Bruce Cockburn – Bone On Bone

BRUCE COCKBURN

Bone On Bone

True North Records

brucecockburn.com

truenorthrecords.com

I’ve known Bruce Cockburn for a long time. I first met him and heard him perform, circa 1970 or ’71, at the short-lived Back Door Coffee House in Montreal around the time his first LP was released. Over the decades, I’ve seen Bruce many times in venues large and small, I’ve listened to every album he’s ever made, and I’ve interviewed him for newspaper and magazine articles and on the radio.

Bone On Bone, Bruce’s new album (which will be released September 15), his first in more than six years, is a compelling set of personal, often spiritual, songs that touches folk, rock, blues, jazz and gospel bases.

The album begins with the unmistakable sound of Bruce’s acoustic guitar on the intro to “States I’m In.” Within seconds the other musicians kick in and Bruce launches into poetic, intense verses that seem like metaphors for contemporary America. “Oo-ee all the sights I’ve seen in the depth of the world and the heart of a dream/Oo-ee all the places I’ve been each one reflected in the states I’m in,” he sings in the chorus. Like most of the songs on the album, it was written in San Francisco, where Bruce has been living for the past several years.

As mentioned, several of these songs reflect Bruce’s deeply rooted spirituality. “Stab at Matter,” which seems like it could be interpreted as an end-times song, has an infectious gospel feel to it with the San Francisco Lighthouse Chorus responding to Bruce’s calls. The Chorus sings on about half of the songs on Bone On Bone.

Other spiritually-based songs include the lovely “Forty Years in the Wilderness” and “Looking and Waiting,” which I interpret as a search for signs of God. The most obvious signs of Bruce’s religiosity come near the end of the album in the declarative “Jesus Train” and in a version of the traditional “Twelve Gates to the City” with additional verses by Bruce that leave little doubt that his religious vision is broad and inclusive. (Bruce and I had an interesting discussion on the evolution of his religious thinking for “Bruce Cockburn: On Spirituality, Activism and Music,” the cover story of the Summer 2002 edition of Sing Out! magazine.)

Other highlights on Bone On Bone include “3 Al Purdys,” in which Bruce sets words by the late Canadian poet Al Purdy to music; “Café Society,” an observational blues about the comings and goings at local coffee shops everywhere; and “Bone On Bone,” yet another of Bruce’s gripping acoustic guitar explorations.

Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Cockburn (2017)

The album was produced by Colin Linden, who has, by now, worked on many of Bruce’s recordings and has a deep understanding of Bruce’s music, and features such fine musicians as Colin on guitar, bassist John Dymond, drummer Gary Craig, Ron Miles on cornet, and John Aaron Cockburn on accordion.

Bruce will be supporting Bone On Bone with an extensive tour that brings him to the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa on September 22. Visit Bruce’s website for a complete list of concertdates.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Jayme Stone’s Folklife

JAYME STONE’S FOLKLIFE

Jayme Stone’s Folklife

Borealis Records

jaymestone.com

borealisrecords.com

A little over two years ago, the masterful banjo player Jayme Stone released Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project, an superb album in which he and a revolving cast of singers and musicians reimagined 19 songs – mostly traditional folksongs – that had been collected by legendary folklorist Alan Lomax (1915-2002) over a period of many years. As I noted in my review, “it is an extraordinary collection at once timeless, traditional and utterly contemporary.”

Although the CD featured different musicians and singers on different tracks Jayme worked with more focused smaller groups when taking the Lomax Project out on the road. The superb Lomax Project concert that I got to see and hear – March 16, 2016 in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre Fourth Stage – featured Jayme with primary lead singer and accordionist Moira Smiley, bassist Joe Phillips and fiddler Sumaia Jackson. Moira and Joe had each appeared on about a third of the tracks on Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project while Sumaia was recruited sometime after the recording was completed.

While I went into that concert wondering if Jayme, Moira, Joe and Sumaia would be credible performing the often complex arrangements that had been played by other combinations of musicians on the CD, it was quickly obvious that the four had formed a wonderful, tight performing unit. It was one of the finest concerts I’ve seen in recent years.

Jayme Stone’s Folklife is the follow-up to the Lomax Project CD. At about 43 minutes and 10 songs it’s a shorter CD than the first one (which had 19 songs and clocked in at 66 minutes). But it’s a tighter, more focused group with nine of the 10 songs featuring the core group of Jayme, Moira, Joe and Sumaia – sometimes augmented by drummer Nick Fraser and/or harmony singers Felicity Williams and Denzel Sinclaire. And although most of the songs come from Lomax field recordings, there are a couple here that came through other collectors.

Although each of these tracks is a terrific performance highlighted by great playing and Moira’s charismatic lead vocals, a few of my very favorites include “Mwen Pas Danse” with its bouncy, breezy Caribbean rhythms; “Hey, Lally Lally Lo,” which I learned at summer camp in the 1960s as a singalong song that we’d improvise verses to, but which Moira turns into a sexy torch song; and the a cappella finale, “Wait on the Rising Sun,” with Moira’s lead vocals supported by Jayme, Sumaia, Joe, Felicity and Denzel in glorious harmonies.

“Buttermilk” is the only song on Jayme Stone’s Folklife not to feature the core musicians. On this song Jayme, on banjo, is joined by Dom Flemons who sings and plays guitar and quills (a panpipe flute made from cane reeds) and jazz musician Ron Miles on cornet. It’s a delightful, energetic performance on which you can also hear percussive bones playing – I assume by Dom who I’ve seen play them during his days with the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

As I said about Jayme Stone's Lomax Project, this album is “an extraordinary collection at once timeless, traditional and utterly contemporary.”

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--Mike Regenstreif