Goldmine

ANOTHER LEGENDARY BRUCE

A friend of mine recently made an interesting observation about the musician Bruce Cockburn. He noted how rare it was to find any photo over the years of Cockburn hanging backstage, performing alongside, or standing in the company of any fellow famous musician(s) from the same era. Almost every photo you find is the same — Bruce and his guitar alone in front of a microphone. It’s a metaphor for how he has so singularly lived his life. Bruce Cockburn is true to himself, avoids trends, and has always put forward material that is marked by a profound sense of daring and duty.

Across 34 albums, Bruce Cockburn has made music that is often difficult to define. At times he sits squarely within the folk world. Then he migrates a bit to jazz and rock. And for some time now he has found a way to color his music with spirituality, a nod to his reborn Christianity. A world-class acoustic guitar player, he is known for having “the hardest-working right thumb in show business.” His abilities here have helped rank his talent at par with guitar legends like Bill Frisell, Django Reinhardt and Mississippi John Hurt. All of this will be celebrated in a forthcoming , where three previously released records have been remastered for vinyl. These records consist of his 1970 self-titled debut, a very spare and . Each album has been re-mastered by Bruce’s long-time producer Colin Linden, and is pressed on colored vinyl. The five 180-gram discs are contained in original artwork sleeves adapted from the original designs by renowned graphic designer Michael Wrycraft, and reside with an individually numbered box signed personally by Cockburn.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Goldmine

Goldmine2 min read
10 Albums That Changed My Life
Fifty years ago, Chris Difford put a card in a London sweetshop window stating that he was looking for a guitarist to join his band. Difford did not actually have a band at the time, but soon would as the only person to respond to Difford was Glenn T
Goldmine6 min read
Grooves
Amidst all the kerfuffle surrounding the 50th anniversary of that Pink Floyd album (and just two years to go before we do it all again for Wish You Were Here), it’s refreshing to know that not everybody has fallen beneath its spell. There is, for exa
Goldmine1 min read
Goldmine
PUBLISHER Enrique Abeyta EDITORIAL EDITOR Patrick Prince DESIGN Dave Hauser COPY EDITOR Chris M. Junior CONTRIBUTING EDITORS John M. Borack, Ray Chelstowski, John Curley, Frank Daniels, John French, Gillian G. Gaar, Mike Greenblatt, Chris M. Junior

Related