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Bruce Cockburn Nods to Scottish Heritage With ‘Pibroch: The Wind In the Valley’: Premiere

8/26/2019 by Gary Graff

A funny thing happened to Bruce Cockburn as he started making his new album Crowing Ignites — whose track “Pibroch: The Wind in the Valley” is premiering exclusively below.

The all-instrumental acoustic album was designed to be a Speechless II, a sequel to his 2005 instrumental set Speechless, again compiling instrumental tracks from his albums with a few new compositions. “I set about looking for ideas for new material and ended up with so much of it that (Crowing Ignites) became its own album,” Cockburn tells Billboard. “I wasn’t expecting to come up with so much (new) stuff. The ideas just kept coming. So it’s not Speechless II. It’s its own thing entirely.”

The new 11-track set, recorded in San Francisco, where the Canadian-born Cockburn now resides, and produced by Colin Linden, is titled after the translation of the Latin motto ‘Accendit Cantu’ that appears on the Cockburn family crest. It is, of course, markedly different than Cockburn’s more traditional song-oriented releases, but he says the process is “equally enjoyable.” “The big difference is the obvious one — there are no lyrics,” Cockburn explains. “The way I write songs, the lyrics generally come first, and then it becomes a question of finding the right music to carry those lyrics. With instrumental pieces it’s more like, ‘Here’s an interesting riff on the guitar’ and that suggests something else and it grows from there. It’s a bit like scoring a film; You’ve got images, ideas, characters that need to be supported by the music but not overpowered by it. It’s considerably freer.”


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.


The Paul Leslie Hour #12 – Bruce Cockburn – audio interview

3 November 2017 – Bruce Cockburn is a prolific Canadian singer-songwriter and recording artist with more than 300 songs in his catalog. His songs have been recorded by the likes of Dan Fogelberg, the Jerry Garcia Band, Barenaked Ladies, Ani DiFranco, Jimmy Buffett, k.d. lang and many others. This interview discussed many things including his most recent 33rd album “Bone On Bone.”

LISTEN – direct link



5 things you missed at the 2017 Junos Songwriters’ Circle – audio

April 6, 2017 – The JUNO Songwriters’ Circle has been recorded. You can listen to the audio.

The Junos Songwriters’ Circle is always a lot of fun, with big-name and newer artists sharing the stage to tell the stories behind their songs before playing them.

At this year’s Junos, Bruce Cockburn hosted the Sunday afternoon event at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre in two sessions: first up was Colin Linden, Lisa LeBlanc and Wintersleep’s Paul Murphy; then Chantal Kreviazuk, Daniel Caesar and Donovan Woods took over.

The show was a delight, and if you couldn’t attend, fear not: you can listen to both sets here.

Below, read on for five things you missed at the songwriters’ circle — aside from the music.

1. Everyone’s love for Bruce Cockburn

“Many of the greatest times of my life have been standing two or three feet away, to Bruce Cockburn’s right,” joked Colin Linden after Cockburn kicked off the set with “Lovers in a Dangerous Time.”

By the end of the afternoon, Cockburn had made both Linden and Kreviazuk cry with his performances — “Is there a tissue?” Kreviazuk asked — and invited LeBlanc to teach his five-year-old daughter to play “You Look Like Trouble (But I Guess I do Too)”.

“I’ve had nightmare dreams about Bruce Cockburn singing that [‘Wondering Where the Lions Are’], Chantal Kreviazuk singing that [‘Surrounded’], and then having to go after that, it’s like literally terrifying,” confessed Woods before his first song. The whole thing was just a big love fest.

To continue reading, visit this link.

Credit: CBCMusisc.ca

Related Links: Jewel of the Junos – Songwriters’ Circle


Songwriters' Circle - backstage view - photo Jack Ross
Songwriters’ Circle – backstage view – photo Jack Ross

Denman Island Readers and Writers Festival 2016 – audio

July 15, 2016

At the beginning of Bruce’s summer tour schedule he appeared at the Denman Island Readers & Writers Festival, promoting his memoir Rumours Of Glory.

Bruce Cockburn - Des Kennedy - Denman Island Writers Festival 2016
Bruce Cockburn – Des Kennedy – Denman Island Writers Festival 2016

On Friday July 15, he was interviewed by Des Kennedy, a former CBC host. They both came onto the stage, Bruce poured the wine. Des said first “Turn your cell phones off.” Bruce took his phone out of his pocket and turned it off. The audience burst out laughing.

Bruce Cockburn - Denman Writers Festival 2016 - photo BrentReid
Bruce Cockburn – Denman Island Writers Festival 2016 – photo BrentReid

Des explained that having Bruce at Denman was like having a visit from Pope Francis. This miracle visit was achieved through Heather MacAndrew, (The Man They Call Juan Carlos) who is a mutual friend of both Bruce and Des. She contacted Bruce a year ago about appearing and he said “Why not?”

Unfortunately the interview was not recorded.

The next day, Saturday, Bruce did a solo reading from Rumours Of Glory. We do have the full recording of this reading… enjoy!

Introduction is by Bethany Ireland.

Play Bruce Cockburn - Denman Writers Festival 2016


Music Makers and Soul Shakers- Steve Dawson interviews Bruce Cockburn

Musician and producer Steve Dawson has a new podcast called “Music Makers and Soul Shakers” that Bruce was interviewed for. You can stream the episode here, or subscribe to the podcast for free on iTunes.

Bruce Cockburn

http://www.stevedawson.ca/podcast-2/episode19-bruce-cockburn

Some of you might recall that Steve produced the wonderful tribute album to the Mississippi Sheiks called “Comin’ My Way” and that Bruce did a cut for that album “Honey Babe Let The Deal Go Down“.

It’s a great album and worth picking up. Further I have a history with Steve as well. I released a few albums on True North for the great group Zubot & Dawson and in 2003 one of those albums “Chicken Scratch” won a Juno Award.

The podcast is really worth listening to especially if you’re a guitar player.

~Bernie Finlelstein



Remembering Bill Hawkins: The poet who became a songwriter

July 6, 2016 – Poet, songwriter and erstwhile cab driver, Bill Hawkins died of cancer on July 4, 2016.

A poet is deeply conflicted and it’s in his work that he reconciles those deep conflicts.’
— Irving Layton

It’s traditional to begin these types of obituaries with an anecdote that best sums up the subject as a whole person.

Bill Hawkins - poet songwriter
Bill Hawkins – poet songwriter (photo – Wayne Hiebert/Postmedia)

But Bill Hawkins defies the one anecdote rule.

Bill Hawkins defied many of the rules, often to his personal and professional detriment.

And as with most people who communed with many, and lived the younger portion of life to excess, it’s occasionally difficult to determine where the truth ends and exaggeration begins.


The Long-Lost ’06 Bruce Cockburn “God Factor” Interview (with Audio)

by Cathleen Falsani
Updated on May 26, 2016. Original post published in March 2011.

In the spring of 2006, Farrar, Straus & Giroux published my first book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, which was a collection of 32 “spiritual profiles” of well-known people (I won’t say “celebrities” as that label applies awkwardly to many folks in the book) who I had spent time with face-to-face talking about their spiritual lives. I then set out, as you do, promoting the book at various literary festivals and other public appearances. As part of that tour, we decided I should conduct a few of these “God Factor” interviews live before an audience. We invited Bruce Cockburn, long a favorite of mine and one of the first “celebrity” interviews I ever conducted way back when I was writing for my college newspaper. Bruce agreed to join me onstage at the Ann Arbor Book Festival in May 2006. I figured he’d fly in with his manager, do my little dog-and-pony show and fly back to Ontario. Instead, incredibly gracious and generous soul that he is, Bruce drove his van down from his home in Kingston, Ontario alone and spent a couple of days hanging out with me in the rain in Ann Arbor. Our conversation onstage was only a small part of the amazing conversations we had those few days in Michigan, but the only one for which I have an audio recording. (Our dinner at this fabulous Indian restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor — I’ve never before or since had curried okra quite as good — not far from the theater where I’d interviewed him backstage 15 years earlier, will remain one of my favorite experiences of all time.)

As for our public “interview,” it too remains one of my favorite of all time. For years I’ve meant to take a couple of hours to transcribe it and post it so all of you could read (and hear) Bruce’s thoughtful responses to my questions about his faith. I’ve sat down many times to do so, never finishing until tonite. So with my apologies for taking many years to share it with you in its fullness, I give you the Bruce Cockburn “God Factor” interview in its entirety.

Transcript of my Bruce Cockburn “God Factor” interview at the Ann Arbor Book Festival, May 13, 2006