Photo of Bruce Cockburn by Daniel Keebler
Imagine a late summer day after the merciless sun has finally set. Dinner plates have been cleared from the table, and you hear voices in the street as neighbors venture outside to relish the trace of a breeze stirring the willows. The outdoors are cooling faster than the indoors as shadows start to stretch from the doorway to the street, but the humidity is still casting its drowsy spell. You slouch into an empty chair on the front porch, your head bobbing at random intervals as you struggle to keep your eyes open. Your uncle relishes those precious evening hours and sets his guitar on his lap. He strolls leisurely through his mental catalog of songs, feeling out the mood of the evening. He finds a promising thread, winds around the chords a few times, tugs at the melody bit-by-bit with a hum and an affirming grunt, and your head snaps to attention as a neatly wound ball of musical yarn comes tumbling out across the hot, shady lawn in the form of a beloved and aptly chosen song.
This is the scene I like to set for myself as I listen to Bruce Cockburn play a selection of fifteen songs embedded in his psyche, a psyche that has shared with the world a collection of 39 albums, including this latest addition, The Blood of Others.
The mood on the porch on this particular evening feels wistful and reflective. It resonates with memories so distant that the details are fuzzy but the feelings they evoke are still vivid. It’s curious with the knowledge that departures are inevitable and still infinitely disarming.
Bruce Cockburn is first of all a guitarist, and a singer-songwriter by immutable talent. His catalog runs deep, and his inspiration is built on a foundation of guitar legends. The selection he presents on The Blood of Others takes us on a tour of lyrically lean but powerful and melodically haunting songs, most originating in the first half of the 20th century, many made famous in the ’50s and ’60s by such names as Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, and Elvis. These songs are sourced from the roots of blues music and formed the core of Cockburn’s style. Many of these songs have likely been played on many a languid front porch.
The album opens with “Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down,” a song written in the 1920s by Reverend Robert Wilkins, recorded in 1956 along with the Georgia Sea Island Singers, and resurfaced popularly by R.L. Burnside in 2000. It anticipates mortality, considers the relief it must bring, and still doesn’t sound fully resigned to the transition. Neither is Cockburn ready to retire his craft.
Is there a song that conveys ‘departure’ more famously than “As Time Goes By” by Dooley Wilson sitting at the piano in Casablanca? The timeless film came out around the time Cockburn was born and translates well into an acoustic guitar composition with his emotional voice.
Driving home that front porch feeling is “Buddy Bolden’s Blues,” dating back to 1939 and known by a number of other names, all deriving from audiences singing along while Buddy Bolden, and eventually Jelly Roll Morton, would strum it out. As the blues go, this one could churn along on repeat, building on a story with a new installment with each pass. Cockburn gives it a charmingly gruff couple of lines and a jaunty strum that I could listen to for hours.
One of the teariest and most delicate selections is Cockburn’s treatment of “You Belong to Me,” first recorded by Joni James in 1952. This stripped-down version gives “Somewhere Out There” vibes and could be a lullaby, if the child is young enough to miss the sadness in the lyrics.
One of the best-known selections is “That’s All Right,” made famous by Elvis in 1956. True to his roots influences, Cockburn’s version here leans more classic as the song was originally written and performed by Arthur Crudup in 1946. “Four Strong Winds” was unfamiliar to me, but it is apparently canon in Cockburn’s native Canada. It was famously recorded by Ian Tyson of Ian & Sylvia fame and was voted by CBC Radio One listeners as the greatest Canadian song of all time. Cockburn’s voice sounds emotionally exhausted here, appropriately, as he channels the tiresome struggle to stay warm and positive in the face of cold, driving winter.
The collection includes two songs made famous by Billie Holiday, the first being “God Bless the Child.” The patina on Cockburn’s voice serves him well to lend some Holiday swagger, with a gentle vibrato and a touch of husky texture.
I had the good fortune of interviewing Bruce Cockburn in 2024, and he mentioned Mississippi John Hurt as one of his earliest influences. I love hearing him play Hurt’s 1928 tune “Louis Collins” and imagining the budding guitarist stage of his life.
WC Handy’s “Yellow Dog Blues” digs even deeper into musical history—written in 1914—and summons a little soulful growl from Cockburn.
While “Fare Thee Well” predates both Hurt and Handy, first recorded in 1908, it has been performed by many of Cockburn’s heroes and peers, including Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. It comes across as second nature, something Cockburn’s fingers are compelled to play in idle moments, and it sees a hint of flourish in its treatment compared with other selections.
“I’ll Be Seeing You” is another selection probably best known in its Billie Holiday version, and with two opportunities now I sense a trace of Holiday’s melancholy in Cockburn’s voice, beyond their shared need to speak out against injustice. This is one of the few tracks with additional instrumentation, and the whisper of accompanying organ enhances the sentimentality.
I was surprised by the selection of Lonnie Johnson’s “Laplegged Drunk Again.” The love of the bottle is not a common theme in Cockburn’s music, but the blues picking is, and his reverence for the bluesman helps him find his way to the feeling. Follow this with another drinking song—“One for My Baby”—and it seems the loneliness of closing time and an emptying room that perhaps draws Cockburn into those drunken shoes.
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard Cockburn’s French voice before this album. What a delight. I don’t know if it’s the song itself—“Les Feuilles Mortes” a.k.a. “The Dead Leaves”—or the language or the chords or the make this feel so heartbreakingly resigned, but this made my eyes a little foggy.
Contrast that with the closer, “Peace in the Valley,” which sounds weary but strong, and it seems this collection has been the perfect tour through the life of a wizened human who excels in getting people to walk in others’ shoes.
Honestly, I would’ve been happy with a playlist of influential songs curated by Cockburn. But to hear his voice render so many emotions through his own playing and singing of pieces that meant so much to him is another gift he has given us. And this collection gives us more than the sum of its parts—it gives us imagination, pondering how Cockburn personally connects with each piece, the impression that each selection has left on his sound and style, and the motivation for each choice of just fifteen songs from a lifetime of inspiration. For someone who agonizes over writing a Top Ten of anything, this seems a Herculean task. By that token, I would gladly welcome another of these albums. Sing us another song, Uncle Bruce! | Courtney Dowdall
Bruce Cockburn’s The Blood of Others will be available on CD, double-LP, and streaming beginning Friday, October 16.
Bruce Cockburn on tour:
10.15.26 — Kitchener, ON — Centre in the Square
10.16.26 — Ottawa, ON — National Arts Centre
10.17.26 — Toronto, ON — Massey Hall
10.18.26 — Montréal, QC — Gesù Salle
10.20.26 — Plymouth, NH — Flying Monkey&
10.21.26 — Portland, ME — State Theatre&
10.23.26 — Boston, MA — Chevalier Theatre&
10.24.26 — New York, NY — Town Hall&
10.25.26 — Philadelphia, PA — Keswick Theatre&
10.27.26 — Washington, DC — Warner Theatre&
10.29.26 — Durham, NC — Fletcher Hall&
10.30.26 — Charlotte, NC — Carolina Theatre&
11.01.26 — Nashville, TN — CMA Theatre&
11.02.26 — Knoxville, TN — Bijou Theatre&
11.04.26 — Atlanta, GA — Variety Playhouse&
11.06.26 — Ponte Vedra, FL — Ponte Vedra Concert Hall&
11.07.26 — Fort Lauderdale, FL — Amaturo Theatre&
11.08.26 — Key West, FL — Key West Theatre&
& With Livingston Taylor
