May 25, 2023
by Graham Bollands

Album number 38, and twelve new songs as powerful as anything he has ever written.

Bruce Cockburn is an inspired singer-songwriter and an exceptional guitarist, and on ‘O Sun O Moon’, his 38th studio album, this award-winning Canadian artist demonstrates that he is not letting up and that he still has plenty to say. “Time takes its toll, but in my soul I’m on a roll,” he sings on the opening track, and without a doubt he is. On the eve of his 78th birthday, Cockburn has released twelve new compositions as powerful as anything he has ever written.

Exquisitely recorded in Nashville with his long-time producer, Colin Linden, ‘O Sun O Moon‘ exudes a newfound simplicity and clarity, as Cockburn, who is renowned for tackling themes such as politics, human rights and environmental issues, focuses on more spiritual than topical concerns this time around. His mood is reflective, and many of the songs strike gentle tones, from the jazz sway of ‘Push Comes To Shove’ to the folky drones of ‘Into the Now’ and the beautiful ‘When The Spirit Walks In The Room’, and from the string-laden ‘Us All’ to the hymn-like ‘Colin Went Down to the Water’- an achingly sad song describing the drowning of a friend. And ‘Haiku‘, the only track with no vocals and a throwback to his last studio recording, 2019’s Crowing Ignites which was a collection of all instrumental songs, is a wonderful four-minute showcase of his fleet-fingered guitar work. That’s not to say that there aren’t louder and more upbeat moments, most notably the urgent, driving resonator guitar on ‘On A Roll‘ which Cockburn plays with all the vigour of his veteran blues heroes, and the buzzing dulcimer on ‘To Keep The World We Know‘, where he is joined by co-writer of the song, Susan Aglukark, to voice concerns about the growing threat of global warming.

In keeping with so many Cockburn albums, the musicianship is superb. Along with long-term friends Linden (guitars), Janice Powers (keyboards) and Gary Craig (drums), the album features bassist Viktor Krauss, drummer Chris Brown, accordionist Jeff Taylor, violinist Jenny Scheinman and multi-instrumentalist Jim Hoke. And his guest vocalists include Shawn Colvin, Buddy Miller, Allison Russell and Sarah Jarosz, who also plays mandolin, along with Ann and Regina McCrary, daughters of gospel great Rev. Samuel McCrary, one of the founders of the Fairfield Four. The McCrary sisters shine brightest on the title track, the full name of which is ‘O Sun by Day O Moon by Night’. They sing the euphoric chorus of the song which relates, during spoken verses, a dream Cockburn had in which he makes the journey to heaven. “In the dream, which was really powerful,” says Cockburn, “I see myself silhouetted on a ridge with this jar of blood pouring it on the soil. It wasn’t scary or disturbing at all.”

The album’s jazzy closer, ‘When You Arrive’, finds Cockburn confessing to feeling his age when he sings “You’re limping like a three-legged canine, backbone creaking like a cheap shoe.” But it’s clearly a song of acceptance, about eventually slipping one’s mortal coil, as he’s joined on the chorus by all of his guest vocalists, singing “bells will ring when you arrive.” He may be feeling his age, but this superb album demonstrates that there’s a huge amount of life in him yet, and it has every chance of standing as one of the best of his long and distinguished career.

Credit: Graham Bollands
americana-uk.com/bruce-cockburn-o-sun-o-moon-2

[ FIND MORE REVIEWS HERE ]

27 May 2023

All About Love

O Sun O Moon, Bruce Cockburn (True North)

There was talk a little while ago, of Bruce Cockburn’s new album being like some of his (much) earlier work. For some of us that hopefully meant a resurrection of the Tom Verlaine-esque guitars on parts of 1978’s Further Adventures of, or the acidic despair and social observation of divorce album Humans and its follow up, the even grittier Inner City Front. But actually what it turns out to be is a return to the kind of music Cockburn made even before those: O Sun O Moon is a laid back singer-songwriter album, exquisitely arranged and produced, with vocals and acoustic guitars to the fore.

Cockburn is 78 and still going strong. He’s been making albums since 1970, I’ve been seeing him in concert since the late 70s; I even wrote my undergraduate dissertation on his work. Every time I think I might not worry about listening to new Cockburn albums any more he releases one that tries something different and re-energises my interest. At times that has been a renewed political engagement, at others a change in his band line-up, producer or just the fact he manages to succinctly capture the moment.

O Sun O Moon is a surprise turn away from political and social satire or commentary to a more personal, and also seemingly more straightforward, blues and folk based music, where texture and arrangement are the focus. It’s subtle, enticing music that isn’t afraid to remain stripped back but also welcomes clarinet, upright bass, accordion, glockenspiel, saxophones and marimba into the mix as and when required.

Cockburn sounds relaxed and slightly gruff vocally throughout, quiet and contemplative, whilst the album sounds as though it was recorded next door. It’s warm and enticing, with love – be that romantic, spiritual or sexual – often posed as not only the answer but a command from above:

The pastor preaching shades of hate
The self-inflating head of state
The black and blue, the starved for bread
The dread, the red, the better dead
The sweet, the vile, the small, the tall
The one who rises to the call
The list is long — as I recall?
Our orders said to love them all
The one who lets his demons win
The one we think we’re better than
A challenge great — as I recall
Our orders said to love them all
(‘Orders’)

There’s also what reads as more zen acceptance than despairing resignation, as long as his lover is there:

What will go wrong will go wrong
What will go right will go right
Push come to shove?
It’s all about love
The sight of your smile fills my heart with light
(‘Push Come to Shove’)

Overall there’s sense of what-will-be-will-be and contentment. Wars and politics aren’t bothering Cockburn much at the moment, he’s not angry but more concerned with domestic routine (he has moved from Canada to San Francisco, and has a teenage daughter) and ageing gracefully. In fact dying gracefully. ‘O Sun O Moon By Night’ is a reflective song that looks backwards in time and forwards in hope:

Pain brings understanding
Your mistakes will set you free
To sink into the spirit?
To clear your eyes to see

O sun by day o moon by night?
Light my way so I get this right?
And if that sun and moon don’t shine
Heaven guide these feet of mine?
To Glory

whilst the final song, ‘When You Arrive’ starts with the lovely lines ‘Breakfast is Mahler and coffee? / Dinner’s Lightnin’ Hopkins and rye’, but notes that

You’re limping like a three-legged canine
Backbone creaking like a cheap shoe
Dragging the accretions of a lifetime?
But you ought to make another mile or two

before optimistically suggesting that the dead will welcome him in the end. (Yes, I know it says ‘you’re limping’ but I read it as poetic license.):

And the dead shall sing?
To the living and the semi-alive
Bells will ring when you arrive

Cockburn is an astonishing musician, performer, songwriter and political activist. Over the course of 38 studio albums he’s charted the ups and down of life, relationships and friendships, faith and doubt, embraced the urban and rural, pointed out political lies and encouraged revolutionary fervour. He’s visited and documented refugee camps, war zones and tropical paradises, campaigned for various causes and charities, turned nature into mystical visions and kept making great albums. This is one of them.

Credit:
Rupert Loydell

All About Love