Bruce Cockburn Announces His First Studio Album In Seven Years, Bone On Bone, Out September 15, 2017

Bruce Cockburn has announced the September 15, 2017 release of his first full-length album in seven years, Bone On Bone (True North Records). The release coincides with his induction into the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame, and the launch of his longest touring schedule in decades.

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 and 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’s “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.

“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.” “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).

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.

Bone On Bone Track Listing:

1. States I’m In
2. Stab At Matter
3. Forty Years In The Wilderness
4. Café Society
5. 3 Al Purdys
6. Looking And Waiting
7. Bone On Bone
8. Mon Chemin
9. False River
10. Jesus Train
11. Twelve Gates To The City

TOUR DATES:

JUL           15                       COURTENAY BC                             VANCOUVER ISLAND MUSIC

AUG           7                       CANMORE AB                                CANMORE FOLK FESTIVAL

SEP          15                       FREDERICTON NB                           THE PLAYHOUSE

SEP          16                       HALIFAX NS                                     REBECCA COHN

SEP          17                       SUMMERSIDE PEI                          HARBOURFRONT THEATRE

SEP          19                       MONTREAL QC                               CLUB SODA

SEP          20                       QUEBEC CITY QC                            IMPERIAL BELL

SEP          21                       SHERBROOKE QC                           THEATRE GRANADA

SEP          22                       OTTAWA ON                                    NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE

SEP          23                       TORONTO ON                                 CANADIAN SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME

SEP          25                       PETERBOROUGH ON                     SHOWPLACE

SEP          26                        KITCHENER ON                               CENTRE IN THE SQUARE

SEP          27                       KINGSTON ON                                 GRAND THEATRE

SEP          29                       LONDON ON                                    LONDON MUSIC HALL

SEP          30                       HAMILTON ON                               FIRST ONTARIO HALL

NOV           5                      ALBANY NY                                      THE EGG

NOV           6                      ITHACA NY                                       HANGAR THEATRE

NOV           7                      NORTHAMPTON MA                     CALVIN THEATRE

NOV           9                      BOSTON MA                                    WILBUR THEATRE

NOV          10                    PHILADELPHIA PA                           KESWICK THEATRE

NOV          11                     NEW YORK NY                                 CITY WINERY

NOV          12                     NEW YORK NY                                 CITY WINERY

NOV        14                      WASHINGTON DC                          BIRCHMERE

NOV          15                     ANNAPOLIS MD                              RAM’S HEAD

NOV          17                     ANN ARBOR MI                               THE ARK

NOV        18                      CHICAGO IL                                      OLD TOWN

NOV          19                     CHICAGO IL                                     OLD TOWN

NOV          21                     MADISON WI                                  BARRYMORE THEATRE

NOV          22                     MINNEAPOLIS MN                         CEDAR CULTURAL CENTER

JAN           23                      CALGARY AB                                   JACK SINGER HALL

JAN           24                      EDMONTON AB                             WINSPEAR CENTRE

JAN           26                      VICTORIA BC                                   ALIX GOOLDEN HALL

JAN           27                      VANCOUVER BC                             CENTRE FOR THE ARTS

JAN           28                     SEATTLE WA                                    NEPTUNE THEATRE

JAN           30                      PORTLAND OR                               ALADDIN THEATRE

JAN           31                      PORTLAND OR                               ALADDIN THEATRE

FEB        2                      GRANTS PASS OR                            ROGUE THEATRE

FEB        3                          ARCATA  CA                                      VAN DUZER THEATRE

FEB        5                          GRASS VALLEY CA                            CENTER FOR THE ARTS

FEB        7                          SAN FRANCISCO CA                         FREIGHT & SALVAGE

FEB        8                          SAN FRANCISCO CA                         FREIGHT & SALVAGE

FEB        9                           SANTA CRUZ CA                              RIO THEATRE

FEB        10                        LOS ANGELES CA                              EL REY THEATRE

FEB        12                        TUSCON AZ                                       RIALTO THEATRE

FEB        13                        PHOENIX AZ                                      MARQUEE THEATRE

FEB        15                        SALT LAKE CITY UT                           STATE ROOM

FEB        16                         BOULDER CO                                    BOULDER THEATRE

FEB        17                        ASPEN CO                                          WHEELER OPERA HOUSE

APR       14                         DALLAS TX                                         KESSLER THEATRE

APR       15                        HOUSTON TX                                   THE HEIGHTS THEATER

APR       18                        MELBOURNE FL                               STUDIO AT KING CENTER

APR       19                        PONTE VEDRA FL                             CONCERT HALL

APR       20                         ATLANTA GA                                    CITY WINERY

APR       21                        FRANKLIN TN                                    FRANKLIN THEATRE