Covered in Folk: Bruce Cockburn
(Lynn Miles, Mark Erelli, Donavon Frankenreiter and more!)
August 28th, 2010 — 03:29 pm
I first discovered Ontario-based singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn via 1987 singles collection Waiting For A Miracle, a double album set whose bright aboriginal cover art called to me from my father’s record collection. Even to my untrained adolescent ears, the seventeen year songspan told a story of a potent guitarist and prolific artist who had slowly turned from sparse acoustic folk to something urban, electrified, and politicized. And though I found myself favoring the middle of the album for its contemporary, catchy pre-rock melodies and accessible yet spiritual imagery, his astute, often poignant observations on the human condition were apparent throughout.
Like fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, Cockburn started out as a performer grounded in delicate, introspective songs and rural, natural poetics before turning towards the concrete and the cultural; by 1979, this change would catch the ears of US audiences, bringing him to Saturday Night Live on the heels of his first Top 40 hit Wondering Where The Lions Are. Like Dylan, he broke the acoustic barrier early in his career, taking on an increasingly rock-oriented sound as he moved into his second decade of solo performance, prompting some critics to dismiss his 1984 release Stealing Fire as a loss to the folkworld even as it sparked his second US chart single.
But to mistake Cockburn as just another chameleonesque pretender to the popfolk throne of social justice is to underestimate both his commitment to music as a vehicle for change and his power as both songwriter and evolving craftsman. Though the Berklee college dropout originally came to music through rock and roll, in Cockburn’s case, such evolution seems to come as a function of his own personal journey, both as an agnostic turned Christian and as an artist increasingly committed to environmentalism and human rights, willing to incorporate his growing anger into his musical output.
Bruce Cockburn’s journey doesn’t end with Waiting For A Miracle, of course. While the early greatest hits compilation ranges from tender nature ballads to the biting political commentary of If I Had A Rocket Launcher – which I wrote about in more depth over at Star Maker Machine – more recent albums have incorporated atmospheric production, with moody plugged-in soundscapes that bely his roots in jazz composition and his mid-nineties work with producer T-Bone Burnett, and acknowledge the world music influences which he has picked up in an activist’s journey. Indeed, such continued evolution confounds genre categorization: our local library, for example, places his first few albums in their folk collection, but files his later works under Pop, where I suppose they rightfully belong.
Still, though Cockburn never truly found the same reception south of the border which he enjoys in his native country, after almost thirty albums and forty years on the road, it’s no surprise to find that the man has been celebrated amply through coverage, including a small handful of tribute albums, most notably 1991 in-country release Kick At The Darkness, an impossible to find multi-artist celebration which is reportedly neither good nor consistent. And with one significant well-covered exception – the weary, bittersweet Pacing The Cage, an introspective, acoustic late-career muse on the miles traveled – it is equally unsurprising to find that the majority of this coverage springs from his early work, that which best speaks to his evolution as a craftsman.
And in part because of the vast spectrum of styles and subjects which his work has taken on, the diversity of interpretation which artists have brought to Cockburn’s songs is unusually broad. From the gentle folk rock of Michigan singer-songwriter Jeff Krebs to the decidedly playful contemporary folk of Canadian songbird Lynn Miles‘ kindie cover, from the rich acoustic pop clarity of Luke Vassella to both Canadian Teresa Ennis‘ light acoustic country and Irish-born singer Ronan Quinn‘s driving alt-countryfolk twang-and-strum, from Mark Erelli live in-concert turn to the high-production jazz-and-pop-tinged folk of Steve Bell‘s tribute, from the lazy summer delicacy of nufolk favorite Donavon Frankenreiter to the bluegrass Salamander Crossing brings to Child of the Wind to the freewheeling alt-radio poprock Barenaked Ladies never fail to provide, here’s a short sampler worthy of both Cockburn’s talent and his backstory.
- Donavon Frankenreiter: Wondering Where The Lions Are
(from the Recycled Recipes EP, 2007)
- Mark Erelli: Waiting For A Miracle
(from Mark Erelli’s MP3 of the Month club, 2005)
- Lynn Miles: Little Seahorse
(from Down At The Sea Hotel, 2007)
- Jeff Krebs: For The Birds
(from Salt Lady Records sampler Extra Credit, 2003)
- Ronan Quinn: If I Had A Rocket Launcher
(from Ronan Quinn, 2000)
- Barenaked Ladies: Lovers In A Dangerous Time
(orig. from Kick At The Darkness, 1991; rereleased on Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits, 2001)
- Luke Vassella: Pacing The Cage
(from All Those Paper Planes, 2010)
- Teresa Ennis: Going To The Country
(from Space, 2007)
Looking for more? Cockburn isn’t known for heavy coverage on his own, and several of the tribute albums he has contributed to in the past are long out of print. Still, here’s a few previously-posted favorites from the more recent pages of a long career, plus a cut from Things About Comin’ My Way, last year’s tribute to The Mississippi Sheiks. Get the lot, along with Waiting For A Miracle, everywhere fine music is sold.
- Bruce Cockburn: Turn, Turn, Turn (pop. The Byrds / Pete Seeger)
(from Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs Of Pete Seeger, 1998)
- Bruce Cockburn: Blueberry Hill (orig. Fats Domino)
(from Breakfast In New Orleans, Dinner In Timbuktu, 1999)
- Bruce Cockburn: Honey Babe Let The Deal Go Down (orig. The Mississippi Sheiks)
(from Things About Comin’ My Way: A Tribute to the Music of the Mississippi Sheiks, 2009)
- Bruce Cockburn: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life (orig. Monty Python)
(from Bruce Cockburn: Live, 1989)
Cover Lay Down: posting new coverfolk features and songsets twice a week without fail since 2007.