching Bruce and Jenny perform together, is the great feeling of joy that seems to pass over him as she plays. They have great synergy.

Here's the setlist:
Last Night of the World
Mango
Lovers In A Dangerous Time
Iris of the World
Strange Waters
Boundless

Bruce tells the story of meeting Wavy Gravy in South Dakota many many years ago at a rally or concert supporting or surrounding the Wounded Knee incidents. (again wish I had a recording)

Parnassus and Fog
Call Me Rose
Littlest Prisoner - Jenny's song
If A Tree Falls
Wondering Where the Lions Are
Arrows of Light


Then the Wailing Jenny's joined them onstage for Put It In Your Heart and Waiting For A Miracle. Just before Waiting For a Miracle, Bruce says, "I don't know about you guys (to the audience), but "I'm having fun."

There was no encore as the schedule didn't allow any time for it :( althought the crowd did try to bring him back.

My friend and local photographer Kim Sallaway provided most of the photos above. Big Thanks to him!

I have more photos and some video up at my blog OnMyBeat.net ~ bobbi wisby.
Update : 4 July 2011 - I have added another whole page full of Kim Sallaway's photos.... go check it out!

~ by bobbi wisby

5 May 2011 -

Bruce Cockburn poses with his forthcoming stamp, which will be issued June 30. (Canada Post)

Canadians might find Bruce Cockburn in their mailbox this summer, following Canada Post's announcement of a new stamp featuring the celebrated singer-songwriter.

Canada Post said Thursday that a stamp honouring Cockburn will be issued on June 30 as part of the third instalment of its Canadian Recording Artists series.

His stamp will join the previously announced stamps of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Robbie Robertson and Ginette Reno.

The series will be issued June 30.

"This is very exciting," the Ottawa-born Cockburn said in a statement.

The stamp's design — a black and white image of him against a red background featuring titles of his hit songs — is "beautiful," he added.

Over the years, the folk-rock singer and activist has won multiple awards for his music, which includes hits such as The Coldest Night of the Year and If I Had a Rocket Launcher. His original songs have inspired covers by a wide range of artists — from Jimmy Buffett to the Barenaked Ladies.

He released his 31st album, Small Source of Comfort, in March and is currently touring the U.S. Cockburn, who is also an officer of the Order of Canada and member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, is slated to publish his memoir in April 2012.

Article from CBC News, via Bernie Finkelstein.

21 March 2011 - Small Source Of Comfort (True North) is the latest LP from legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn. It’s also his 31st studio album in a career that dates back all the way to the mid-’60s. Over the years, Cockburn has become one of his country’s most successful and honored musicians, winning more than his share of awards and accolades, not only for his music but also for his longtime humanitarian work. This week, Cockburn adds MAGNET guest editor to his already impressive resume.

Cockburn: In 1970, I bought my first truck: a Dodge pickup with a three-speed floor shift. I think I paid around $3,500 for it new. I put an insulated cap on the back and built a bed in it. My then-wife Kitty and I, with our dog Aroo, spent much of the next few years driving back and forth across Canada, living in and out of that truck. The lifestyle changed when our daughter Jenny was born and when touring expanded into something more like a military exercise than the nomadic wandering it had been.

Later on I began to develop a certain nostalgia for that original road experience: for the meditative effect of an unfolding Western highway, for solitude in the presence of large landscapes, for the illusion of freedom. When my girlfriend moved from Brooklyn to San Francisco a while ago and the commute from my house in eastern Ontario got a lot longer, I found myself able to exercise my nostalgia. Having to. The difference now, of course, being that the landscape is that of the U.S. and no longer Canada. Not that it’s new territory. Over the years I’ve played gigs pretty much everywhere in North America. But the ability to savor the landscape and the feeling of travel is a whole other thing when it’s just me.

I have a van with a good sound system. It has a comfortable bed, and I generally camp in truck-stop parking lots. I don’t eat meals per se, but snack on the healthiest stuff I can find and drink too much coffee.

This is me and peak oil. The modern oil industry and I both came to life at the end of WW II. I expect we’ll peak and fade about the same time. It will soon be a very different world. Meanwhile, I don’t suppose my carbon footprint is any bigger travelling by road than by air. It’s likely smaller. And I love these long drives.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Transcontinental Driving - on Magnet

Cockburn: I’ve been on tour, and it’s now over. I drive north through the U.S., stopping here and there to take in the sights. I turn in to a forested area with some farms and continue driving on a gravel road up the back of a steep hill. There are a couple of small buildings that seem abandoned. Above me is another hill, which is grassy and steep and vaguely breast-shaped. I climb this. At the top is a small knoll like a nipple, also grassy. I climb up this, too, as I want to sit on it to take in the view. It’s precarious, because the other side of the hill is almost a straight drop. The wind is fresh, and I feel very happy.

I look back down at where I parked. There is an African-American family with grandparents and a couple of kids. One of the boys sees me and is clearly envious of my position. He wants to come up here too.

I carry on northward to a border town where some of my gear has been left for me in a sheriff’s department. SUV parked beside the police station. I spend the night at a motel next door, planning to leave early the following day with my belongings. In the morning, though, the vehicle is gone.

I anxiously go into the police station and talk to the two deputies who are inside. They say something to the effect that the SUV has been sold and they don’t know where it is. I remain respectful, but become agitated. Finally the officer who seems to be in charge leads me to an inner office in which all my gear sits piled on a couch. He says,''Do you have anything to say to me?'' I reply, "I feel like a total fool, having assumed you’d left all this stuff in the truck. I’m sorry and thank you!"

The sheriff himself, an older guy, now comes in along with another gray-haired man. He is jovial and gives me a little package. "This is for you," he says. "Go on. Open it!" It contains a crocheted scarf, which I can actually use, though it’s not quite my taste, and a tiny dog collar with little shiny chains hanging from it. It’s not at all clear what I’m supposed to do with this …

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - A Dream in Two Parts - on Magnet

Cockburn: Jenny Scheinman has performed and recorded with a legion of fine artists from Bill Frisell and Ani DiFranco to Lucinda Williams and Rodney Crowell. You may know her from this, but if you haven’t checked out her own CDs, you’re missing something great! As a jazzoid composer and player, Jenny has developed an eclectic style both fresh and varied. She performs her pieces with a range of ensembles, which feature ace musicianship from the likes of Todd Sycafoose, Myra Melford, Kenny Wollesen, Nels Cline and others.

Then there’s the songwriting. I’m not exactly clear on the genre boundaries involved, but with violin and mandolin accompaniment, Jenny has these songs with clever, thoughtful, sometimes humorous lyrics that sound to me like a kind of bent California neo-bluegrass. Full of good energy.

Aside from simply wanting to bring her to your attention, I have a certain stake in this. Jenny Scheinman is featured as a guest on my new CD and is also touring with me starting as both opening act and as part of my tiny-but-perfect band.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Jenny Scheinman - on Magnet

Cockburn: In all cultures, all times, there is in people a hunger for the divine. There is a feeling that each of us is part of something universal. That feeling is usually institutionalized into religion, which often replaces the divine with the counterfeit sense of being one instead with the tribe. The divine, though, means different things to different people. For some, it’s the planet. For some, it’s the projected psyche split into parts with the faces of gods, or science.

I believe in God. I believe there is a divine presence, an energy, that is the fabric of everything. Sometimes we can feel this presence as love. My relationship with God is very personal. If I still my internal fussing and pride, I might be able to discern what God wants for me, but I don’t think I’ll ever hear more than a suggestion of what is wanted for anyone else. You for instance. I might make that suggestion out loud, but if you don’t agree or don’t accept it, my part ends there. Anybody who says they know what God wants for you is deluded.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: God - on Magnet

Cockburn: The teenage son of a friend of mine was killed recently in a snowmobile accident. He was a popular kid—how much so his mother learned when it seemed like the whole town turned up to mourn his passing.

This inescapable transition from a living state to whatever awaits us is something we prefer to ignore much of the time, although our fascination with death is obvious from the constant stream of stories we are constantly telling ourselves. There are situations where it will be seen and felt. There are places where human death becomes another element in the landscape, along with roads and trees and air. In our own context, thankfully, death feels more like an occasion. I guess it’s safe to say it is always a shock to the deceased. I suspect (and fervently hope) that that shock is short-lived. To the survivors, the shock lasts a long time. In the case of a lost loved one, lifelong. I think I’ve seen that excruciating sense of loss be transmuted into a kind of interior altar where the lost one is honored.

We are this brief flare of energy sparked by birth and then snuffed out. It seems especially so when someone young goes down. Part of the energy goes on to what is next. Part of it remains as the memories of us held by those who knew us. When my mother died this past summer, she was just short of her 89th birthday. She had lived as much as circumstance and temperament permitted. She fought off the effects of cancer and its treatment for a long time. She curled and played tennis up to the last year of her life. She too was more popular than we had realized. At her visitation, a large number of her contemporaries showed up, most of them unknown to me, full of love and appreciation for her. That sad event became a celebration, even a joyous one, of mom and her life.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: Death - on Magnet

Cockburn: There was only one public latrine in the village. It was at the foot of the valley, below the ritually placed Dogon houses, where the spring’s ability to generate green vegetation came to an end at the dry plain of the Sahara. The structure was built up above ground: a mound of red earth 10 feet high shaped like a protruding navel. Finding myself in need of it, I went through the entrance to discover that I had to climb a short stair. This put me on a platform surrounded by an uneven, three-foot wall. As I squatted there with my head sticking up above the parapet, I felt extremely conspicuous. I wondered if I’d have to greet passersby from my elevated position, but the one or two women I could see hoeing in their garden ignored me.

I had a fine view of the surroundings. On one side, at my back, the looming 2,000-foot ramparts of the Bandiagara Escarpment. On the other, sand, thorns, the skeletons of dead baobab trees. Right where the patchwork of little-tilled fields hit the sand was a well spout from which water dribbled into a concrete trough. Nearby, a rectangle of chain-link fence stood next to a small house. While I watched, a wide column of dust approached that resolved itself into into a robed Peul herdsman driving a bleating, clanking crowd of sheep and goats. The animals rushed to the trough by the well, excited to be able to drink.

Startlingly blue sky. Red dust on the wind. This biblical scene of herder and flock. And if the shiny chain-link fence were not anomalous enough, inside it was a large array of solar panels, gleaming a darker blue.

I found out later that a former government had bought into the technology and installed a solar-powered well pump near each of the Dogon villages, dotting the escarpment. No ongoing tech support was given, so the systems broke down. Goats smashed the solar panels. This was the only one still working. The villagers had appointed a man to be trained in well maintenance. The little house was his, and he was charged with keeping everything running. When the well keeper grew too old, he passed on his knowledge to an apprentice in the traditional fashion.

For a fee of a few cents a year, the nomadic herders of the plain could water their livestock here. Back in the day, the Dogon and the Peul were mortal enemies, in the manner of farmers vs. herders the world over. They were enemies until France colonized Mali with cannons and forced peace on them 100 years ago. Now they coexist as partners facing ever-deepening desertification of the environment in which both must live.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: Water, Part 2 on Magnet

Cockburn: For a while, Battlestar Galactica and Dexter were running neck-and-neck as my favorite TV shows, but Dexter wins by default as the last man standing. It seems to me everybody with an imagination has, or has had, a secret inner life. I certainly have. All kinds of things happen in my imagination. Some are terrible, not in a Dexter way, but comparable. I don’t kill anybody, but at times my mind fills with horrible images.

That’s not as significant, though, as the fact of not being able (or willing) to share those thoughts and feelings. Not sharing means having secrets. When a young person develops the habit of keeping secrets (e.g. from parents, teachers, often for good reasons), it can be hard to break out of it later. You create strategies for avoiding the exposure of those secrets, and then you’re—presto—a bit like Dexter.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Dexter - on Magnet

Cockburn: When I was little, I wouldn’t go to sleep without my rubber knife hidden under my pillow. The sinister darkness under the bed could produce any number of monsters while I slept. The scary things under the bed moved to deeper and subtler places with the passage of time, but the love of a good knife only grew.

As a confirmed packrat, I end up with small-to-modest collections of things I like: bags and backpacks, jackets, comic books, DVDs U.S. quarters with states on them. And knives. Or, let’s say, edged implements. Some of them are agricultural in intent (e.g. old sickles). Some are art pieces, some utilitarian, some historical or exotic. The unifying factor is the beauty of form and function embodied in things with blades. There are a few made by high-end cutlers such as Jerry Fisk, Wolf Loerchner or >Brian Lyttle. Others are by lesser-known or up-and-coming makers. Some are traditional to various places: a delicate dagger from tango-era Buenos Aires designed to be worn in a woman’s garter, the one from Papua New Guinea crudely fashioned from the leg bone of a cassowary, the 150-year-old Chinese executioner’s sword. Some are purely practical camping or food-prep knives by companies like Benchmade and Spyderco. Being left-handed, I’m always on the lookout for folding knives oriented that way.

Sometimes a knife designed for one thing might get used for another; a combat knife doing duty in the kitchen, for instance. Actually, nearly all the knives get a bit of kitchen use, so they’re kept sharp. I have issues around my kitchen knives, insisting that they be treated with respect by any who use them. I seem to have impressed this so heavily on my daughter’s boyfriend that when he comes to visit, he brings his own knives.

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Knives - on Magnet

Cockburn: Back in the ’70s, I became interested in comics again. As a kid, I loved Tarzan and bought every issue for several years running. I lost interest in my teens, but it was reawakened when I discovered the French and Belgian bandes dessinées. These were comics with far better production values and a more adult orientation: sci-fi or fantasy stories, gritty noir detective tales, perverted humor. There was a whole world waiting to be savored in the union of story and dialogue with really good graphic art of many styles. Moebius, Hugo Pratt, Bilal & Christin and Jacques Tardi in particular lit up my imagination.

Over the years, some of the work of these artists has appeared in English, usually as a cheaper production and often with really bad translations. One of my favorites was Tardi’s series about a female private detective in fin-de-siecle Paris named Adèle Blanc-Sec. Fantagraphics has now released some of the Adèle stories in a form worthy of the original editions. They’ve put out other Tardi titles as well. This is exciting, even if I have them at home in French. It’s fun to think of a whole new audience discovering the work of such a great graphic novelist!

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Jacques Tardi - on Magnet

Cockburn: In the ’70s and ’80s, a lot of us became convinced that we shouldn’t drink tap water. We kept hearing about all the industrial and other pollutants, many of which don’t get caught by municipal treatment systems. It seemed as though bottled water was the way to go. Water from a spring somewhere had to be safer and usually tasted better. I, at least, didn’t suspect back then that we were being manipulated into yet another scheme to exploit our fear and the world’s poor at the same time. The bottled-water industry was setting itself up for windfall profits and a global takeover of fresh water sources.

There were those who saw it coming—as well as the potential for bad chemistry between water and the plastic of its containers. Now it’s become "common knowledge." Water is the new oil. Commercial interests in the developed world are pushing the old colonial agenda, now through so-called free-trade deals rather than conquest. As with oil, though, conquest is never completely ruled out.

Meanwhile, we now know we spent decades swilling a chemical cocktail of carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. Tap water begins to look better! Drink local. Aside from lessening exposure to all that noxious crap, it’s the only way to preserve our unfettered access to water. Surely that is the most basic of human rights.

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Water - on Magnet

Cockburn: - I like drinking wine. I’m currently trying to train myself to like pinot noir. I’ve never cared much for it, but so many of my friends and acquaintances do that I feel like I ought to understand what all the fuss is about. Pinot noir also contains the largest proportion among wines of resveratrol, the antioxidant that makes wine so good for you. I’ve now had a few that have gone down well, though some are too light and watery for my taste. Gimme the big wines, zin and merlot and amarone! Nothing brightens a day like well-chosen booze.

In Bolivia recently, my daughter and I were invited to help a number of Quechua villagers with their planting. Though it sounds like work, it was actually a social invitation. The custom is that all who work get fed and plied with chicha, a mildly alcoholic brew of corn, questionable water and, since everyone drinks from the same vessel, saliva. We arrived a bit late. Lunch was served, and we shared in it. A farmer mimed to me that if I didn’t do some work for my food and drink, I’d have to sing and dance for the crowd. This prompted me to grab a pickaxe and join him and the other men in crushing clumps of earth not sufficiently smashed by the bull-drawn plough. After 10 minutes of walking the furrows and slamming the pick down sideways on the thick clods, it was back to the shade and the pots of various forms of potatoes and corn. The men sat off to one side while Jenn and I sat with the women and kids, as she was acquainted with most of them and my Spanish is not up to chatting about the price of llamas or football or whatever the men were talking about. Jenn, on the other hand, had been living with these folks for six months and was able to communicate well in Spanish and their own Quechua tongue.

The boys were serving themselves drinks from a clear-glass gallon jug. Something other than chicha. One of them waved the bottle in my direction. I nodded back at him. He came over and poured me a glass and waited while I drank. It was fiery and smooth, like a fine grappa. The day was already bright. It got noticeably lighter …

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind - Alcohol - on Magnet


Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind:
Sex in Amsterdam

Cockburn: - So there we are, standing on the cobblestones, looking at a building with a big pink elephant sign: LIVE SEX. My companion says, “Let’s go in!” Curiosity rules! We trade some cash for a hand stamp with a friendly fellow who informs us that the show is 90 minutes long and we’ll see “all positions.” Up the dark stairs and through a curtain. We’re in a smallish room with 100 or so theatre seats facing a well-lit stage on which stands a heart-shaped bed draped in red silk-like material.

The show is in three “acts,” with intermissions featuring a sort of comedy striptease in which an attractive young woman takes off part of her already-skimpy costume and invites three tittering college boys up to perform with her. One of them has to eat a banana from between her legs? Breasts? Funny, I can’t remember …

In each of the main acts, a woman wearing a thong comes onstage, which is now a bedroom. She appears to be idle, perhaps pining for someone or something. A stocky, swarthy and hirsute man enters stage right. He too wears a thong, with rather more of a bulge. They kiss in a perfunctory way, like an old married couple. Then, as they recline onto the bed, she removes his thong and goes down on him. The red-draped, heart-shaped bed begins to slowly revolve. Chill disco music plays. There is caressing and a display of something like tenderness. The man enters the woman from one of several possible directions. This is followed by rhythmic movements. Change angle of approach. Further rhythmic activity. After all the positions have been tried, they stop. There is no evidence of a climax, although the woman tosses her head and makes moaning noises. The bed ceases to revolve. We all applaud as the couple holds hands and takes a bow.

Each act involves a different couple. Each couple has its particular routine. All is carried out in a sedate, deliberate manner, which is so mechanistic as to seem quite innocent. We’re like aliens watching a display of the mating practices of earthlings. Not in the least sexy, but interesting.

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: Sex in Amsterdam - on Magnet

Cockburn: - Why do I play guitar, as opposed to drums or keyboard or bagpipes? Because of Elvis Presley (actually Scotty Moore, who played with Elvis, though I didn’t know his name until later) and Buddy Holly. And because my grandmother happened to have one in her attic. When that beat-up, low-rent instrument came into my hands at the age of 14, I knew it would become a key component of my life. When I showed so much interest in it, my parents got me a better one. It became a refuge from the horrors of adolescence—a step into the world of cool for a nerdy kid with a crappy self-image. I studied other instruments—clarinet, trumpet, a bit of cello—but it was the guitar that got into the core of me and clung there long after delusions of Elvis-hood had given way to the notion of becoming a jazz musician, then a rocker, then a singer/songwriter.

I own several guitars. The ones with which I’m most closely associated were made by Linda Manzer of Toronto, a fine luthier and a great friend. Back in the ‘80s, when synthesizers were becoming a fashion necessity on every record, another friend, Jonathan Goldsmith, archly declared to me that the guitar was dead and had no future. Jonathan is a top-notch composer and pianist. Hah. Guess who was wrong!

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: Guitars - on Magnet.

Cockburn: - And speaking of distortion—Rasputina! Melora Creager’s Brooklyn-based, cellos-plus-drums ensemble is responsible for some great records. The songwriting is rich with brains and sanguine humor, a kind of lighthearted approach to darkness within and without. The folk roots run deep, but they pounce into the present like they’ll eat you. Alive.

~from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: Rasputina - on Magnet


Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind:
Konono N°1

Cockburn: - Konono N°1 is a band from Kinshasa, Congo. They’ve been around for quite a while, but I became aware of them a couple of years ago. Their sound is based around the likembe, a thumb harp similar to the South African mbira. To this they add vocals, percussion, sometimes electric bass and guitar. My favourite Konono N°1 CD is the one I first encountered, Congotronix, but there’s a recent one called Assume Crash Position.

This is street music par excellence, brimming with brash energy and full of exciting sounds, the music of a true jam band. They play with a kind of joyous rage. The likembes they use are electrified and amplified to the point of a deliciously over-the-top distortion, especially on Congotronix. That sound is less of an element on Assume Crash Position, but the grooves on both are loose and hypnotic and crazy deep as the Olduvai Gorge!

~ from Bruce Cockburn May Change Your Mind: Konono N°1 on Magnet


Q&A with Bruce Cockburn
Magnet Magazine - Eric T. Miller

11 March 2011 -

MAGNET: This is your 31st studio album. If asked, do you think you could, off the top of your head, name the other 30 in the order they were released? How many songs do you think you have written in total?

Cockburn: I believe I could come up with the correct list of albums and the order of their release. I often use them as reference points when trying to remember when other things happened. I guess I’ve written between 350 and 400 songs. Quite a few crappy ones were written before the ones on the first record.

Your first album came out in 1970, before a lot of us were even born, so you have seen, up close, all of the changes in the music industry. What do you think are the most significant ones? How different is making and releasing records for you now than it was in, say, 1970 or 1980 or even 1990?

Cockburn:The most important and most obvious change is in the technology. We used to have to go to the store and buy vinyl (or even bakelite) discs. We used to have to go to a professional studio to record! For me personally, the way we do things hasn’t changed so much up to now. It seems likely that there are changes looming on the horizon, as record companies become ever more redundant and the means of distribution keep changing.

I heard you only recently finally got a computer. What made you give in to technology, and more important, is it a Mac or PC? Do you involve yourself with Facebook, MySpace, etc.?

Cockburn: It’s true I only recently got a computer. My girlfriend gave me a Mac for Christmas. It’s really she who has driven my plunge into the e-world, first with a BlackBerry, then a digital camera and now the Mac. I had not felt the need for these things before this relationship,, but because of my travels we spend a lot of time apart. It’s very helpful to be able to communicate faster. And then, of course, there’s the shopping!

You made a trip to Afghanistan in 2009, which inspired two songs on the new album. What prompted you to go there? How did it shape your view of the war going on there?

Cockburn: I went to Afghanistan in September 2009 as part of a small group of people from the world of music and sports. The expectation was that we would offer some entertainment and a morale boost to the troops based at Kandahar Air Field. This we did our best to do. At that time, the base was being run by the Canadian Forces. I was happy to perform for our people. My personal motivation had a lot to do with curiosity and also a sense of solidarity with, and concern for, all those young Canadians risking life and limb so far from home. My brother had recently joined the army as a doctor, after a successful career in the civilian sector. He was soon sent to Kandahar for the standard six-month tour of duty in one of the base hospitals. He and I both thought that I should try to get there during his stay. I’d wanted to do something like this for years and it had never happened, so it seemed like here was my chance. Over the years I’ve traveled to other war zones, first in Central America, then Africa, then Asia, and Kosovo and the Middle East. In the course of some of those trips, I have found myself in the company of soldiers, but never Canadians. It excited me to see what it felt like to be among my own people in that kind of situation. I have to say I was very impressed with the sincerity and professionalism I found among the many Canadian Forces members I talked to. They clearly believe in their mission, which they see as one of creating an atmosphere of peace in Afghanistan that would permit development in all its forms. They picture a 30-year process. A whole generation of kids has to grow up in relative security for there to be a sufficient level of education to afford the understanding and expectation of democracy, for example. Our soldiers feel they can succeed at this if given the necessary support. I’m not so sure they can. At the same time, though, how can our increasingly globalized world tolerate the chaos that has been that country’s history? The absence of human rights, especially for women, cries out for change, not to mention the festering sore of a strategically located state run by carpetbaggers and/or religious gangsters.

You have always been involved in humanitarian work. Most of the time, people concentrate on the positive changes you have made, but how has this work changed you?

Cockburn: Over the years I’ve had the good fortune to be involved in helping a lot of people who are committed to bringing positive change to the world. My role has generally been that of mouthpiece. Since I’m lucky enough to have the public visibility I do, I can sometimes be useful in drawing attention to things that need doing and to help generate support for the people and organizations who do the real work. This involvement has taken me to many interesting parts of the world and furthered my education immeasurably. Once in a while a good song comes out of these adventures! The landscapes I’ve walked, the people I’ve met, the relief of having come through a scary situation—all these have given me a very different understanding of myself and the world than I would otherwise have.

You have a reputation as being a restless spirit. How much time do you spend at home in Ontario as opposed to traveling?

Cockburn: I have a pretty cool house in Ontario, which I love being in. It’s the first place I can remember living, in my entire life, that actually feels like more than a base camp. I’m not there very much of the time.

Why did you call the new album Small Source Of Comfort?

Cockburn: When I wrote the song Five Fifty-One I wrote in the second verse, "Small source of comfort, dawn was breaking in the air … You don’t take these things for granted when you think of what’s in need of repair." Sometimes things seem that precarious. The phrase "small source of comfort" jumped out at me. It seemed to want to be an album title. I liked both the sense of hope and its faintness. I figured if nothing came along that said "title!" in a louder voice that the next album would be called that, and there it is.

Call Me Rose is written from the perspective of Richard Nixon. But the twist is he has been reincarnated as a poor, single mom. What inspired that?

Cockburn: I have no idea where Call Me Rose really came from. I woke up one morning with the song in my head, almost complete. I don’t remember having dreamt it, but it was there. I thought it was quite weird, but it seemed like a gift, so I finished it. I think it came out pretty well. With hindsight, I suspect it may have been sparked by what was then a recent campaign by Official (Bush) America to rehabilitate the image of Richard Nixon. Various pundits could be heard to say that he was the greatest president ever, that he was terribly misunderstood, etc. After several weeks the apparent campaign abruptly stopped. People just weren’t buying it. I may have been thinking about what his actual rehabilitation might look like, i.e., the redemption of Richard Nixon’s soul.

You wrote Gifts in 1968 but waited until now to record it. How come now was the right time for you to do so? Did you change it much over the years?

Cockburn: I used to use Gifts to close shows back in the late ’60s. When we made the first album at the end of ’69, Bernie Finkelstein, my manager and the founder of True North Records, asked me about including the song. I thought the album didn’t need it. I responded with, "Oh, I’m saving that one for the last album." Is this the last album? No idea. The first one could have been the last! It just felt like the right time to record it … just in case.

I love the line "I’m good at catching rainbows, not so good at catching trout" from The Iris Of The World. Do you know immediately when you come up with a lyric like that that you did good?

Cockburn: Sometimes a line comes out that feels as though it will touch people strongly. More often I have to live with the ideas and execution for a while before I know what I think I’ve got.

The shorthand description of your music is "folk," but that is really too limiting. How would you describe it? In your mind, how has it changed over the years?

Cockburn: The music is always in a state of flux. It’s the lyrics that mainly determine what the music should be like in any given song. Sometimes things want to go in a folkier direction. Other words need a rockier or jazzier slant. I keep wanting to explore the possibilities wherever that leads. In the beginning, I resisted being called a folksinger, as it seemed to me that the term implied a connection to some specific tradition. I didn’t feel I could make that claim. As time went on, I resigned myself to the idea that labeling is inescapable. They’re going to call you something, and there are worse things than "folksinger."

You are an Officer of the Order Of Canada, a member of the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame and the Canadian Broadcast Hall Of Fame, have been awarded a handful of honorary doctorates in Canada and the U.S., and only about 10 musicians have won more Juno Awards than you. First off, thanks for making the rest of us feel like no-talent losers. But what motivates you to keep going when no one would argue that you have already earned all the time off you want for the rest of your life?

Cockburn:I may have earned the time off, but somebody has to keep buying the food. I expect to retire when I become incapacitated, physically or mentally. I fervently hope I recognize the moment when it comes!

~ from Magnet Magazine - by Eric T. Miller Copyright © MAGNET Magazine Inc. 2011.


Catching Up With... Bruce Cockburn
by Andy Whitman Paste Magazine

8 March 2011 - During a career that stretches back to the late 1960s, Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn has explored introspective mysticism and political protest within a musical framework that encompasses everything from classic folk fingerpicking to a dizzying jazz/folk/rock hybrid. A dazzling guitarist and poetic lyricist, Cockburn is the recipient of numerous Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy), and has experienced the dubious glories of Top 40 hits and MTV airplay. He’s yet to release an album that is anything less than beautifully played and lyrically challenging. These days he splits his time between Canada and the U.S. and dreams of Richard Nixon. Paste caught up with Cockburn, discussing the release of Small Source of Comfort, his 31st album.

Paste: The song that I suspect will elicit the most commentary on your new album Small Source of Comfort is Call Me Rose, where you envision Richard Nixon reincarnated as a poor single woman with two kids in the projects. Can you tell me what inspired that song?
Bruce Cockburn: Well, you’re probably not going to like the answer. Honestly, it came to me in a dream. I woke up and the song was just there, pretty much fully formed. That’s only happened to me once or twice in the past. The first verse—the one where Richard Nixon is reincarnated as a poor single woman with two kids—was definitely right there when I woke up. And I couldn’t even tell you precisely what inspired it. I think, at the time, there may have been an effort underway at the U.S. State Department to rehabilitate the image of Richard Nixon, so that may have been in the back of my mind. But who knows? It was a strange experience. Songs don’t usually come to me that way.

Paste: What’s prompted the emphasis on instrumentals over the past few albums? You’ve always incorporated instrumentals as part of your music, but it seems like the past few years, with Speechless, the all-instrumental album, and the five instrumentals that appear on Small Source of Comfort, that there’s been a greater focus. Is there anything behind that?
Cockburn: I don’t know. It’s probably too early to call it a trend. We’ll see what happens. I usually start with the words, and then build the songs from there. But there were a number of songs this time that just came out as instrumentals. And, as you say, I’ve always incorporated instrumentals in my albums. But there were just a few more of them this time that presented themselves that way. Playing with Jenny Scheinman might have had something to do with it. She’s a wonderful violinist, and several of those instrumentals emerged through those collaborations, just playing off of one another.

Paste: She’s great. Let me ask you a little more about Jenny. I wasn’t familiar with her work before this album, and I was really impressed. I know she’s worked with Bill Frisell in the past, and you’ve worked with Bill as well. Was he the connecting point for you?
Cockburn: Not directly. I think the first time we met was at a Mountain Stage concert. I was on the bill, and Jenny was playing with Rodney Crowell. So that’s the first time I saw her. The next time was in New York. I was dating a woman in Brooklyn, and we were passing by The Village Vanguard in Manhattan, and it turned out that Jenny’s name was on the marquee. So we listened again. And I really liked what she was doing. So just through that process—listening to this great jazz violinist, getting to know her a bit—we decided to collaborate on this album. She’ll be playing with me on this upcoming tour as well.

Paste: You’re known, for better or worse, as a very serious songwriter. Obviously, songs like Call It Democracy and If I Had a Rocket Launcher have contributed to that reputation. But on the new album you have a funny take on our busy lives (Called Me Back), and the line about the Nixon/Single Mom selling her memoirs in Call Me Rose made me laugh out loud. Is this a looser, more fun-loving Bruce Cockburn we’re seeing?
Cockburn: [laughs] Yeah, maybe. Maybe I got all that angry young man angst out of my system when I was an angry young man. But, you know, I’d like to think that I’ve always incorporated some humor in my music. Even some of the early albums from the ‘70s had songs like The Blues Got the World by The Balls and Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse. So I don’t think it’s necessarily anything new. And honestly, a lot of the angry, political stuff has already been said. The players change, but it’s still the same world, you know. So maybe this time I decided to take a little more lighthearted look at the darkness. But it wasn’t anything conscious on my part.

Paste: You noted in the press materials that you had anticipated that this album would be raw and electric. It turned out introspective and acoustic. Can you describe your songwriting process, and what might have prompted the changes from your original intentions?
Cockburn: I did think, initially, that maybe it was time to mix it up sonically. But there’s no formula here, and you just have to see where the songs take you. And we ended up with an acoustic, fairly introspective album that isn’t all that different from what I was doing in the 1970s. Some of it was just my physical and geographical surroundings. I was spending a lot of my time in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and there was just no opportunity to turn up the volume without incurring the wrath of the neighbors. You work with what you’ve got.

Paste: Two of the songs on the new album were written out of the experiences of your recent trip to Afghanistan. How did the trip to Afghanistan come about?
Cockburn: Well, it was just a short trip that happened three years ago. It only lasted a week. And it came about because of my brother. He’s an emergency room anaesthesiologist, and he signed up for a 6-month tour of duty with the Canadian army in Kandahar. He pestered on his end, and I pestered on my end, and eventually the army agreed to the visit. And I hate to say it, given the serious circumstances, but we had a lot of fun. But there were some serious moments, as well. The day we arrived in Afghanistan, at the staging area, we watched a plane come in bearing the coffins of two Canadian soldiers who had been killed. And we were privileged to witness what they called the Ramp ceremony. And, you know, there were recorded bagpipes, and prayers, and tears. It was difficult.

Regardless of how you view the conflict, or whatever your political views, it was very evident to me that these soldiers were doing the best they could do, making the best out of a place where they didn’t want to be. And that ceremony really helped to put it in perspective. You think, God, these kids could have been my kids. And the song Each One Lost came out of that. It was a good visit. It was hell. I’m glad I was there.

Paste: I’d like to ask you about a song that goes back 13 or 14 years now, a song from your album The Charity of Night. I want to ask you about Strange Waters, which is a song I come back to again and again, at least partly because of the startling imagery and the twist in the title. There’s a biblical reference there, as you know, but you take the imagery of one of the best-known Psalms and change it from "still waters" to "strange waters." Can you comment about that song’s meaning to you, specifically in light of the spiritual imagery that you use?
Cockburn: Okay. Well, if you live a life where you’re trying to figure out what the existence of the divine means, and trying to live in accordance with that, my experience has been that you’re going to encounter a lot of beauty and a lot of weird shit. And that song was an attempt to come to grips with the weird shit. You’re right that it references the 23rd Psalm. But I hadn’t encountered still waters. I had encountered strange waters. And my take is that it’s going to continue to be strange. It’s funny that you brought that up. I hadn’t been singing that song, but I just recently started singing it again. Maybe it’s because I’m very aware of the strangeness these days.

Paste: Following up on that idea, during the course of your career, you’ve written time and time again about your travels to foreign locations—Japan, Italy, Central America, Cambodia, and Afghanistan. It’s also evident that those travels have impacted your understanding of and appreciation for different cultures. And yet your early albums were marked by mysticism and introspection. I realize that these issues are never completely clear-cut and black and white, and they’re not in your music either, but was there a turning point in your life where you chose to shift the focus from a sort of inward isolation to a more outward engagement with the world? And if so, what brought about the change?
Cockburn: You’re correct that there was a turning point. It coincided with my divorce in the late ‘70s. You know, that just turned my world upside down. It was something I never expected, never thought would happen. And then it did. And I had to make some major adjustments. Up to that point I’d mostly been living in the country, living inside my head. And I realized then that introspection had gone as far as it was going to go. I needed to get involved with people. I needed to be where people were. So I moved to Toronto. And shortly after that I started getting involved with organizations where that travel became a way to get more connected. Of course, there’s a balance in all this, and I’ve never totally lost that introspective side. This new album was recorded at least partly because I realized that I needed to find that self-reflective mode again.

Paste: You’ve been at this for more than 40 years now. During that time, your music has obviously evolved and adapted. But how do you think you yourself have changed during that time? What parts of the guy who recorded High Winds, White Sky and Sunwheel Dance are still there? What parts have changed? What would the Bruce Cockburn of 1970 have to say to the Bruce Cockburn of 2011? What would the Bruce Cockburn of 2011 have to say to the Bruce Cockburn of 1970?
Cockburn: [laughs] There’s nothing like summarizing a life! Well, I think the Bruce Cockburn of 1970 would say, "Oh, my God, what are you doing?" And the Bruce Cockburn of 2011 would say "What an idiot!" You know that cliché about youth being wasted on the young? It’s true.

When I think back on it, the Bruce Cockburn of 1970 wasn’t very good at being with people. I didn’t communicate very well, and I didn’t understand others very well. But deep down I’m still the same person. I’d like to think that I’ve grown up. And so much of this is just living life, learning the lessons that are common to everyone who gets older. It’s still unfolding. I’m not done. I hope that I can learn to be more kind.

~from Paste Magazine interview by Andy Whitman.

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