Aw right, I’ve been wanting to write this. This is it. Years ago (like maybe the early to mid-80’s) I made a mix tape, recording off my records the instrumental pieces of various Bruce Cockburn albums. I have often said that if Jackson Browne got me through the 70’s it was Cockburn that most helped us survive the ’80’s. (And, VOL and Bill Mallonee surely was one of the most poignant and helpful soundtracks to the 90’s. And U2. But don’t get me started on that tangent…)
SO: Cockburn’s little cassette of quiet and charming and vivid and remarkable instrumentals has long been lost—and I don’t know how to do the CD-burning thing, so I’ve not made another. And with the breathtakingly good instrumentals on his last couple, I have been wishing for this kind of recording, again, passionately. When I heard that just such a project was in the works, a CD collecting some of Bruce’s best instrumentals, and a few new ones, I was in six-string heaven.
Speechless: The Instrumental Bruce Cockburn(True North/Rounder Records) has a cool cover, some wonderfully evocative full-color photography on the inside and some spare liner notes. Colin Linden helped with some of the middle-period ones (and T-Bone, of course.) Mr. Linden, whose solo work I listen to often, did production work with Bruce on the three new cuts, too, that grace this collection.
How to describe Cockburn’s rare talents that put him in the highest level of renown instrumentalists today? I can’t even begin.
Here are the opening words of a review of one of Cockburn’s legendary live shows (from a few years back) on the Rounder Record website, written by one of the chief music critics of our time, The New York Times, Jon Pareles. It stuck me as a nice way to introduce this brand new instrumental release:
The hardest-working right thumb in show business may belong to Bruce Cockburn, the Canadian songwriter, who played a sold-out solo show at the Bottom Line on Saturday night. With quiet virtuosity, on his acoustic guitar, Mr. Cockburn materializes chords and modal filigrees while his thumb provides the music’s pulse and its foundation. It is at once a deep Celtic drone, a drumbeat and the throb of a vigilant conscience.
If you are a fan of Windham Hill or Narada type guitar noodling, Speechless will blow you away. If you like a more melodic and song-driven approach, this, too, is spectacular. If you don’t know Cockburn’s folk-rock-jazz-tinged-world-music- spiritual-political-songwriting-and-gritty- beautiful vocal work, you should know he is an amazing worker with words and a world renowned person of faith. He has endured making meaningful and gutsy and dark and glorious, mature pop music for decades, often reporting not only from the inner regions of the human heart, but from the social landscape of a war-scarred and broken world. So you really should check his work out–we’ve got ’em all. But for now, please know of ourgreat joy in this collection of instrumental compositions that show-case truly one of the great guitar players around.
There is a pretty great Cockburn website that documents stuff Bruce has said about his many songs. It is fun to mess around and hear how he has introduced pieces on stage or has defended them in print. The Bruce Cockburn Project. I wouldn’t think it wasting time to scroll around that goldmine of a Cockburn resource.
Some of the absolutely richest reflections on Cockburn’s vision, though, can be found by visiting the website of my good friend, campus worker and author Brian Walsh. Spend some time reading any number of Brian’s provocative articles and Bible studies reproduced at this website, but, today, do click on some of his Bruce Cockburn essays and album reviews. Excellent, excellent stuff. Visit Walsh here.
Speechless: The Instrumental Bruce Cockburn Bruce Cockburn (True North & Rounder Records) 2005. $17.98 Order from us here.Order at this website link or send us an email saying you saw it here on the blog (don’t use the comment section for this, but send us a real email order) and we will give you a blog-site 20% off discount. Maybe that won’t leave you utterly speechless, but it should help.
Support the indie stores that have long supported the indie artists. Thanks.
For serious fans who may want to know, here are the songtitles and what albums they are lifted from. The place and time refer to when and where the song was actually recorded. The liner notes of the orginal album may tell you more of the circumstances of when he actually penned the song, which is sometimes quite fascinating. Enjoy.
1. Foxglove
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Taken from the True North Album Night Vision
Toronto between February and May 1973
2. Train In The Rain
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Taken from the True North Album Dart To The Heart
Bearsville NY, March 1993
3. Water Into Wine
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Taken from the True North Album In The Falling Dark
Toronto between September and November 1976
4. Elegy
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
New recording *
Canada, June 2005
5. Mistress of Storms
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Gary Burton Vibes
Taken from the True North Album The Charity Of Night
Toronto, Summer of 1996
6. Rouler Sa Bosse
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Jack Zaza Clarinet
Taken from the True North Album Salt, Sun and Time
Toronto between May and August, 1974
7. Salt Sun and Time
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
8. Islands In A Black Sky
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Taken from the True North Album Night Vision
Toronto between February and May 1973
9.Rise And Fall
Bruce Cockburn Guitar and bells
George Koller Bass
Ben Riley Drums
Previously available only in Japan — [on the Japanese edition of 1999’s Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu]
Toronto, 1999
10. Sunrise On The Mississippi
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Taken from the True North Album Dart To The Heart
Bearsville NY, March 1993
11. King Kong Goes To Tallahassee
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
New recording *
Canada, June 2005
12. When It’s Gone It’s Gone
Bruce Cockburn Guitars
Edgar Meyer Bass
Booker T. Jones Organ
Michael Blair, Ralph Forbes Percussion
Mark O’Connor Mandolin
Taken from the True North Album Nothing But A Burning Light
Hollywood CA between May and July 1991
13. Deep Lake
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
George Koller Bass & Dilruba
Rick Lazar Percussion
Taken from the True North Album Breakfast In New Orleans Dinner In Timbuktu
Toronto, 1999
14. The End of All Rivers
Bruce Cockburn Guitar, Tibetan bowl, Navajo flute and baritone guitar
New recording *
Canada, June 2005
15. Sunwheel Dance
Bruce Cockburn Guitar
Taken from the True North Album Sunwheel Dance
Toronto between September and December 1971
All songs written by Bruce Cockburn
hey… i did read the review, came right over to the store, held it in my hands, admired the lovely packaging and with every once of strength, put it back on the counter. then i ran home and put it on my Christmas list b/c i have to think of my family first — they need cool stuff to buy for me at this time of year!
Byron! You are so funny! Don’t get cranky– I’ve had two comments, ever, on my blog. I’m writing it for myself and my six fans :)First Cockburn I ever heard was Radio Shoes. I believe Scott and I caught up on all the back titles of Cockburn on some shopping fest at Hearts and Minds.Ditto on the Christmas list comment, above. I emailed your column to my friend the Martin guitar specialist, and he ate it up with all the links, then promptly ordered the CD on eBay– sorry. And sigh. My Christmas list is pretty specific: I want it from Hearts and Minds! And the Bruce Feiler book, and Losing Moses… and any new Capon, we’ll see about what else. Love about your blog: one day it’s Democracy, the next is unpacking UPS boxes with glee, the next a letter about technology, then a rumination on these authors who have walked away from Christian belief. And Cockburn! It’s a great Hearts and Minds mix. What’s that line from that silly baseball movie? If you build it, they will come…I need to sit with a pen and journal and think long about life-changing music, Cockburn and U2, foremost, Van Morrison and Mark Heard. Sometime.
Aaaww, heck. You guys are too good. Thanks. Love to you both. BKB
Ooooooooh. Etc.
Bruce was struggling with a sore throat tonight at the Somerville Theater– during the encore, he said, “my voice can’t make much more music, but my fingers can,” and so they did! I’ve never been much for noting the titles of instrumentals, but I know he covered everything from his first album to current stuff not yet recorded. Before his voice gave out, he did a set of “road songs” including “Going to the Country” and “Silver Wheels.” Another set was framed by “All the Ways I Want You,” and what Scott calls the greatest song Cockburn has ever recorded, “Wait No More.” Love, politics, road songs, vituoso guitar solos! Who could ask for more?I almost didn’t go to this one, tickets over-the-top expensive, but a friend treated me at the eleventh hour for a mom’s night out. Hooray for a Cockburn solo tour! Hope he is in your path.
Cockburn has been my favourite solo artist for about 5 years now; his lyrics and music just hit the spot with me.I’m a bit pissed at the guy, though. I lived in London, Ontario for 7 years, and never once did he come through. Now that I’m sitting here in South Korea for a year, he decides to show up tommorow night.*bitter*That being said, this album is definately on my Christmas wishlist.