News:
-- Writer recharged: Bruce Cockburn talks about writer's block, Trump and avoiding 'mistakes of the past' --
-- By Eric Volmers - Calgary Herald --

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19 January 2018 - It should surprise no one that Bruce Cockburn has thoughts about the political turmoil in the United States under President Donald Trump.

After all, the Ottawa-born singer-songwriter has lived in San Francisco for a number of years. He goes to church there. He is raising his six-year-old daughter there. Obviously, he is invested. He’s is also one of modern music’s most astute political songwriters, known for penning tunes such as the angry and direct 1984 anthem If I Had a Rocket Launcher and the urgent, green-leaning 1989 classic If A Tree Falls.

So why wouldn’t he have thoughts? Besides, it would just seem a waste to have Bruce Cockburn on the line and not have him weigh in on what is behind the strange political climate of his adopted country.

"It’s all smokescreen now," he says. "You pretty much can bet that everything that comes out of the President’s mouth is false. Every single word except for perhaps the references to his own feelings, that may be genuine. But everything else is B.S. But we all pay attention to it because you can’t believe the next piece and then you think ‘What’s going to come next?’ But in the meantime, they are dismantling the (Environmental Protection Agency), they are dismantling, as much as they can, any kind of regulation on corporate behaviour. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all about some people making a vast sum of money at everyone else’s expense and he’s supposed to keep us distracted, which he’s doing a pretty good job of."

It’s all made for a national atmosphere filled with anxiety and confusion. But, if history is any guide, interesting political times tend to lead to interesting music.

Cockburn laughs when asked if Trump "inspired" him in any way when writing the songs for Bone On Bone, his first album in seven years and his first to come after suffering an extended period of writer’s block. He quickly points out that "inspired" is not the word he would choose. But he acknowledges that both the moody opening track, States I’m In, and the driving and bluesy Cafe Society loosely reflect the angst and anxiety he senses around him.

But perhaps the most potent political commentary was his decision to include an acoustic-blues arrangement of the religious, traditional Twelve Gates to the City as the album’s closer.

"It’s a song about inclusion," says Cockburn, who will perform backed by a full band at the Jack Singer Concert Hall on Jan. 23 and Edmonton’s Winspear Centre on Jan. 24. "The message of the Biblical passage from which that comes — it’s specifically about Israel — is that there’s a gate for each of the tribes. You’re all welcome here in God’s city. To me, by extension, that seemed like an important thing to say right now in America."

Still, Cockburn ultimately sees Bone On Bone as more spiritual than political. Whatever the case, the album certainly sounds like it came from a songwriter whose creativity has been recharged. From the aforementioned acoustic and gospel blues tracks to the intricate and instrumental title song to the gorgeous and melodic ballad 40 Years in the Wilderness, Bone On Bone finds one of Canada’s finest songwriters in top form. It’s all the more impressive considering that, only a few years ago, Cockburn questioned whether he would ever write another song.

He spent three years writing his 2014 memoir, Rumours of Glory, which he says sapped up a good deal of his creativity. He had gone through dry spells before, but this seemed a little more permanent.

"There was nothing left over for the songs and no real motivation for the songs because I was doing this other kind of writing," he says. "When it was over, after all that time, I sort of thought ‘I don’t know if I’m a songwriter or not, I’ll have to wait and see.’ Luckily, because I was hoping I would be still, songs did start coming after awhile. The album is proof of that."

It was the rollicking 3 Al Purdys that helped Cockburn turn the corner. He was asked to compose the song for a documentary about the Canadian poet. Producing songs to order is not the way he usually works but he penned a narrative about a homeless man obsessed with Purdy and eager to trade recitations of his poems for spare change. While it’s ostensibly a sad story, Cockburn seems to be having a blast operating outside his comfort zone as he exuberantly inhabits the eccentric narrator.

"It’s something I don’t do very much of," he says. "I don’t want to say I’ve never done that before because that’s probably not true, but nothing comes to mind that compares at the moment: To be a different character but still be my song. In this case, I imagined myself being that guy in the song. Then it was easy to write him thinking about it that way. Living in San Francisco, there’s plenty of models for that kind of character that you see every day."

Now that the writer’s block is behind him, the singer continues to look to the future. On Sunday, Cockburn will be in Calgary for the formal plaque ceremony of his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, which is housed at the National Music Centre. In December, the centre launched a temporary exhibit that included artifacts from this year’s inductees, which include Cockburn, Neil Young, Quebecois rockers Beau Dommage and French-Canadian composer Stephane Venne. It features Cockburn’s notebooks in which he wrote lyrics to some of his most beloved songs, including Lovers in a Dangerous Time and If A Tree Falls. It offers a tantalizing glimpse into his creative process.

While Cockburn says he is grateful that he has fans who pay close attention to such things, he admits he doesn’t think much about the process once a song is finished.

"I think about the process of writing the next one,” he says with a laugh. “What’s done is done. The value reflecting on those things have on me as a writer is chiefly to avoid the mistakes of the past or to just do things better; make things more clear, more interesting, more whatever."

Bruce Cockburn will play the Jack Singer Concert Hall on Jan. 23 and Edmonton’s Winspear Centre on Jan. 24

~from Calgary Herald - Bruce Cockburn talks about avoiding mistakes of the past by Eric Volmers










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This page is part of The Cockburn Project, a unique website that exists to document the work of Canadian singer-songwriter and musician Bruce Cockburn. The Project archives self-commentary by Cockburn on his songs and music, and supplements this core part of the website with news, tour dates, and other current information.