Bruce Cockburn

Saw him solo last weekend in a community-college theater outside Milwaukee, and both the guitar playing and the songwriting were so strong and dense.

Also, had no idea he published a "spiritual memoir":

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-rumours-are-true-bruce-cockburn-on-his-new-memoir-51735/

I've been listening to his music all afternoon. I'm surprised there's been no mention of Humans, from 1980, which has no weak songs and some of his best. He even gets away with "What About the Bond", a God-says-we-can't-get-divorced song.
At his best, he's both clear-eyed and poetical/mystical; but from album to album, he can seem to lose all those qualities and become stiff, polemical and dull (like on The Trouble With Normal from 1983). It's not that he loses the balance of personal, political and spiritual; whether the records are good or bad, those elements are all still there, but some essence is missing.

Happy Canada Day! This guy is so Canadian. I also listened to Oscar Peterson ("Canadiana Suite") and Leonard Cohen today.

And Claude Vivier.

Saw him a bunch back in the day, always a good performer and a surprisingly gifted, if overwhelmingly Canadian, singer and musician.

Nothing but a Burning Light is a little-discussed classic.

*singer/songwriter

Yeah, that and Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws are my favorites of his.

That's a great one. "Wondering Where the Lions Are" is all time.

That's a great one. "Wondering Where the Lions Are" is all time.

His first four records are honestly perfect.