Gavin's Woodpile- The Bruce Cockburn Newsletter Online

2008 MEDIA

2004-2007 media are in the ARCHIVES section 

-Michelle Peterson is a freelance writer for the News-Miner.

Posted: May 8, 2008

Bruce Cockburn is not a man known for avoiding politics in his music. In fact, anyone who has heard his song “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” - written after a trip in 1983 to Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico - can have little doubt that Cockburn is a man with a steadfast propensity to speak out with brutal honesty. After seeing the refugee camps, Cockburn wrote in his notebook, “I understand now why people want to kill.”

For Cockburn, 2006 saw the release of his 26th album, “Life Short Call Now.” The collection travels through exploratory musical planes of blues, rock 'n' roll, jazz and folk, using styles born from around the world. Through his travels with various humanitarian aid projects in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Cockburn is something of a living legend. A profound lyricist and deeply talented musician, he has spent the past three decades - since his first solo album release in 1970 - honing his art and learning from life.

Fresh from high school in the mid 1960's, Cockburn witnessed a society that was in the midst of massive transformation. “The 60s had a ripple effect that showed people you could change the world,” Cockburn said in an earlier interview. “At least there was the possibility that people could accomplish something - not anything perfect, but something workable.”

In an interview with Bob Duran, Cockburn said that he “believed for a long time that music was somehow above politics, that art could be held separately from the rest of human affairs.” Over time, however, Cockburn said he learned the importance of paying attention; that even if one chooses to ignore the unpleasant, it doesn't mean that the unpleasant ceases to exist or that its effects won't be felt.

“You have to decide whether you want to take a stand or not,” he explained. “To me, it's a legitimate decision if you decide to take a stance of non-involvement, but it has to be a deliberate choice and you must realize the implications.”

Cockburn chose to take a stand.

But to say that Cockburn is purely a political artist, however, is entirely too one-dimensional. Cockburn himself said he's not an activist, he's a songwriter. And like the best songwriters, he draws material from his life experiences as a father, a Christian and a traveler.

For Cockburn, when it comes to songwriting - a process he likens to “finding your way in the dark by starlight,” - the purpose is to create good art. He contends there is no point in having words to music if they don't say anything. Cockburn said he often finds more direction for his writing from poetry and looks to other countries' musical traditions - a quality lacking in Canada, he says - for inspiration. Whether it's reggae, Afro-pop, traditional Ethiopian or Malian sounds, Cockburn finds a place for it in his music.

“It's the sharing of human experience,” he said.

That human experience has given Cockburn the material to become a world-class singer-songwriter, as he uses life as a tool for self-expression through music. And whether he finds himself writing about love, loss or the state of the humanity, Cockburn is a man who has seen much of the world at its worst and yet still manages to find incredible inspiration in it.

Cockburn will come to Alaska to perform for the first time with a solo show at the Mariner Theater. The Homer gig will be his first in the state before heading to Fairbanks and Anchorage, and provides a great opportunity to see a man working to change the world, one song at a time.

Posted: May 8, 2008

Life’s Short
By Saby Reyes-Kulkarni

Anchorage Press

May 8, 2008

Nearly forty years into his solo career, Bruce Cockburn’s social conscience appears to be as stimulated as it ever has been.

Since a trip to Nicaragua in 1983 during the Sandinista revolt, the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter has maintained a steady focus on humanitarian and environmental issues. Cockburn (pronounced “co-burn”), has not only made it a point to reflect his convictions in song, he’s also done a great deal of traveling to impoverished, often war-torn parts of the world, on behalf of various relief efforts, including, most recently, to Iraq in 2004.

Unsurprisingly, Cockburn’s travel experiences emerge frequently in his songs, such as “This Is Baghdad” from his latest album, 2006’s Life Short Call Now.

Generally speaking, Cockburn prefers a direct lyrical approach. But although he says he writes from the point of view of a “reporter” (one that just so happens to have dropped the quest for—and pretense of—objectivity), he also strives for poetry in his delivery.

“By juxtaposing the images or scenes that you create, you add layers of meaning,” Cockburn says. “You take a car bomb going off and you put it in the context of a sunny day, and it’s no longer surrounded by gloom.”

Cockburn says he still struggles sometimes to fit all the layers in.

“With a song like ‘This Is Baghdad,’” he admits, “it was frustrating because there was so much to put in. It wasn’t so much a question of what to leave out, but knowing how to put it together into a picture that made any sense without including everything. What I couldn’t put in the song, or couldn’t figure out how, was the degree to which the passersby were utterly unmoved by this event. It was in the distance, but no one gave any sign that they’d even heard it.”

Cockburn marvels at the extent to which people can become inured to stress and violence. On the other hand, the conditions in the places he visits often bring out the best in people. Often, the generosity and warmth he encounters can, to a degree, help reaffirm his faith in people.

“You see people rising to the occasion,” he explains. “At the very least, it suggests ‘okay, maybe I could do as well in these circumstances,’ and it’s like ‘more power to these people.’ It’s kind of reassuring in a weird way. In most of the situations that I’ve been in, there’s something affirmative going on. You tend to see this resilience and sometimes, by great effort, imagination brought to bear on the difficulties at hand.”

That isn’t always the case, though. Cockburn has also witnessed depths of depravity that most people, if they’re lucky, can barely fathom.

“The second time I was in Mozambique,” he recalls, “it was really depressing because it didn’t seem like there was any of that. Everything was broken, every single thing. Every human and social bond. You had the sense that children didn’t trust their parents and vice versa and that everybody would sell everybody for whatever.”


Musically, Cockburn has a knack for weaving together these two disparate extremes: tenderness and humanity on the one hand, distress and angst on the other.

On Life Short’s title track, for example, he underscores a sky-is-falling mood with the line you’ve no idea how I long / for even one loving caress. As the song strolls—almost lollygags—along, gently nudged by his acoustic guitar strokes, Cockburn sounds more vulnerable than weary, more wise than despairing.

But as much as the words and music appear to flow together, Cockburn’s primary emphasis has always been lyrics. In fact, over the course of 25 studio albums, he can only recall one instance where he didn’t write the lyrics first.

“The majority of the songs are lyric-driven,” he says. “I have an interest in music per se, apart from words, but it always seemed to me that if you’re going to have words, then they might as well say something. And once you get on that track, the words start leading the procession. When I get a set of lyrics that’s complete enough that I know what direction they’re going in, then I start looking for music to carry those words. It’s analogous to putting a score on a film. The music has to support other elements.”

Indeed, Life Short crackles with those elements. Billboards fill the air with visual clutter as animal species die off while a peace march surges onward and the aforementioned car bomb goes off and, in one song, an arms dealer propositions a young Cockburn to accompany him on a job (a real-life incident, by the way; Cockburn actually considered the offer before demurring). As these scenes unfold, it’s hard to deny the underlying sense of hope in spite of the album title’s fatalistic ring.

“Things look pretty damn dark,” he laughs. “I think we’re going to get a die-off one way or another, whether it’s a die-off or a kill-off. Because a lot of the stuff that’s going on in the world is going to produce severe conflict. It looks dark —but not hopeless. Hope, in my own frame of reference, is a good concept, but it’s also a bit of a fantasy. The probability is that we’re in deep shit. But, it’s a probability. It’s not a certainty. And even if it were a certainty, I don’t think it would make much difference in how I operate. You have to try to make it better.”
 

Posted: Aprl 26, 2006

The London Free Press

by James Reaney

One of the major artistic accomplishments in London for 2008 -- or maybe any year -- will take the songs of Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn and other Canadian folk icons to new places tonight.

Songs of the Land is a remarkable collaboration between a top chamber choir, London Pro Musica, and the Antler River Project, a world-beat ensemble.

Famous songs like The Circle Game, Helpless and If You Could Read My Mind and innovative recording techniques, which had choir members recording vocals while watching videos of Ken Fleet conducting, are part of its saga. "It was a total London project when you think about it," says Juno-winning Fanshawe College professor Kevin Doyle. "Nothing like this has ever been attempted in Canada before."

Doyle produced Songs of the Land. It is being launched tonight at a London Pro Musica concert, with the Antler River Project and other guests, at Dundas Street Centre church at 8 p.m.

An early version of Songs of the Land's treatment of a Cockburn song has made its way to the singer-songwriter.

Doyle sent a version of the Pro Musica/Antlers piece to Cockburn's manager, Bernie Finkelstein, an old friend. "They've heard it. They're ecstatic. They can't wait to hear the CD," Doyle says of Finkelstein and Cockburn's reaction.

Like many London masterpieces, Songs of the Land was years in the making and has too many heroes to be mentioned in one place. The Antler River Project, including arrangers Oliver Whitehead and Stephen (Steve) Holowitz, used some of Canadian folk material in 2004.

In 2005, London Pro Musica's Songs for the Land concert added to the Antler's folk icons. "The whole project was both wonderfully self-indulgent and a huge labour of love," London Pro Musica's Catherine McInnes said then.

Tunes from that concert are standouts on the new album.

McInnes and fellow London Pro Musica singer Jenny Nauta are executive producers on Songs of the Land.

That means many things, including hours of checking details in scores. It also means a chance to arrange songs by their heroes. For McInnes, that is Cockburn. For Nauta, it's Mitchell.

"I really wanted to do a Joni Mitchell song because she is one of my favourites and what she has done in every genre is so important," Nauta says. She arranged The Circle Game, one of Mitchell's earliest masterpieces.

"Catherine McInnes and Jenny Nauta understood the concept," Doyle says.

Both had worked with Doyle on their own projects. McInnes has a solo CD. Nauta is part of jazz vocal quartet After Four, who recorded with Doyle on an album with Toronto vibes master Peter Appleyard as a guest.

"Working with Kevin, one needs to be flexible and follow the creativity," Nauta says. "There was a lot of enthusiasm and willingness to make some changes on the spot . . . the LPM singers really rose to the occasion."

You can hear that enthusiasm on Songs of the Land. Fleet, who has been part of about 25 recordings, is finding a new personal hit daily. "Two days ago, I would have said Big Yellow Taxi. Night Ride Home, that was my favourite yesterday," Fleet says.

I know what Fleet means. There are so many dimensions to Songs of the Land. Fiona Wilkinson's flute. The rustle and pulse of the Antlers' percussion. The marvellous singing. The marvellous songs. The imagination. The only to do is go out tonight and marvel. 

IF YOU GO

What: CD launch for Songs of the Land, by London Pro Musica choir and Antler River Project. The programme includes songs by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, the McGarrigles, Bruce Cockburn and Gordon Lightfoot.

When: Tonight, 8 p.m.

Where: Dundas Street Centre church, 482 Dundas St. (at Maitland)

Details: Adults, $20 in advance, $22 at door; seniors, $18 advance, $20 door; students, $10, $11. Call 519-679-8778 or 519-666-1577 or check londonpromusica.org

Posted: April 21, 2008

Finkelstein Management Press Release

Faculty union holding private party

FREDERICTON - The St. Thomas faculty association plans to celebrate the end of a long, hard year Friday. The union spent more than 11 months in negotiations with the university administration. The labour dispute ended with a lockout, a strike and binding arbitration. The contract from the arbitrator isn't expected until mid-June. The union is hosting the party for its friends and supporters at the Sweetwaters' Rockin' Rodeo room in downtown Fredericton on Friday. Musician Bruce Cockburn will be the entertainment. The event is not open to the general public. The union hopes to raise money at the concert to help other unions that take similar job action during contract negotiations. Friday's event will start with a potluck at 5:30 p.m. The Cockburn concert will begin at 8:15 p.m. Sweetwaters' Rockin' Rodeo will be closed to the public for the event until 11 p.m. Friday when it will open as usual.

Posted: April 17, 2008

Finkelstein Management

Posted: April 17, 2008

General, singer team up for show

Concert at UVic to raise money and awareness for child soldiers

Kim Westad

Times Colonist
April 17, 2008

At first blush, they're an unlikely concert duo.

But retired general Romeo Dallaire and singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn share a passion for humanitarian issues, one they'll bring to the stage at the University of Victoria in a concert Oct. 4 to raise money and awareness about child soldiers.

Cockburn said yesterday he was a bit surprised when the request came from UVic, but he jumped at the chance to work with a person he admires. "Well, we might be about the same age," Cockburn laughed when asked what he and the senator have in common. (They're a year apart.) "But actually, it's not too far out of line considering the topic and the point of the benefit."

The idea for the unusual pairing came from the university's School of Child and Youth Care, where three researchers are working on a process to re-integrate child soldiers back into their communities.

Dallaire has helped war-affected children since witnessing the Rwandan genocide, which he documented in his award-winning book, Shake Hands With the Devil. Dallaire led the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping mission into Rwanda in 1994. Cockburn has long been a spokesman  for global peace. And both men have honorary degrees from UVic.

The concert is billed as an "evening of song and spoken word." Cockburn will definitely sing, but don't hold out too much hope for Dallaire doing the same. "I don't want to say a singalong between us will never happen, but I'd say it's less than likely."

The two met at Dallaire's senate office last week and talked for an hour. "He's one of those people who makes you feel special by the way he listens so intently to what you say," said Cockburn, interviewed en route to a benefit concert in Fredericton, N.B.

Tickets for the Oct. 4 concert go on sale April 26. The $81.50 tickets are available at the university ticket centre. For further information, call 721-8480 or go to www.auditorium.uvic.ca

 

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Posted: April 17, 2008

The Kingston Whig-Standard

Kingston, Ontario

Ondaatje, Cockburn to headline benefit concert for mine protester

World-famous writer Michael Ondaatje will join Canadian folk-rock artist Bruce Cockburn at a June benefit concert to raise money for jailed Algonquin uranium mine protester Bob Lovelace.

A recipient of the Order of Canada and the illustrious Booker Prize, Ondaatje is perhaps best known as the author of The English Patient. He, Cockburn and several other artists will perform at the Artists for Bob concert at Sydenham Street United Church, 82 Sydenham St., on June 14 at 7 p.m.

The other artists who have agreed to appear include Susan Aglukark, David Francey, Jenny Whiteley, Steven Heighton, Joey Wright, Terry Tufts, Unity and the Algonquin Drummers.

Lovelace, a retired chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and a Queen's University lecturer, has been imprisoned for blocking prospector access to a proposed uranium mine site in North Frontenac.

All funds raised through the concert will go to Lovelace through a trust fund.

Unreserved seating costs $30 while limited Free Bob Lovelace Supporter tickets cost $100. They include preferred seating, an Artists For The Algonquin compilation CD, and a pass to the artist after-show party.

Tickets are available at Brian's Record Option, Novel Idea, Tara Natural Foods and The Grand Theatre box office, located inside City Hall.

Tickets can also be ordered by phoning 613-530-2050 or online at www.grandtheatre-kingston.com.

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Posted: April 16, 2008

Finkelstein Management

Artists For Bob Lovelace Benefit Concert

A concert featuring Canada’s best musicians and writers takes place Saturday, June 14th at the Sydenham St. United Church in Kingston. Bruce Cockburn, Susan Aglukark, David Francey, Jenny Whiteley, Joey Wright, Terry Tufts, Unity, and the Algonquin Drummers will perform at what will be an incredible night of music and community spirit. The event will raise funds for Robert Lovelace, father, retired chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Queen’s University professor, who has been imprisoned for his peaceful opposition to uranium mining in North Frontenac. All proceeds from the benefit concert will go to Bob Lovelace through a trust fund established for him by OPIRG Kingston.

Bruce Cockburn, an officer of the Order of Canada, has earned 20 gold and platinum records in Canada, 11 Juno Awards and is inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Inuit singer-songwriter, Susan Aglukark is also a member of the Order of Canada and a multiple Juno Award winner. Multiple Juno winners David Francey and Jenny Whiteley will also perform along with two of Canada’s best guitarists, Joey Wright and Terry Tufts. The Algonquin Drummers will open the show with a ceremonial Algonquin drum and Unity, an aboriginal women’s singing group will sing both traditional and original music.

Unreserved seating is $30. Tickets are available at Brian’s Record Option, Novel Idea, Tara Natural Foods and The Grand Theatre Box Office at City Hall, phone: 613- 530-2050. For online ordering contact: www.grandtheatre-kingston.com.

Posted: April 11, 2008

Report and photo by George Baker

Bruce performed four songs to an audience of about fifteen people at WXRV in Boston on April 8, 2008. He played Child of the Wind, If I had a Rocket Launcher, Wondering Where the Lions Are and If A Tree Falls. He also spoke about agricultural issues.

Posted: April 5, 2008

The Kingston Whig-Standard

April 5, 2008

 

Canadian icon Cockburn to perform at benefit

Posted By Frank Armstrong

Canadian folk-rock icon Bruce Cockburn will perform at a June benefit concert for jailed Algonquin activist Bob Lovelace.

Cockburn, who has a home in the area, will be the headline act at the Artists for Bob concert June 14 at Sydenham Street United Church.

Co-organizer Ellen Hamilton, who runs Kingston's Leopard Frog music- recording studio, said she and a handful of others in the local music industry asked Cockburn to perform because they thought it was a cause he might support.

"He has consistently spoken up for what's right and just and he seems quite interested in social justice," she said. "We also know he lives in the area."

Tickets, which will cost $30, will begin selling Monday through the Grand Theatre, Brian's Record Option, Novel Idea and other retailers.

Also playing Artists for Bob will be three-time Juno Award-winning Aboriginal recording artist Susan Aglukark, legendary Sharbot Lake-area guitarist Joey Wright, and Unity and the Algonquin Drummers.

"We're also close to getting two other famous artists in Canada, but can't release [names] yet because we're still negotiating with them," Hamilton said.

The organizers came together after Lovelace was imprisoned Feb. 15 for six months for refusing to obey a judge's order to stop blocking uranium exploration north of Sharbot Lake.

Lovelace, a father of two adopted young children and a Queen's University lecturer, was also fined $25,000.

Like many others, Hamilton said she was watching the story about the uranium protest from the sidelines until Lovelace was jailed for protesting peacefully.

"This sentencing of Bob Lovelace, it was a wake-up call for some of us," she said.

Posted: March 21, 2008

Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction writer, best known for “2001: A Space Odyssey” died on 19 March 2008. In 1953 Clarke wrote his most famous short story, “The Nine Billion Names of God.” John Clute in The Independent dated 20 March 2008 wrote that “the story rewards a triumph of science with the calm extinction of the universe. An Asian sect hires a computer expert to tabulate all the possible names of God, in the belief that the universe will end when that essential task has been accomplished. The computer makes short shrift of the task. And the stars begin to go out.”

On 22 May 1990 Bruce Cockburn wrote the song One Of The Best Ones which was released on the album, Nothing But A Burning Light (1991). The track includes the lines:

Like the nine billion names of God
Don’t bring you any closer
To anyone you can simply set eyes on

-Complied by Richard Hoare

Posted: March 10, 2008

Bruce Cockburn visits Truro for Seedy Saturday event

Truro Daily News

March 8, 2008

TRURO - Amongst the stream of people coming and going from St. Andrew's United Church this weekend in support of Seedy Saturday, one man stood out with his long black leather jacket and small round glasses.

Canadian folk/rock icon Bruce Cockburn quietly strolled around the crowded room, stopping every few minutes to checkout a particular displays or chat with a vendor about their product and how it affects the environment.

Cockburn was there to represent the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, an organization he's been supporting since he got the first paycheck from his first album in 1970.
"All of the sudden I had this big royalty check. It wasn't a large amount of money by modern standards but it was more than I had ever seen in one place. And I though oh my God I cant just spend this, it was too much money," said Cockburn.

He's been a "mouth piece" for the organization ever since. Travelling all over the world in support of small farmers and the environment for 30 years.
 

Photo by: Colin MacLean

Posted: March 6, 2008

Cockburn here to promote food safety

by Cathy Von Kintzer, Truro Bureau

The Chronicle Herald

Nova Scotia

March 6, 2008

Posted: January 9, 2008

The Mississauga News

January 8, 2008

 

Mississauga executive rules True North

By John Stewart

When Geoff Kulawick was a kid growing up in Ottawa, he learned to play the piano by listening to the Downchild Blues Band on a record called So Far.

These days, Kulawick is president and owner of Mississauga's Linus Entertainment and is in the process of re-issuing So Far: A Collection of Our Best, by the Mississauga-based band.

Kulawick, now almost 44, has gone from being a recreation room music fan to running his own record company to which he can sign his musical idols.

Not only that, but he has just finished spearheading a megadeal with two other major Ontario investors that has put the iconic Canadian True North record label into his fold.

In an interview from his south Mississauga home, Kulawick said the thing that first attracted him to the music business — artists and the wonderful work they produce — is still what fuels his passion.

"I think music is more important now than ever in people's lives," says Kulawick, whose wife, Brooke, was born and raised in Mississauga. "It is still one of the most emotional communications people have with each other."

There was never any doubt about what Kulawick wanted to do with his life.

"I always loved music," says the father of nine-year-old Karina and seven-year-old Matthew.

"I played guitar and piano and I knew it meant I had a better chance of getting girls," he adds, laughing. "I always loved writing songs."

His rise through the record business was anything but meteoric. It was a long, hard slug. After graduating from Fanshawe College in London in music industry arts, he moved to Toronto and took odd jobs in the business and knocked endlessly on closed doors.

"They pay you almost nothing for 80 hours of work, but that is what I wanted to do," he recalls.

He got his break when he was hired by Solid Gold Records. Kulawick became the tour manager for Gowan, worked at A & M, moved on to be creative director at Warner/Chappell and then got his dream job at Virgin/EMI in Mississauga, "only working with artists I really wanted to sign."

He delivered a series of platinum- and gold-selling records for artists such as Leahy, Choclair, Boomtang Boys and La Bottine Souriante, a 15-piece world music outfit that became huge in its home province of Québec.

But Kulawick could see "the writing was on the wall" for big record companies. New technologies undermined what was once their iron grip.

"There was no patience for the long-term development of artists," he says with disappointment. "There was less creative decision-making. Everything was based on delivering the big hit — in that quarter."

Having gone to night school to learn the business side of the equation, Kulawick struck out on his own in 2001, establishing Linus Entertainment in Mississauga, dedicated to Canadian artists. His roster is a who's who of styles and genres from old folkies Gordon Lightfoot and Ray Materick to the classy Mississauga-based classical Quartetto Gelato to breaking jazz diva Sophie Millman, whose band features Mississauga's Kieran Overs on bass.

A longtime admirer of Bernie Finkelstein and True North Records who proved that Canadian music could have international impact, Kulawick "reached out to him" as the new kid on the block on independent label street.

"He is an upstanding leader in a business that is known for questionable values," he says. "I was always bending his ear."

At one of their regular lunches, Finkelstein mentioned he was thinking of selling. Kulawick asked for the chance to find a buyer. He recruited investors Harvey Glatt and Mike Pilon and together they bought the label he loved, and will keep operating as a separate entity. Finkelstein remains as chair and advisor.

"I'm going to be doing everything I can to be a good caretaker," says Kulawick. "But we also want to break new acts."

He already has some prime True North candidates, including The Golden Dogs, a pop-rock band from Toronto.

Some day, he hopes to be as associated with other Canadian artists as Finkelstein is with Bruce Cockburn and his song, If I Had A Rocket Launcher.

"That's why I got in the business," says Kulawick. "Songs like that still have the power to change the world." 

photo by: Daniel Ho

END