BRUCE COCKBURN & FRIENDS : LUMINATO 2010 - BRUCE COCKBURN TRIBUTE

 

Disc One (48:27)

  1. Sunwheel Dance [Jason Fowler]
  2. If a Tree Falls [Buck 65 with Jason Fowler, Colin Linden And Hawksley Workman]
  3. One Day I Walk [Sylvia Tyson with Jason Fowler]
  4. Homme Brulant [Michael Occhipinti Group]
  5. Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long [Amelia Curran]
  6. You Don't Have to Play the Horses [Blackie & The Rodeo Kings]
  7. If I Had a Rocket Launcher [Bruce Cockburn]
  8. Tie Me at the Crossroads [Bruce Cockburn with Blackie & The Rodeo Kings]

Disc Two (70:29)

  1. introduction
  2. Lovers in a Dangerous Time [Barenaked Ladies, The Wailin' Jennys and Bruce Cockburn]
  3. Going Down the Road [The Wailin' Jennys]
  4. Child of the Wind [The Wailin' Jennys]
  5. Waiting for a Miracle [Colin Linden with The Wailin' Jennys and Bruce Cockburn]
  6. Night Train [Bruce Cockburn with The Wailin' Jennys]
  7. Pacing the Cage [Bruce Cockburn]
  8. Strange Waters [Bruce Cockburn]
  9. Last Night of the World [Bruce Cockburn with Hawksley Workman]
  10. Tokyo [Hawksley Workman with Todd Lumley]
  11. Wondering Where the Lions Are [All artists]
  12. Mystery [Bruce Cockburn wit Ron Sexsmith and all artists]

Label : no label

Venue : Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Recording Date : June 16, 2010

Quality : FM recording (A+)

Review (The Cockburn Project) : Massey Hall was close to capacity, with only some of the upper rows in the very top balcony (the "gallery") empty. Colin Linden and the house band did an excellent job. Gary Craig, especially, looked like he was having a great time and played superbly. Jian Ghomeshi did a good job as the host of the event. He's a likeable guy and his between song banters with the crowd were often quite funny. Buck 65 is Rich Terfry, a CBC radio DJ. He's also a musician and started out doing hip-hop in the early 90s. His hip-hop versions of Slow Down Fast and If A Tree Falls were only sort of successful, though Colin Linden's growling guitar helped them out quite a bit (and Slow Down Fast is almost hip-hop already). I thought Michael Occhipinti's guitar was a little low in the mix during Homme Brulant, but Kevin Turcotte's trumpet sounded great and is really the focus of that interpretation of the song anyway. The Toronto Star review kind of writes off Amelia Curran's performance, but I thought she did a nice smoky version of Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse Night Long and a smooth version of All The Diamonds (though it sounded to me like she sang "...are conjured up by wind and sunlight sparkling on the breeze", instead of "...on the sea", but that could have been me mishearing). Blackie and Rodeo Kings (Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing - who seems to be getting taller every time I see him, and Tom Wilson - who's getting more imposing every time I see him...) did a searing version of You Don't Have to Play the Horses, with Fearing and Wilson growling their way through the verses. Lots of fierce electric guitar on this one, too. Bruce looked very short next to some of the performers, especially next to Tom Wilson during Tie Me At The Crossroads. In fact, after Night Train, accompanied by The Wailin' Jennys, Bruce commented that he felt like a gnome who'd just woken up surrounded by angels. The Barenaked Ladies were much better than I expected and it was nice that they chose an obscure song, Laughter (including the "new" verse- "A laugh for Bernie Finkelstein / Going from fat to thin / Ha ha ha..." ) and singing the words "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young" to the tune of the song at the end (don't ask me why) before doing a double-time Lovers In A Dangerous Time, complete with nimble guitar solo from Bruce. Going Down The Road was probably the most obscure song of the night and was performed beautifully acapella by the Wailin' Jennys. I wonder how many/few in the audience were familiar with that one? Hawksley Workman seemed the most "honoured" to be at the event (surprisingly, as he can come across as sort of arrogant) and I could see him at the side of the stage watching the other performers through most of the evening. He told an anecdote about his father buying lots of records, usually for only one song. As a child, he eventually started exploring those albums more and one of them was Humans, which he said grabbed his attention because of the photo on the cover which looked just like his babysitter's brother who he was in awe of because he had figured out Rubik's Cube. Workman's version of Loner was very intense and almost scary, as he stalked around the stage, pouring himself into the song and ripping melodic and dissonant notes from his electric guitar. One of the highlights of the evening, by far.