Bruce Cockburn (last name pronounced “Coburn”) is a Canadian born songwriter who is probably most famous for the song “If I had a rocket-launcher.” It’s a lefty song about rampant militarism, which sort of tells you where he comes from politically.
Politics aside, though, his music is really amazing. I highly recommend that you get the album “Nothing But a Burning Light” (see graphic on the right sidebar). Every song on that album is outstanding, and yet each is very different so you won’t get bored listening to tunes that all have the same tempo or style. If you click on the aforementioned graphic you will be taken to Amazon’s site where you can listen to a few of the songs on the album (his stuff is also available on Apple’s iTunes site). Check out the song “Dream like mine.” To fully appreciate that song you have to put on the headphones and focus on the outstanding arrangement and perfect recording.
And if you ever get the chance to see Cockburn live do it. I saw him a few years ago in New Orleans and he only had a drummer and a bass player with him. I was disappointed, because the arrangements for many of his songs involve multi-track overdubs of simple, but intricately interwoven, guitar parts. Well, somehow he was able to produce a very close approximation of his recordings and I was totally blown away. In other words, in addition to being a great songwriter and arranger, he’s also a very accomplished musician. I’m surprised that more people haven’t heard of him, but then he’s not one of those musicians who tries real hard to make money.
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