Bruce Cockburn

EP 235 | Rarities – Bruce Cockburn. A life in Music

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Two Words. Bruce Cockburn.

Having sold more than nine million albums worldwide, acclaimed songwriter, performer, author, and activist Bruce Cockburn is a member of both the Canadian Songwriter and Canadian Music Hall of Fame, a winner of Folk Alliance’s People’s Voice Award, as well 13 JUNO Awards.

Bruce  Cockburn has written almost 400 songs. Released 34 albums over a 50 year span. Who better to gather up his rarities and present them as partners with his hits? The man has rarities.

His new album RARITIES  contains music for a film (Going down the Road)

Music honoring Mississippi John Hurt, Kenji Miyazawa, William Hawkins, Gordon Lightfoot, Pete Seeger, Mississippi Sheiks, etc.

Unreleased demos and music for benefits.

AND  many stories.,

It’s basically a mini-history of Bruce Cockburn’s place in Canadian music.

We also talk about his next new album – O Sun O Moon ( May).

His Tour dates through Canada in February

And his connection to Joni Mitchell.

 

Bruce Tour Dates

Feb 2 – Royal Victoria

Feb 4 – Centre Theatre Vancouver

Feb 5 – Community Theatre Kelowna

Feb 6 – Singer Calgary

Feb 8 – Winspear Edmonton

 

www.brucecockburn.com

Mulligan Stew Dec 10th 2022- Special Guest, Bruce Cockburn and new album ‘RARITIES’

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Bruce  Cockburn has written almost 400 songs. Released 34 albums over a 50-year span. Who best to gather up his rarities and present them as partners with his hits? The man has rarities.

His new album RARITIES  contains music for a film (Going down the Road)

Music honoring Mississippi John Hurt, Kenji Miyazawa, William Hawkins, Gordon Lightfoot, Pete Seeger, Mississippi Sheiks, etc.

Unreleased demos and music for benefits.

Also many stories.,

It’s basically a mini-history of Canadian music.

We also talk about his next new album – O Sun O Moon ( May).

His Tour dates through Canada in February

And his connection to Joni Mitchell.

Complete interview on Mulligan Stew Podcast

Sam Cooke in an RCA Recording Studio in Los Angeles, circa 1959.

We also remember the lives and music of  Rick Danko, Sam Cooke, and Otis Redding!

PLAYLIST:

Mulligan Stew. Guest is Bruce Cockburn new album RARITIES CKUA
Stage Fright The Band Stage Fright
Acadian Driftwood (live) The Band The Last Waltz
Unfaithful Servant The Band The Band
TDMulligan playlist at the mulligan stew website Guest – Bruce Cockburn
Sweetbread Bonny Light Horseman Someone to weep for me
Wasted on you Andy Shauf single
The Stew Year 27 Tonight – Bruce Cockburn details on mulligan stew website
All Blues Dylan Triplett Who is he?
Might as well be me Larkin Poe Blood Harmony
When I call you name The Bros. Landreth & Mariel Buckley Something New. Something Blue
This is The Stew Bruce Cockburn Interview Tonight playlist – mulligan stew website
Dock of the Bay Otis Redding Dock of the Bay
Turn you loose Otis Redding Greatest Hits
Coyotes Banff Winter Special on until Friday night Coming UP – Bruce Cockburn Interview
I’m moving on Van Morrison Moving on Skiffle
Goodbye Jimmy Reed Bob Dylan Rough and rowdy ways
NEXT – Bruce Cockburn brings a new album details on mulligan stew website CKUA
Bruce Cockburn Interview New Album – Rarities Complete Interview on Mulligan Stew Podcast
Waterwalker Bruce Cockburn Rarities
Bruce Cockburn Interview Complete Interview on mulligan stew podcast and TDM You Tube Channel
Avalon, my home town Bruce Cockburn Rarities
Bruce Cockburn Interview The New Album – Rarities Western Tour dates in Feb-on sale now
Ribbon of Darkness Bruce Cockburn Rarities
Bruce Cockburn on Mulligan Stew CKUA
Honey Babe, Let the deal go down Bruce Cockburn Rarities
Coming UP – Blue Rodeo – Dan Mangan Complete interview on Podcast and tdm YouTube Channel
RainO Susie Vinnick Fall Back Home
I think about you Blue Rodeo Many a Mile
Fire Escape Dan Mangan Being Somewhere
Mulligan Stew Year 27 playlist on mulligan stew website @[email protected]
Crazy Marcus King single
Hot or what? Mark Knopfler Studio Albums 2009-2018
Next week – Music of the Season and Christmas Eve Christmas in the Round Year 3
Lullaby Peitra Brown single
River Cafe and Deane House For Holiday plans check their websites
Wonderful World Sam Cooke Very best

EP 159 | Bruce Cockburn – Celebrating 50 Years of The Junos.

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Canada’s Music Awards – The Junos – take place Sunday night.

50 years ago,  the first-ever Folksinger of the Year Juno Award went to Bruce Cockburn. Also nominated were Joni Mitchell and Great Speckled Bird (featuring Ian and Sylvia)

 Bruce Cockburn won 12 more Juno Awards  over the past 50 years. He’s nominated again this year for his brilliant instrumental album Crowing Ignites.

We have much to talk about.  Those very early days when he was just starting. “I wasn’t me yet”.

How he has sustained a songwriting and performing career, the moment when he thought perhaps he wouldn’t/couldn’t  write another song and what project changed that possibility.

He touches on the state of radio, folk music, how he stayed engaged as an artist, his instincts that told him  – when writing a new song – that he had already said what the song was about and finding a new way to continue saying what was in his heart,  why he never entertained the idea of being  star and how the songs would come to him if he just “waited for the flash”

The interview includes  Bruce’s personal thoughts on the tragedy unfolding at the Residential School in Kamloops, BC.

This is the complete conversation with music included.

www.brucecockburn.com

Mulligan Stew June 5th 2021- Juno Weekend Special Guest-Bruce Cockburn

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It’s June AND  the Juno Weekend.

We welcome back Bruce Cockburn.

Order of Canada. Songwriters Hall of Fame. Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Winner of 13 Junos.

He won the first-ever folksinger of the year Juno (Joni was nominated) and 50 years later is nominated this year for best instrumental album Crowing Ignites.

Bruce and I cover some of those 50 years. See what’s changed along the way. For him, the music and the Junos.

He allows us to play – for the first time anywhere – a new Demo called On a Roll.

Bruce comments on the sad state of what passes for today’s radio, how he stays engaged with folk music (he doesn’t), and a compelling comment on the tragic events taking place at The Indian Residential School  in Kamloops, BC.

The complete interview can be heard  right after The Stew Radio on Mulligan Stew Podcast (Subscribe to Spotify. Google play. Apple Podcasts)

Also tracks from

  • Kat Dancer
  • Amy Helm
  • Stones and Little Feat Live
  • Blue Rodeo (and Sarah McLachlan)
  • New re-mixed kdlang
  • Molly Johnson
  • The Meters
  • John Prine and Bonnie Raitt
  • Colin James
  • Steve Earle
  • Jann Arden
  • Dominque Fils-Aime

Enjoy!!! Share the music!

-TDM

 

PLAYLIST:

Mulligan Stew June 5 2021 – Bruce Cockburn Interview – 50 years of Junos www.mulliganstew.ca
Lonely the Dragon Kat Dancer One eye open
Breathing Amy Helm what the flood left behind
Shotgun Monkey House Friday
Like a Rolling Stone (live) The Rollinbg Stones Strippedf
Fat man in the bathtub (live) Tlittle Feat Waiting for Columbus
www.mulliganstew.ca Bruce Cockburn is tonights Guest
Know where you go/Tell me your dreams Blue Rodeo and Sarah Mclachlan 5 days in May
www.winebc.com Coming up on The Stew kd lang. Greg Keelor Molly Johnson.
Lifted by Love (Club Xanax Mix) kd lang Make Over
Ev’ry wind in the river New Orleans Suspects New Orleans Suspects
Me and Mr Hohner Greg Keelor Share the Love
www.mulliganstew.ca Bruce Cockburn Interview in Hour Two – 50 years of Junos
Inner city blues Molly Johnson Meaning to tell ‘ya
Hand Clapping Song The Meters Struttin’
This is Mulligan Stew – Year 26 – with tdm Bruce Cockburn is tonights guest
Angel from Montgomery (live) Bonnie Raitt and John Prine John Prine Anthology
Black top run Sonny Landreth Blacktop run
Just came back Colin James Take it from the top
Champagne Corolla Steve Earle JT
Mary’s Place Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band The Rising
www.coyotesbanff.com OPEN AGAIN.
In my room Jann Arden Uncover me 2
Stand by me Dominique Fils-Aime 3 little words
Bruce Cockburn Interview – with tdm 50 years of Junos
Going to the Country Bruce Cockburn Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn Interview – with tdm complete interview on Mulligan Stew Podcast
Jesus Train Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn Interview – with tdm complete interview on Mulligan Stew Podcast
Cafe Society Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn Interview – with tdm complete interview on Mulligan Stew Podcast
On a Roll (demo) Demo from Bruce – Project called Four New Songs First time played on any radio – anywhere. Thank You Bruce

Mulligan Stew September 23rd 2017- Bruce Cockburn special – with Colin Linden

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Met up with Bruce and Colin at the Vancouver Island music festival this summer in Courtney Comox.
They had just finished recording Bruce’s 33rd album Bone on Bone.
Produced by Colin Linden, Cockburn’s longtime collaborator, the album is built around the musicianship of Cockburn on guitar/vocals and the core accompaniment of bassist John Dymond and drummer Gary Craig. (Same guys who back Blackie and the Roadie Kings and all three members separately. Plus many others.)
 
I couldn’t wait to ask Colin this question “Am I crazy or is this the best thing you’ve heard out of him in years?”
“Am I crazy or is this the best thing you’ve heard out of him in years?”
“it may be the best record”, says Colin.
Colin has produced 9 of the last 10 Cockburn albums.. almost 26 years together.  He knows his music.

“If he had released just the demos, with just him, it would have been his best ever”

Think about that.  Bruce Cockburn is a 12 time Juno winner. Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee. Songwriting Hall of Fame Inductee.
He turned away from traditional Christianity in the mid-70’s but finds his own spirituality in his recent home in  San Francisco..in a 200 person church in the neighbourhood. He likes the music and choir so much he invites them into the studio to share the songs he’s written.
Songs by-the-way that he thought would never come after 3 years of writing his book Rumours of Glory.
But come they did..starting with a song that’s going to become one of his finest ever 3 Al Purdy’s,  a brilliant, six-minute epic that pays tribute to Al Purdy’s poetry.
As sung/spoken by a “street person” with a long coat flapping in the wind.
“I’ll give you 3 Al Purdy’s for a 20 dollar bill”
Did I mention that the songs rock?  Well, not exactly rock but groove and move.
Jesus Train
Café Society
Stab at Matter
12 Gates to the City  “ I wrote the last two verses so – I gave myself permission to speak for God, in this case.
Colin Linden and I agree that Forty years in the Wilderness ranks with Cockburn’s best ever song. As good as anything he’s written.

In our interview Bruce says “I believe in the Divine, something at the Centre of the Universe”

photo-KevinOReilly


Two other songs should be noted. The environmental warning “False River” came about at the invitation of Yvonne Bloomer, the poet laureate of Victoria, British Columbia. Bloomer was seeking a poem about the controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline. “Pipelines have their own perils that we’re all aware of,” says Cockburn, “so I started writing what was meant to be a spoken-word piece with a rhythm to it. But it evolved very quickly into a song.”
“States I’m In,” which opens the album, conjures up feelings of mystery and dread. He adds: “Maybe it’s also a play on words about me living in the States.”
Speaking of the last 9 years he’s spent living in the USA..if you listen..you can find references to the politics, crime and headlines of the day.  It’s all there.
And wait until you hear his comments about Donald Trump..
Bone on Bone is an album so good – his co-write with Bonnie Raitt didn’t make the cut.
In our hour you’ll hear 7 songs from Bone on Bone and two singular Canadian voices..Bruce Cockburn and Colin Linden.
 
We are blessed to have them in our lives.
Enjoy!!
-TDM

TOUR DATES:

Jan 23 Calgary Jack Singer
Jan 24 Edmonton Winspear Centre
Jan 27 Vancouver Centre For the Arts

Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone

Few recording artists are as creative and prolific as Bruce Cockburn. Since his self-titled debut in 1970, the Canadian singer-songwriter has issued a steady stream of acclaimed albums every couple of years. But that output suddenly ran dry in 2011 following the release of Small Source of Comfort. There were good reasons for the drought. For one thing, Cockburn became a father again with the birth of his daughter Iona. Then there was the publication of his 2014 memoir Rumours of Glory.
“I didn’t write any songs until after the book was published because all my creative energy had gone into three years of writing it,” Cockburn explains, from his home in San Francisco. “There was simply nothing left to write songs with. As soon as the book was put to bed, I started asking myself whether I was ever going to be a songwriter again.”
Such doubt was new to the man who’s rarely been at a loss for words as he’s distilled political views, spiritual revelations and personal experiences into some of popular music’s most compelling songs. What spurred Cockburn back into songwriting was an invitation to contribute a song to a documentary film about the late, seminal Canadian poet Al Purdy and he was off to the races.
Bone On Bone, Cockburn’s 33rd album, arrives with 11 new songs, including “3 Al Purdys,” a brilliant, six-minute epic that pays tribute to Purdy’s poetry. Cockburn explains its genesis: “I went out and got Purdy’s collected works, which is an incredible book. Then I had this vision of a homeless guy who is obsessed with Purdy’s poetry, and he’s ranting it on the street. The song is written in the voice of that character. a brilliant, six-minute epic that pays tribute to Purdy’s poetry.
Cockburn’s rugged fingerpicking style on the Dobro perfectly matches Purdy’s plainspoken words and the grizzled voice of his street character. A similar guitar style can be heard on two of the next songs Cockburn wrote, the gospel-like “Jesus Train,” and “Café Society,” a bluesy number about people who gather at his local coffee shop to sip their java and talk about the state of the world.
There’s a prevalent urgency and anxious tone to much of the album, which Cockburn attributes to living in America during the Trump era. But, more than anything, Bone on Bone amounts to the deepest expression of Cockburn’s spiritual concerns to date. The 12-time Juno winner and Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee turned away from traditional Christianity in the mid-1970s toward a quest for the more all-inclusive mysticism he documents in his memoir. And it’s that kind of spirituality that figures prominently in “Jesus Train” and “Twelve Gates to the City.” In “Looking and Waiting,” Cockburn sings of “scanning the skies for a beacon” from the divine.
“It’s a song of faith and frustration,” says Cockburn of the latter. “…Tired of looking in from the outside. My MO has always been to be aware of the divine…that dimension…always dealing with being stuck in a kind of observer’s position with respect to all that. I know it’s there. I don’t really see as faith so much as knowledge. Others may have different ideas about those things, but for me, I don’t have to struggle to believe in God, or the notion that God cares what happens to me. But I do have to struggle with being in a conscious, intentional relationship. That underlies a lot of these songs.” 
“Forty Years in the Wilderness” ranks alongside “Pacing the Cage” or “All the Diamonds” as one of Cockburn’s most starkly beautiful folk songs. “There have been so many times in my life when an invitation has come from somewhere…the cosmos…the divine…to step out of the familiar into something new. I’ve found it’s best to listen for, and follow these promptings. The song is really about that. You can stay with what you know or you can pack your bag and go where you’re called, even if it seems weird…even if you can’t see why or where you’ll end up.”
“Forty Years in the Wilderness” is one of several songs that feature a number of singers from the church Cockburn frequents, for the sake of convenience referred to in the album credits as the San Francisco Lighthouse “Chorus.” “The music was one of the enticements that drew me to SF Lighthouse. As I found myself becoming one of the regulars there, and got to know the people, I felt that I really wanted all these great singers, who were now becoming friends, to be on the album. They were kind enough to say yes!” Among other songs, they contribute call-and-response vocals to the stirring “Stab at Matter.” Other guests on the album include singer-songwriters Ruby Amanfu, Mary Gauthier, and Brandon Robert Young, along with bassist Roberto Occhipinti, and Julie Wolf, who plays accordion on “3 Al Purdys” and sings with the folks from Lighthouse, together with LA songwriter Tamara Silvera. 
Produced by Colin Linden, Cockburn’s longtime collaborator, the album is built around the musicianship of Cockburn on guitar and the core accompaniment of bassist John Dymond and drummer Gary Craig. Also very much part of the sound is the accordion playing of Cockburn’s nephew John Aaron Cockburn and the solos of noted fluegelhorn player Ron Miles (check out his stunning work on the cascading “Mon Chemin,” for example). 
Two other songs should be noted. The environmental warning “False River” came about at the invitation of Yvonne Bloomer, the poet laureate of Victoria, British Columbia. Bloomer was seeking a poem about the controversial Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline. “Pipelines have their own perils that we’re all aware of,” says Cockburn, “so I started writing what was meant to be a spoken-word piece with a rhythm to it. But it evolved very quickly into a song.”
“States I’m In,” which opens the album, conjures up feelings of mystery and dread. “It’s literally a ‘dark night of the soul’ kind of song,” Cockburn explains, “as it starts with sunset and ends with dawn. It passes through the night. The song is about illusion and self-delusion, looking at the tricks you play on yourself.” He adds: “Maybe it’s also a play on words about me living in the States.”
Cockburn, who won the inaugural People’s Voice Award at the Folk Alliance International conference in February and will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in September, continues to find inspiration in the world around him and channel those ideas into songs. “My job is to try and trap the spirits of things in the scratches of pen on paper and the pulling of notes out of metal,” he once noted. More than forty years after embarking on his singer-songwriting career, Cockburn keeps kicking at the darkness so that it might bleed daylight.

PLAYLIST:

Mulligan Stew with TD Mulligan Sept 23 2017 www.mulliganstew.ca
cry baby (live) Janis Joplin Pearl (bonus tracks)
if you love somebody (live) Sting all this time
pulling back the reins (live) kdlang live by request
www.canadahouse.com Coming UP – Bruce Cockburn/Bone on Bone www.mulliganstew.ca
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes (live) Paul Simon Live in NYC
Mulligan Stew – Year 22 with Terry David Mulligan NEXT – Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn interview Bone on Bone Album out now
Jesus Train Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn interview Bone on Bone
Stab at Matter Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn interview Bone on Bone
Twelve Gates to the City Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn interview Bone on Bone
3 Al Purdys Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
mulligan Stew – with tdmulligan NEXT – Colin Linden on Bruce Cockburn www.mulliganstew.ca
Colin Linden Interview Colin Produced 9 of last 10 BC albums
False River Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn interview Bone on Bone
40 years in the wilderness Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Bruce Cockburn interview Bone on Bone
Cafe Society Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Great balls of fire (live) Jerry Lee Lewis Live
Mulligan Stew on a Saturday Night TD Mulligan www.mulliganstew.ca
Midnight Rambler (live) The rolling stones Get yer ya ya’s out
Drifting Blues Fleetwood Mac The ORIGINAL Fleetwood Mac
Hey Joe Jimi Hendrix Smash Hits
Mulligan Stew www.coyotesbanff.com
Living in the USA (live) Steve Miller band Ultimate Hits
TD Mulligan NEXT WEEK – Alan Doyle and Bob Rock
ahead by a century The Tragically Hip Yer Favourites

Mulligan Stew July 22nd 2017- Bare Naked Ladies-Bruce Cockburn-Colin Linden Interviews

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“He’s one of them”
It’s the very special  Vancouver Island Music Festival. In Courtney/Comox. 
Very special because of the location and because of Doug Cox – the Artistic Director.
Doug is an artist and working musician.
So his knowledge of who’s making great music and who should be paired with who is bang on.
Artists want to play his festival because they know Doug will take care of them and their music.
He’s one of them.
That’s why you’ll find Emmylou Harris headlining.
Robert Randolf and the Family band headlining.

Barenaked Ladies return to Canada. The USA has had their attention for many years and the Ladies wanted to make up for that.
It’s possible there’s a generation that may not know they’re Canadian.
All four guys sat down and talked about how they dealt with losing Stephen Page.
(What that first gig was like at a small venue –  Universal Studios Los Angeles)
Their latest album is a session with The Persuaders, one of music’s greatest vocal groups.

We spend 30 minutes talking to and playing the music of BNL.
I had a chance to set up a rustic studio behind the main stage backstage area.
Rustic means
A microphone
A cable
A recorder
Earphones
A glass of water

Bruce Cockburn was the Saturday headliner.  He’s about to release perhaps his best album ever.
Bone on Bone is released Sept 15 with a collection of songs and riffs that amaze and delight.  Totally cool album.

We’ll run the complete interview closer to the release date but on this show we’ll play the first single States I’m in and, for the first time anywhere 40 years in the wilderness.

Colin Linden produced Bone on Bone.  They have been a musical pair for many projects and many years.  Colin takes us through a quick tour of Bone on Bone.
Also guesting are:

  • Steve Dawson
  • Peter North and Tom Coxworth
  • Rachelle Van Zanten
  • Doug Cox

PLAYLIST:

This is Mulligan Stew with TDMulligan Barenaked Ladies in 30 minutes
Never been rocked enough Delbert McClinton Never been rocked enough
I pity the fool (live) Tedeschi Trucks Band Live at The Fox Oakland
Dixie Chicken Little Feat Dixie Chicken
www.canadahouse.com Mulligan Stew TDMulligan
Train in Vain Annie Lennox Medusa
Mustang Sally Wilson Pickett The wicked Wilson Pickett
Hometown Blues Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Anthology LP
Mulligan Stew Year 21 Terry David Mulligan NEXT Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies Interview Mulligan Stew with tdm
Blame it on me Barenaked Ladies Gordon
Barenaked Ladies Interview Mulligan Stew with tdm
You run away Barenaked Ladies All in good time
Barenaked Ladies Interview Mulligan Stew with tdm
Old Apartment barenaked Ladies with The Persuasions Ladies and Gentlemen barenaked ladies with The Persuasions
Barenaked Ladies Interview mulligan stew with tdm
One Week Barenaked Ladies Ladies and Gentlemen barenaked ladies with The Persuasions
NEXT Bruce Cockburn Interview Mulligan Stew with tdm
Bruce Cockburn Interview Mulligan Stew with tdm
States I’m in Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Colin Linden Interview Mulligan Stew with tdm
40 years in the wilderness Bruce Cockburn Bone on Bone
Doug Cox Interview Artistic Director with tdm
Rachelle van Zanten Interview mulligan stew with tdm
Tennessee Waltz Emmy Lou Harris Cimaron
mulligan stew with terry david mulligan NEXT Steve Dawson. Pete and Tom. ZZTop
Steve Dawson Interview mulligan stew with tdm
Loose ends Steve Dawson Solid states and loose ends
Peter North & Tom Coxworth Interview mulligan stew with tdm
Don’t mess up a good thing Ry Cooder Bop til you drop
waiting for the bus ZZ Top Very Baddest
Jesus just left Chicago ZZ Top Very Baddest
www.coyotesbanff.com Mulligan Stew with tdm
Makin’ Whoopee (live) Ray Charles More music from Ray (soundtrack)