Bruce Cockburn
(featured January 2002)
Bruce Cockburn's music can be described as catchy, moody, haunting and more. He uses jazz, country, rock, world music, pop, reggae, folk and any other beat he feels like writing into his music. There is not a trite, easy description that can pigeonhole his music into a particular style or genre. The lyrics of his songs are thought-provoking and layered and have been compared to the poetry of Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot.
Bruce released his first solo album in 1970, but it wasn't until 1979 and the song "Wondering Where the Lions Are" that he became well known beyond eastern Canada. He has since gone on to make 26 albums and has won numerous awards. Twenty of his albums have gone gold and platinum in Canada. The 27th disc "Anything Anytime Anywhere" is being released on January 15, 2002. In March of 2002 Cockburn will set out on tour across the United States. His Canadian and American labels will begin reissuing 18 of his previous albums which will include remastering and bonus tracks. Plans for a new studio album are in the works.
Trivia Eh?
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, May 27, 1945.
His last name is pronounced Coe Burn.
Maybe The Poet was used on a Miami Vice episode.
The Bloor Street Viaduct mentioned in Anything Can
Happen is a subway/car bridge that crosses high above the Don Valley
River and Parkway.
Honorary Chair of Friends of the Earth.
Awarded the Order of Canada in 1983. The Order of Canada is presented to a limited number of Canadians who exemplify the highest qualities of citizenship and whose contributions enrich the lives of their contemporaries.
Attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston but
left a couple of years late to move back to Ottawa and play Rock n'
Roll.
Check out the story behind one of the Christmas songs he sang on our Patriotic Patter page
Canuck Quotes
"When the Sept.11 thing happened and all that's followed it,
I felt first of all what good are songs in a context like this?
Everything I'd written to that point seemed kind of meaningless.
But then better judgement took hold and I realized
that now more than ever we need to engage in the sharing of human experience."
"On some level--you may be staring at your demons or staring at angels,
or you may be making mud pies, I suppose--
but you're still looking something in the eye in order to create anything of value."
"There is that invisible motion that's central to existence.
And it might even be true to say that is what God is."
Bruce Cockburn
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