Artist: Bruce Cockburn
Album: Crowing Ignites
Label: True North
Release Date: 9.20.2019
Most of us associate the brilliant Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn with memorable songs like “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” ‘Wondering Where the Lions Are,” “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” and so many more. Yet, Cockburn’s splendid guitar playing goes under appreciated by many. Crowing Ignites, a purely, stunning instrumental guitar album will certainly change those perceptions. These are 11 originals from Cockburn who plays acoustic guitar and other instruments throughout. He has done this before, in 2005 releasing the instrumental Canadian award-winning Speechless, which featured mostly previously recorded tracks, but this effort is totally new and rather awe-inspiring. There’s not a single word spoken or sung, but Cockburn’s composition skills still prove considerable. This, his 34th album was produced, recorded and mixed by Colin Linden in San Francisco, where Cockburn currently resides.
The album covers folk, blues, and jazz, all genres that Cockburn has done before, but he adds world music and nods to his Scottish heritage too. The latter is heard in “Pibroch: The Wind in the Valley,” in which his guitar’s droning bass strings and melodic high notes purposely mimic the sound of bagpipes, which Cockburn loves. “It seems to be in my blood,” he says. The world music pieces may even be more fascinating. The hypnotic, kalimba-laden “Seven Daggers” is also teeming with the sounds of bells and chimes, taken to even deeper level in “Bells of Gethsemane” that features Tibetan cymbals and singing bowls, like those found in Buddhist religious practices. On the former Cockburn plays a 12-string and on the latter a baritone guitar.
This is not just a solo guitar album. Linden joins on guitars and other strings, as does Linden’s wife Janice Powers on keyboards on select tracks as do a few others. Two of these pieces stemmed from other projects. “The Groan” is a bluesy piece with Linden supporting on mandolin, and six people, including Cockburn’s daughter on handclaps. It was composed for a Les Stroud documentary about the aftermath of a school shooting and the healing power of nature. “Mt. Lefroy Waltz” is a jazz-tinged piece written for the Group of Seven Guitar Project on a custom-made guitar originally recorded, with cornetist Ron Miles, bassist Roberto Occhipinti and drummer Gary Craig for Cockburn’s 2017 album Bone on Bone, but not released until now.
The other pieces with sparer instrumentation include the opening urgent “Bardo Rush” with Powers on keyboards, the contemplative “Easter,” composed on that very day and rendered solo. “April In Memphis,” composed on Martin Luther King Day, is a mournful piece with Cockburn adding chimes to his solo guitar. “Blind Willie” is named for Blind Willie Johnson and has fiery guitar dueling with Linden’s dobro. “Sweetness and Light” is perhaps Cockburn’s best display of his astounding finger picking technique. Finally, “Angels In the Half Light” takes on the somber, ominous tone of Cockburn’s memorable dark politically tinged lyrical songs but there are hints of spirituality and hope there too.
This, as you’d expect, is an album of deep uninterrupted listening with many moods, colors and breathtaking musicianship. It is highly varied and intriguing. Spend time with it—it keeps getting better with each listen.
—Jim Hynes
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