Bruce Cockburn - March 2019 - Firehouse SF - keebler
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The 2018 Canadian Folk Music Award Nominees

Organizers of the Canadian Folk Music Awards have announced 96 nominees vying for the 14th annual edition that takes place at The Gateway in Calgary over two separate events on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

The two separate concert award shows are open to the public. Tickets and wristbands go on sale Oct. 1, with tickets priced at $35 for each night. A wristband covering workshops and both show nights is priced at $60. More information about the gala performance and the line-up will be announced shortly.

Bruce has been nominated in 2 categories:

SOLO ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Bruce Cockburn for/pour Bone On Bone
David Francey for/pour The Broken Heart Of Everything
Jolene Higgins (Little Miss Higgins) for/pour My Home, My Heart
Catherine MacLellan for/pour If It’s Alright With You: The Songs of Gene MacLellan
Buffy Sainte-Marie for/pour Medicine Songs

ENGLISH SONGWRITER(S) OF THE YEAR
Bruce Cockburn for/pour Bone On Bone
Lynne Hanson, Lynn Miles of/de The LYNNeS for/pour Heartbreak Song For The Radio
Dana Sipos for/pour Trick Of The Light
Noosa Al-Sarraj (Winona Wilde) for/pour Wasted Time
Donovan Woods for/pour Both Ways

Continue reading see all the nominations



Bruce writes score for a documentary film produced by Les Stroud

Les Stroud & Bruce Cockburn in San Fransisco June 2018
Les Stroud & Bruce Cockburn in San Fransisco June 2018

On July 18, 2018 this photo was posted to Twitter by Les Stroud – “Back in San Fran to work with Canadian legend #brucecockburn on my new feature documentary film” – #reallesstroud.

About a week later, Bruce was off to Ashland, Oregon to do the score for a documentary film being made by Les Stroud, aka Survivorman.

In an interview with Les Stroud, by Pamela Roz for CanadianBeats.ca, he revealed the following:

I also have a new independent feature documentary film I am releasing called La Loche. It’s a story based on the school shooting in La Loche, Saskatchewan, Canada in 2016 and about how nature can heal. The score is being done by Bruce Cockburn, along with some songs from Robbie Robertson, myself and orchestration and scoring by David Bateman.


Bruce Cockburn talks with Lisa LaFlamme – CTV

Bruce Cockburn talks to CTV News Chief Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme at the Academy Theatre in Lindsay, Ont., on Friday, May 4, 2018.

Bruce Cockburn & Lisa LaFlamme - CTV interview

The interview is 37 minutes long and touches on some of Bruce’s insights about being in Nicaragua and Afghanistan during wartime, much about his songs and where they came from, aging in relation to performing and being a Canadian.

Bruce Cockburn - Bernie Finkelstein - Lisa LaFlamme CTV interview Academy Theatre Lindsay, ON - 4 May 2018
Bruce Cockburn – Bernie Finkelstein – Lisa LaFlamme CTV interview Academy Theatre Lindsay, ON – 4 May 2018

Bruce Talks with Lisa LaFlamme


Bruce Cockburn won his 13th Juno for Bone On Bone

Bone On Bone JUNO Award

Hi, Really excited to tell you that Bruce Cockburn won his 13th Juno last night for “Bone On Bone”. It won for Top Contemporary Folk Album of the Year. A little backstory for you. Bruce won his first Juno in 1971 and his latest in 2018. That’s a span of 47 years. To put it in perspective, someone like Beaches (great band,) who just won their first Juno in 2018 will have to win again in 2065 to do what Bruce has just done. Now I know I’m biased and love Bruce, but I also like baseball and it’s love of stats, and let me tell you that’s a pretty amazing stat. Congratulations Bruce and everyone who worked on the album. So well deserved. ~Bernie Finkelstein


Something Bigger and of Greater Value: Talking with Bruce Cockburn

By M.D. Dunn
February 14th, 2018

At age seventy-two, after fifty years of recording, Canadian songwriter/guitar wizard Bruce Cockburn has produced some of the best music of his career on September’s Bone on Bone. Over thirty-three albums, Cockburn has offered fearless commentary on political issues, meditations on spirituality, and hundreds of brilliant songs that defy categorization.

He is perhaps best known for two mid-career hits, 1979’s “Wondering Where the Lions Are” and 1984’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher.” These songs, as different as they are from each other, are representative of Cockburn’s sprawling catalog. “Lions,” with its reggae-influenced rhythms is a showcase for his unique finger-picking style, and “Rocket Launcher” demonstrates a concern for social justice that runs throughout his songs. (Indeed, he brought politics into his art when musicians were encouraged to avoid “causes.” His involvement in the anti-landmine campaign helped bring about the Ottawa Treaty, in which 122 nations agreed to abstain from using the weapons.)

Admired by musicians and activists around the world, he is royalty in his country of birth. Yet, for all the critical acclaim, Cockburn is a humble working musician with a generous sense of humor. Of his legendary status, Bruce Cockburn has said: “You can be a legend, or you can be present. You don’t get to be both.”

In a recent interview, conducted over telephone, Cockburn discusses his music, songwriting, and the benefits of not selling out.

The Rumpus: How are things in California? From the outside, it looks terrifying.

Bruce Cockburn: San Francisco is such an anomaly in every sense: culturally, weather-wise, and in terms of its sociopolitical structure. As a city, it’s kind of all by itself, with the illusion of self-sufficiency. You’re insulated from a lot of the weirdness. One day, we won’t be. There will be that big earthquake, and it’ll be our turn.

Rumpus: Bone On Bone is a beautiful album. It gets more interesting with each listen. After about two plays, I could remember most of the lyrics, which says something about the strength of the writing.

Cockburn: I find it surprising you could remember because I have my difficulty with them. It took me a while to get it. I still struggle with the spoken word parts on “Three Al Purdys.” Of course, they are not my words, they are his. But it’s always touch and go if the lyrics are not just simple rhyming couplets.

Rumpus: That is such a cool song. Having Al Purdy’s poems “Transient” and “In the Beginning Was the Word” with verses from your narrator [a homeless performer of Purdy’s poems offering “three Al Purdys for a twenty-dollar bill”] is remarkable storytelling. Your verses in the middle fit perfectly with the verses from Purdy’s poems. My only complaint is that there are only two Al Purdys in a song called “Three Al Purdy’s.”

Cockburn: Well, I didn’t get the twenty dollars. Nobody was forthcoming with the twenty-dollar bill.


“Bone On Bone” has been nominated for a JUNO award

Hi, I’m happy to announce that Bruce’s album “Bone On Bone” has been nominated for a JUNO award in the “Contemporary Roots Album of the Year” category. It’s Bruce’s 33rd nomination. He’s won 12 to date. Here’s a stat to contemplate and is fun to think about. Bruce got his first JUNO nomination in 1971 (he also won that year). So getting a nomination in 2018 means he’s been getting nominated over a period of 47 years now. Wow.

To put that in some perspective, for an artist who is getting their first nomination now in 2018, to do what Bruce has done, it would mean that they would have to get nominated again in 2065. Think about that. I hope I’m around to see it happen. ~ Bernie Finkelstein


Bruce Cockburn on Fretboard Journal – podcast #185

5 February 2018 – On this week’s podcast, we talk to legendary singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn. Bruce was featured back in the Fretboard Journal #23 and he offers plenty of updates since then on his career, music and projects during our conversation. We chat about his Linda Manzer-built instruments (including the electric charango that she built for him), his memoir Rumours of Glory and the full-length documentary on his life, Pacing the Cage.

This episode of the Fretboard Journal Podcast is brought to you by our friends at Dying Breed Music, where you can find a bevy of great acoustic guitars from the Golden Era.

Fretboard Journal – Bruce Cockburn podcast #185 by Jason Velinde.


Bruce Cockburn at Studio Bell on writing songs and rhythms

January 24, 2018
While visiting Studio Bell, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Cockburn reflected on words and rhythm, and how they play into his songwriting process.

The National Music Centre and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame held the formal plaque ceremony as part of Bruce Cockburn’s induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on January 21, 2018.

The National Music Centre in Calgary has been the physical home of three Canadian Music Halls of Fame—the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection—since opening in 2016. Members of all three Halls of Fame have visited their plaques, such as Sarah McLachlan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tom Cochrane, Burton Cummings, Bob Ezrin, Randy Bachman and The Tragically Hip, to name a few.


Bruce Cockburn reflects on his career during CSHF plaque ceremony at Studio Bell, home of National Music Centre

by Eric Volmers – Calgary Herald

Bruce Cockburn CSHF plaque NMC - photo_Darren Makowichuk-Postmedia
Bruce Cockburn presented a plaque to honour his induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on Sunday at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre. DARREN MAKOWICHUK/Postmedia

January 22, 2018 – Bruce Cockburn is not in the habit of listening to his old songs. But he did find a unique way to review his canon of music a few years back.

It was when he drove his daughter to preschool in San Francisco. He became his own captive audience.

“She would always insist on hearing my stuff in the car,” said Cockburn, talking to media on Sunday evening at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre. “‘Can we put on your music in the car?’ Every day this would repeat itself. ‘Do we have to? Can I not play somebody else?’ Nope. So I’d play me. It’s like looking at an album of snapshots in a way. It brings back all the feelings. Not all of the details, some of those are lost to the murk of time. But, certainly, that brings back the feelings that went into those songs.”

Cockburn was in a bit of a reflective mood Sunday evening at the National Music Centre, where he participated in the plaque ceremony held in honour of his 2017 induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. It found him placing his plaque on the wall, which already holds the names of artists such as Leonard Cohen, Hank Snow, Joni Mitchell and Wilf Carter.

  • Vanessa Thomas- National Music Centre - Bruce Cockburn - CSHF - Andrew Mosker

Now housed at the National Music Centre alongside the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame, the organization is overseen by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). The honour seems long overdue. Somehow SOCAN managed to find more than 50 songsmiths to induct before honouring Cockburn — a songwriter’s songwriter who wrote If I Had a Rocket Launcher and Lovers in a Dangerous Time — this year, alongside Neil Young, Beau Dommage and Stéphane Venne.

But he was gracious and had high praise for his fellow songwriters from the Great White North.

“I think Canada punches well above its weight in terms of the quality of songwriting that comes out of this country relative to the size of the population,” said Cockburn, who will play the Jack Singer Concert Hall on Tuesday night. “When you think how much we were influenced by English pop music in the ’60s and American pop music forever, there’s a lot of American pop music that is actually Canadian. And a lot of it that is not pop but has more serious intent than what often gets called pop music comes from here and I’m proud of that.”