Keywords Guitarists/Banjo Players Pianists Popular Singers Songwriters

Cockburn made his debut in the USA at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1974 and began to perform there on a consistent basis after the Rumours of Glory tour in 1981. He undertook a solo US tour in 1988. Cockburn shared the stage with Murray McLauchlan on a tour of Japan in 1977, and returned there on his own in 1979. He also made his European debut in Florence in 1977, followed by a second Italian tour in 1979. His international itinerary during the 1980s included concerts in Central America in 1983, in Australia and Japan in 1983, and throughout Europe in 1986 and 1987. A 'world tour' in 1989 comprised more than 90 concerts in Canada, the USA, England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and New Zealand. After a year's hiatus, Cockburn gave concerts in Japan for Amnesty International in 1991.

Cockburn, an accomplished acoustic guitarist who also had taken up the electric instrument by 1973, travelled with backing ensembles of varying size. The flutist and saxophonist Kathryn Moses and the violinist Hugh Marsh were among the musicians featured at various times in support roles. Over the years Cockburn's music underwent a marked evolution in both style and tone while remaining consistent to a strong Christian and liberal perspective. As Ian Pearson in 1981 described a younger Cockburn, 'To the generation of Canadians that came of age in the late '60s, [he] was a pure indigenous alternative to popular music: the bearded mystic who crafted fragile melodies on his acoustic guitar and sang with a voice as ephemeral as mist about spirituality and the wonders of going to the country.'

As one of the few English-Canadian singer-songwriters to enjoy success in Quebec, Cockburn sang several of his songs in French, and had the lyrics to his songs translated for publication on the covers or inserts of his albums, beginning with Sunwheel Dance. His 'Prenons la mer,' a bilingual song, was a hit in 1978 in Quebec.

Cockburn's best-known songs in this period included 'Goin' down the Road,' 'Goin' to the Country,' 'Musical Friends,' and 'Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long'. Several of his later singles - 'Wondering Where the Lions Are' in 1979, 'Lovers in a Dangerous Time' in 1984, 'People See Through You' in 1986, 'If a Tree Falls' in 1989, and 'Last Night of the World' in 1999 - were modest radio hits as Cockburn introduced a variety of pop colours and textures into his music. Several songs from the mid-1980s, however - 'If I Had a Rocket Launcher,' 'Call it Democracy,' and 'Where the Death Squad Lives' - signalled a new activism, if not militancy, the product of his fact-finding visits to Central America, which led also to a series of lecture tours. Cockburn later made similar visits to Nepal, Mozambique, and Mali. The critic Craig MacInnis noted, 'Over an ambitious career that has variously explored the essence of folk music, modern jazz, Afrobeat and rock, Cockburn has never once been accused of having a major sense of humor. It seemed beneath him, somehow. Sainted and serene, he has often appeared to be the singular conscience of Canadian pop music; didactic, but in a soft-focus way that made it easy to accept even his thorniest declarations...' (Toronto Sunday Star, 22 Jan 1989).

Cockburn's activism kept him in the public eye through the 1990s. The honorary chairperson of Friends of the Earth and a supporter of the Unitarian Service Committee, the singer applied his energies to various causes. He performed at a UNICEF concert in Kosovo, and was a spokesperson for the movement to ban land mines. He narrated a television documentary on the Mali desert in 1998, the same year he toured Australia. As of 2003 Cockburn continued to tour Canada, the USA, and Europe in support of his causes and albums: Dart to the Heart (1994); The Charity of Night (1996); Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu (1999); the compilation album Anything Anytime Anywhere (2002); and You've Never Seen Everything (2003).

Cockburn's songs were published by Golden Mountain Music and/or High Romance Music and also were recorded by more than 20 other Canadian, US, and British artists including Chet Atkins, the Barra McNeils, John Allan Cameron, Mary Coughlan, Dan Fogelberg, Jerry Garcia, George Hamilton IV, Ron Kavan, Anne Murray, the Rankins, Tom Rush, Leo Sayer, Valdy, and David Wiffen. The Barenaked Ladies recording of 'Lovers in a Dangerous Time' was a considerable success. Several Canadian singers and bands (eg, Barenaked Ladies, B-Funn, Cottage Industry, Rebecca Jenkins) recorded Cockburn songs for the tribute album Kick at the Darkness (Intrepid N41V-0008), issued in 1991. Many of his best-known songs 1969-79 were published in the folio All the Diamonds (OFC [Ottawa Folklore Centre] Publications 1986). The jazz guitarist Michael Occhipinti recorded an instrumental album of Cockburn songs (Creation Dream) in 2000.

Ten of Cockburn's 18 Canadian albums to 1991 sold more than 50,000 copies domestically; sales of two, Dancing in the Dragon's Jaw and Stealing Fire, exceeded 100,000. The latter recording wa his most successful in the USA to 1990.

Cockburn had won seven Juno Awards to 2003: as folk singer (or artist) of the year 1971-3 and in 1980-82, as male vocalist in 1981 and 1982, and for best 'roots' album in 2000. In 2001 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He was a Member and subsequently an Officer of the Order of Canada, and received PRO Canada's Wm Harold Moon Award for international achievement in 1986. The CBC featured him on the Life and Times series; he received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 1998, and was honoured also with music awards from Italy and Holland as well as various other recognitions in North America.

Cockburn, Bruce
Cockburn's poetic music combines folk, jazz, rock and reggae (courtesy True North Records).

Author Betty Nygaard King

Discography

Bruce Cockburn. 1969. TNorth TN-1

Bibliography

Lewis, Lee. 'Bruce Cockburn,' MSc, 254, Jul-Aug 1970

Links to Other Sites
True North Records
Check out the links for bios and music clips featuring major Canadian recording artists at the True North Records website.

CBC Concerts on Demand
From country to calypso and the classics, the “Concerts on Demand” website offers hundreds of online recordings of outstanding concerts originally broadcast on CBC Radio 2. Search this site to find and listen to recordings of your favourite musician, group, or music genre.

Bruce Cockburn
Watch music videos featuring Bruce Cockburn at Yahoo.com.