Last year, Canadian folk artist Bruce Cockburn belated launched a tour celebrating 50 years in music. When we ran an excerpt from this interview last Christmas season, we started off talking about the tour. Since he's not on tour now, I cut some of that material but did start with a conversation on how someone with 50-plus years in the business relates to the music he wrote decades ago.
We focused our attention on Christmas, his 1993 album of Christmas music. We talk about its humble origins and the versions that inspired some of his takes. To let you in on the conversation, I also included Sam Phillips' version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon's "Christ was Born on Christmas Morn," which Cockburn recorded as "Early on One Christmas Morn." He also talks about why he chose to sing the Huron Christmas carol "Jesus Ahtonnia" in its native language.
It's a good conversation that fits the album into conversations about faith and life, and what can happen over the course of more than 50 years.
On November 25, he will have three new releases—the digital album Rarities, which features songs previously on the Rumors of Glory box set along with tracks recorded for tribute albums to Gordon Lightfoot, Pete Seeger, Mississippi Sheiks and Mississippi John Hurt. He will also release vinyl versions of 1997’s The Charity of the Night and 1999’s Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu. You pre-order all of them now from his label, True North Records.
Pink Martini
Jimbo Mathus of Squirrel Nut Zippers
Johnny Mathis
Lowland Hum
Scott McCaughey of The Minus 5
Darling West
The 179 Days of Christmas
Los Straitjackets, and The Band's "Christmas Must Be Tonight"
Chris Butler of The Waitresses
Rodney Crowell and Flow Tribe
PJ Morton, and "All I Want for Christmas is You"
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Kristin Chambers and Mars Williams
Delicate Steve, and Outkast's "Player's Ball"
Wizards of Winter, and Faith Hill's "A Baby Changes Everything"
The Sultans of String and The Carpenters' "Merry Christmas Darling"
Robert Earl Keen
Michael Cerveris and Kimberly Kaye of Loose Cattle
Ben Schenck of the Panorama Jazz Band
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