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Bruce Cockburn. Celebrated Canadian singer-songwriter. By now, you've heard it all. A man who stuck to his guns and achieved international success. Awards. Big selling records. Tours across North America, Europe and Japan. Big time.
A restless soul, Cockburn doesn't stand still, sometimes to the chagrin of former fans who can't accept his changes. For a few years now the former folkie has been experimenting with more complex arrangements and -- with Inner City Front he has dashed full steam into the arms of rock, jazz and reggae. All the while never forsaking the meaningful lyrics which are a Cockburn specialty.
"I don't think a good beat precludes there being meaning in a song. If anything, there is more appeal in having rhythmic music with good lyrics. Right now I'd rather be doing music that makes my seat move and also affects my brain," he told me earlier this year.
Which is what Inner City Front is. The album picks up where Humans and this year's Mummy Dust compilation left off. It is provocative, piercing lyrically, yet also more complex and moving musically than anything he has done before.
Cockburn offers up reggae rhythm, a jazz fusion instrumental, and the same tender underbelly to his arrangements which lend the music a romantic, introspective appeal.
A questioning Christian, he deftly balances faith in Man and love with controlled cynicism. In Justice he can summon up the sins committed in the name of Jesus, Buddha, Islam and Man, calmly stating how "everybody loves to see justice done on somebody else."
Yet Broken Wheel asks for Jesus' guidance.
And not all Cockburn's probings are religious in nature for above all he is human. Wanna Go Walking and And We Dance celebrate small but meaningful human pleasures. And so on.
Bruce Cockburn is a songwriter awesomely in control of his creative faculties. By simply being himself and questioning he taps into the universality of living. Inner City Front is another understated musical gem. Here's hoping the mystic in the running shoes never stops running.