BRUCE COCKBURN
Speechless
True North Records
· A prophet’s strings are beautiful things.
Speechless is not the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of Bruce Cockburn, the Canadian bard who often lends his voice to the downtrodden and oppressed. But Cockburn’s latest release finds him silent and strumming and the result is a beautiful tapestry of Cockburn’s instrumental recordings (three previously unreleased), which meander through the vast range of human emotion and experience.
Over the course of this journey, Cockburn uses a wide range of guitar styles. We bounce through the sprightly and jubilant "Train in the Rain" and then are slowed down by the introspective melody of the contemplative "Elegy." But Cockburn doesn’t take up permanent residence in a dark night – he pulls us back into the light with the carefree rhythm of "Rouler Sa Bosse." Soon after, the otherworldly "Islands In A Black Sky" invites us once again into mystical imaginings of things we can’t see.
So leads Cockburn, saying not a word, but merely inviting us to listen in our own silence. Cockburn’s strings say in music what the English mystic Julian of Norwich said in words: "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
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