Editor's note: "It is an old tradition of the Welsh bards, that on the summit of the mountain Cader Idris is an excavation resembling a couch; and that whoever should pass a night in that hollow, would be found in the morning either dead, in a state of frenzy, or endowed with the highest poetical inspiration." - from "The Poetical Works of Felicia Dorothea Hemans," London: Oxford University Press, 1914. pp. 176-177. The Rock of Cader Idris.
30-31 August 1979
"This is called Cader Idris, which is the name of a mountain in Wales. Cader Idris means "Idris' seat", and the mountain, at the top, curiously enough, is
shaped like a chair. It's got a wide flat place with a shallow depression in it. You really wouldn't want to sit in it if you were Idris - who was a legendary Welsh giant - because there's a little lake in it. But, from the ground up, it looks like a good place to sit, if you were big enough. It's another one of those places of great magic and mystery."
-- from live performance, Hastings Lake, Mulhurst, Alberta, Aug 30-31, 1979. Submitted by Rob Caldwell.
Spring 1993
James Jensen: The live album that this first group played on "Circles In The
Stream" contained a couple of fresh guitar solo instrumentals.
BC: "Deer Dancing around a Broken Mirror" is dropped D tuning I think capoed at the second fret and "Cader Idris" is a piece I really like and I don't know what you'd call it but the G string is tuned down to
F#.
JJ: Was "Cader Idris" a very difficult piece for you to play?
BC: I don't think so because I got used to doing that arpeggio thing
with the fingers and something else with the thumb and they are
reasonably independent. "Foxglove", for instance has all those
triplets over an alternating bass that to me was an obvious thing to
do but some people find it challenging but maybe that's because
they're learning it after the fact. "Cader Idris" is basically
the same thing except it's in a different time signature so they're
not triplets they're eighth notes and the thumb instead of playing an
alternating bass is playing a harmonized melody.
-- from an Interview by James Jensen at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, circa
Spring 1993.
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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.
