{"id":144970,"date":"2024-07-05T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=144970"},"modified":"2024-07-01T08:31:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T15:31:23","slug":"review-imaginational-anthem-vol-xiii-songs-of-bruce-cockburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/review-imaginational-anthem-vol-xiii-songs-of-bruce-cockburn\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: \u2018Imaginational Anthem Vol. XIII: Songs of Bruce Cockburn\u2019 Brings New Life to Time-Tested Tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Tompkins Square record label\u2019s Imaginational Anthem<\/em> compilation series started innocently enough, digging up recordings by forgotten performers like Max Ochs and anthologizing them alongside marquee names like Robbie Basho and John Fahey. But over time, the series has grown more indie, and with this 13th volume, a tribute to the revered 78-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn<\/a>, it\u2019s become a full-blown, teenage contrarian.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compiled by indie star James Toth, who performs here as half of Armory Schafer and elsewhere as Wooden Wand, it\u2019s the unlikeliest of tribute albums, recasting Cockburn for a younger, hipper audience. It starts with the beautifully childlike \u201cFoxglove,\u201d Cockburn\u2019s second attempt at writing an instrumental, reimagined by Eli Winter with an electric buzz to re-ground the sweetness of the original melody in something darker, more diffident. Next, there\u2019s a rumbling electric tremolo to open Jerry David DeCicca\u2019s \u201cForty Years in the Wilderness,\u201d punctuated by a ringing, whammy bar\u2013inflected solo that brings a disquieted restlessness to Cockburn\u2019s need to keep moving before \u201ceverything comes undone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surprises keep coming: There\u2019s a wailing harmonica and amplified slide guitar on Matthew \u201cDoc\u201d Dunn\u2019s \u201cUp on the Hillside,\u201d a Southern-fried version that\u2019s a thousand miles from Cockburn\u2019s native Ottawa. There\u2019s a marimba to play the lead on Lou Turner\u2019s \u201cPacing the Cage,\u201d giving the track an unexpected brightness, and an electric piano\/organ to play the guitar parts on Armory Schafer\u2019s \u201cOne Day I Walk,\u201d resulting in an extra churchiness. Going in the opposite direction, there\u2019s a cavernous lead vocal and a backwards-masked guitar on Wet Tuna\u2019s \u201cWaiting for a Miracle,\u201d questioning if that long-awaited miracle will ever arrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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