Gavin's Woodpile-
The Bruce Cockburn Newsletter Online
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY- 1970 to Present
While on hiatus from producing David Wiffen's 1973 album, Coast to Coast Fever, Bruce managed to record a breakthrough album called Night Vision... a very urban-sounding work, musically different from previous albums. In all, he released ten albums during the 1970s, including Circles in the Stream, a double live album recorded during his first tour with a full band in 1977. The tour came on the heels of the release of In the Falling Dark, considered by many to be one of his finest works. In April 1977, Bruce toured Japan with True North labelmate Murray McLauchlan. He capped off the 1970s with one of his best-known albums, Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, which is on the "favorites" list of most who know his discography. Bruce's overall sound during the 1970s was very acoustic, but he would soon shift gears.
1980 would see him move to Toronto, where he would become an urban dweller... thus setting the stage for influential world travels through the 1980s. He would visit developing nations such as Mexico, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal, and Mozambique. Sponsoring some of these fact-finding missions were OXFAM and USC Canada. Many songs from this era were driven by hard electric guitar work. With this sound he was off in a new direction, a trait that has become a trademark of his career. Many who know Bruce's work associate his most political songs with the 1980s. However, I think it's important to note that while the 1970s produced a fair amount of acoustic, spiritual and nature-oriented work, national and global politics were found in his writings even then. Songs like It's Going Down Slow, Burn, Gavin's Woodpile, Red Brother Red Sister, and Feast of Fools reflect this. Bruce released eight albums during the 1980s, including one compilation album. Perhaps his most notable releases were Humans, Stealing Fire, and World of Wonders.
The last breaths of the 1980s saw Bruce flat against the wall with little to draw from for his writing. He took some time off to explore and came back with a milestone album in 1991's Nothing but a Burning Light. This would be his first album recorded and mixed outside of Canada (in Los Angeles). The return to a more acoustic sound, which resurfaced on 1989's Big Circumstance, continued through the next several albums. He would release seven albums in the 1990s, including two live albums.
The 1990s saw Bruce become very active in the campaign against landmines, and in 1995 he visited Mozambique for the second time to see firsthand the huge problem of landmines left buried in the ground. The album that followed this trip was called The Charity of Night, another standout effort from this decade. In 1998 he visited Mali to assess the loss of arable land to the desert. A documentary film called River of Sand chronicled his time there.
In 1999 Bruce visited Cambodia and Vietnam to witness the effects of landmines that litter those two countries. The trip was organized by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's Campaign for a Landmine Free World.
In 2001 Kensington Communications produced an hour-long biography for the CBC called My Beat: The Life and Times of Bruce Cockburn. That same year he moved to Montreal after having been in Toronto for twenty years.
Since 2000, Bruce has released five albums: Anything Anytime Anywhere, Speechless, You've Never Seen Everything, Life Short Call Now, and Slice O Life. As ever, these albums explore a varied and wide range of music and ideas.
He returned from a fact-finding mission to Iraq in January 2004. In November 2007, he went to Nepal for a second time at the request of USC Canada. In 2008 a DVD called Return to Nepal was released that reflected his journey there.
His first-ever live solo album, called Slice O Life, was released on March 31, 2009.
Bruce currently lives near Kingston, Ontario.
-Daniel
Keebler, 2009
With thanks to Bruce for his contribution to this bio.
Use by permission only, please.
Seattle recording studio - 2008