| Small Source of Comfort | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2011 | |||
| Recorded | The Bathouse, Bath, Ontario, Pinhead Recorders, Nashville | |||
| Genre | Folk, pop | |||
| Length | 53:39 | |||
| Label | True North | |||
| Producer | Colin Linden | |||
| Bruce Cockburn chronology | ||||
| ||||
Small Source of Comfort is the 24th studio album by Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn, his first studio album in five years. It was released in 2011 by True North Records.
Cockburn said two of the songs on the album had been inspired by his travels and work. "Through the auspices of various organizations, I’ve been to troubled areas around the world," he told the PremierGuitar.com website. "I don’t feel like I’m doing the real work, but through my songs I can bring attention to these issues, hopefully helping to make the world a better place—or at least keep it from getting worse so fast. My travels don’t show up too much on this album, except on the song "Each One Lost" and the instrumental "Ancestors," which I wrote following a trip to Kandahar, Afghanistan under the auspices of the Canadian army. I witnessed a ceremony there honoring the sacrifices of two soldiers who had been killed and whose bodies were being flown back to Canada. I felt I had to give listeners an impression of what that felt like, so I went home and wrote "Each One Lost," the first half of which is in my perspective and the second half in that of a soldier. It was a very deep and emotional experience—one of the saddest things I’ve ever had the privilege to witness, and I wanted to let listeners know how it felt." [1]
Another song, "Gifts," originally written in 1968 but never previously recorded. Cockburn explained: "When we did the first album, back at the end of the ‘60s I was singing that song in my shows. At the time, (manager) Bernie Finkelstein kept trying to get me to record the song, and I told him I was going to save it for the last album. After a while it just kind of disappeared. When we started to record this album I thought it’d be cool to bring back 'Gifts' but not tell Bernie. I also felt that at this point you never know ... I’m not getting any younger. So maybe there will be another album or maybe there won’t. It’s not a prediction of any kind. I just thought it was time to get it on record." [2] He said Finkelstein was taken aback when he first heard the recording. "When the song started, he just took a double take right away," Cockburn said. "He turned to me after it was over, and he said, 'Is there anything I should know?' And I said no—it was just in case." [3]
The album features two songs co-written with former Wailin' Jennys member Annabelle Chvostek. Cockburn said: "I haven’t done very much co-writing with people over the years. Annabelle called me up one day and asked if I’d like to try writing a song with her. I hadn’t written anything for a while and I thought, 'That might be good.' ... I knew she was good. And I thought maybe this was the catalyst to get my own creative juices flowing again. We wrote 'Driving Away' and then got together again and wrote 'Boundless'. We wrote them as duets because we were writing them as equals, so we decided that we would record them on that level and perform them on that level." [4]
On another song, "Call Me Rose," he writes from the point of view of Richard Nixon, reincarnated as a single mother living in the projects. "I woke up one morning with this song in my head," Cockburn said, "and the opening line of the song is, 'My name was Richard Nixon, only now I'm a girl'." [3] He said he had been angered by an earlier campaign by a member of the Bush administration to bring back the image of Richard Nixon. "There were all these pronouncements being made by various pundits in the press that he was the 'greatest President ever' and that he was misunderstood and all this baloney. And the interesting thing was nobody bought it. They kept doing this for a couple months and then all of a sudden it just disappeared; which suggested to me that somebody had paid to get this campaign going and once it hadn’t born fruit just cut it off. I was pleased to see that the American public was not taken in. Other than the fact that he made a very important gesture in terms of establishing communications with China—there’s no taking that away from him—he was a crook and a scumbag and no one should think otherwise. The fact that he was also an intelligent man doesn’t really mitigate the crookedness, or the carrying on of the war. The idea that you could bring him back as the 'greatest president ever' was absurd. So I suppose somewhere in there I might have been thinking, 'What would it take rehabilitate actual Richard Nixon?' Not just his image. So in the song he’s re-imagined as a single mom living in the projects. I guess it’s kind of like Groundhog Day ." [5]
"Comets of Kandahar", one of four instrumentals on the album, also had its origins in Afghanistan: "An instrumental piece isn’t really about anything, but you have to come up with names for these things. So the title came from something one of the Canadian soldiers said to me while we were standing there watching—what I learned was kind of a nightly pleasure for a lot of people on the base—the jet fighters taking off constantly, twenty-four hours a day, for missions or patrols. They go off in pairs, thirty seconds apart, and after dark you can’t see them; you just hear a roar. But a moment later you’ll see the flame, from the tail cone, coming out of the fighter. And that’s all you can see. There’s this glowing purplish cone flying across the sky. Everyone stops to look at this because it’s a beautiful sight. So there we are standing, a bunch of us, and we’re all looking at it, and the soldier standing next to me said, 'The comets of Kandahar.' So that became the title of the piece." [5]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [6] |
| Slant Magazine | [7] |
In a review for Allmusic, critic Thom Jurek wrote "Cockburn's words have always held keen insight when pointed at the world, but these cut away the outside and look in the mirror first. There are some fine instrumentals here, too... Small Source of Comfort, which—for all its economy—is abundant in wisdom, empathy, and acceptance; further, it is illuminated beautifully in a deeply personal, even iconic, musical language." [6] Joseph Jon Lanthier of Slant Magazine wrote "With the meditative bemusement and ever-changing geographic backdrops of a pilgrim, Bruce Cockburn is arguably at his best when recollecting intense observations in tranquility... his humane snapshots are no less vivid now, but he seems unprecedentedly distant from their emotional heft." [7] PremiereGuitar.com praised the album: "Cockburn's shimmering arpeggios, syncopated riffs, and hypnotic single-note lines blend elements of Mississippi John Hurt, Jerry Garcia, Leo Kottke, and Brazilian greats Luiz Bonfa and Oscar Castro-Neves, yet remain entirely his own." [8]
Cockburn and Small Source of Comfort received two Canadian Folk Music Awards, for best contemporary album and best solo artist, at the 7th Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2011. [8]
(All songs by Bruce Cockburn except where indicated)
Philip Tyler Keaggy is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. He is a seven-time recipient of the GMA Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, and was twice nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. He has frequently been listed as one of the world's top-two "finger-style" and "finger-picking" guitarists by Guitar Player Magazine readers' polls, and due to his complex and virtuosic playing, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Bruce Douglas Cockburn is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to folk- and jazz-influenced rock to soundscapes accompanying spoken stories. His lyrics reflect interests in spirituality, human rights, environmental issues, and relationships, and describe his experiences in Central America and Africa.
Maurice Ernest Gibb was a British musician and songwriter. He achieved worldwide fame as a member of the pop group Bee Gees. Although his elder brother Barry Gibb and twin brother Robin Gibb were the group's main lead singers, most of their albums included at least one or two songs featuring Maurice's lead vocals, including "Lay It on Me", "Country Woman" and "On Time". The Bee Gees are one of the most successful pop-rock groups of all time.
John J. Mellencamp, previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, followed by an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Tonight's the Night is the sixth studio album by Canadian / American songwriter Neil Young. It was recorded in August–September 1973, mostly on August 26, but its release was delayed until June 1975. It peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200. The album is the third and final of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy" of albums that Young released following the major success of 1972's Harvest, whereupon the scope of his success and acclaim became so difficult for Young to handle that he subsequently experienced alienation from his music and career.
American Stars 'n Bars is the eighth studio album by Canadian-American folk rock songwriter Neil Young, released on Reprise Records in 1977. Compiled from recording sessions scattered over a 29-month period, it includes "Like a Hurricane", one of Young's best-known songs. It peaked at #21 on the Billboard 200 and received a RIAA gold certification.
On the Beach is the fifth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released by Reprise Records in July 1974. The album is the second of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy" of albums that Young recorded following the major success of 1972's Harvest, whereupon the scope of his success and acclaim became apparent; On the Beach was inspired by his feelings of retreat, alienation, and melancholy in response to this success.
Tony Lombardo is an American musician who was the original bassist in the punk rock band the Descendents. He joined the band in 1979 and played on their debut single, the Fat EP (1981), and the albums Milo Goes to College (1982) and I Don't Want to Grow Up (1985). After leaving the band, he performed in other acts and worked for the United States Postal Service until 2005. He collaborated with the Descendents' successor band, All, writing two songs for their album Allroy's Revenge (1989) and teaming up with them for an album of his own songs, New Girl, Old Story (1991), credited to "TonyAll". He also collaborated with the reunited Descendents on their 1996 album Everything Sucks, and the 2021 album 9th and Walnut.
Self Portrait is the tenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 8, 1970, by Columbia Records.
"Blinded by the Light" is a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen, which first appeared on his 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. A cover by British rock band Manfred Mann's Earth Band reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in February 1977 and was also a top ten hit in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada.
Steve Bell,C.M.,O.M., is a Canadian singer/songwriter and guitarist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is among the best-known Christian musicians in Canada and is an accomplished songwriter and record producer. Before embarking on his solo career he was a long-time member of the group Elias, Schritt and Bell. In 1989, Bell founded the independent recording label Signpost Music along with Dave Zeglinski, long-time friend and co-producer. His first solo album, Comfort My People, was released on Signpost that same year. Bell now has twenty albums to his credit. Among his many awards are two Junos, several GMA Canada Covenant Awards and the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
"That's Not Me" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Written by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher, it is distinguished for its sophisticated harmonic structure and its sudden shifts in mood and instrumental textures. Owing to its relatively sparse orchestration, it is the track on Pet Sounds that most closely resembles a conventional rock song.
"'Til I Die" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys from their 1971 album Surf's Up, subsequently issued as the B-side of the single "Long Promised Road". With autobiographical lyrics about death and hopelessness, it is one of the few songs in which both the words and music were written solely by Brian Wilson. An extended mix of the original recording, created by engineer Stephen Desper, was included on the 1998 Endless Harmony Soundtrack.
Annabelle Chvostek is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario.
9 is the seventh studio album by Public Image Ltd, but their ninth full-length release including the live albums Paris au Printemps and Live in Tokyo. It was released in May 1989 on the Virgin Records label.
"The Bleeding" is a song by American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch. It is the lead single from the band's first album The Way of the Fist (2007), released through Firm Music.
Resilience is an album released in 2008 by Annabelle Chvostek. The album was recorded with producers Roma Baran and Vivian Stoll. It includes a co-write with Canadian Bruce Cockburn.
"A Mind Beside Itself" is a three-part song cycle by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, comprising the songs "Erotomania", "Voices" and "The Silent Man". It was first released on Dream Theater's 1994 album Awake.
Further Adventures of is the eighth studio album by Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn. The album was released in 1978 by True North Records. The title of the album is not "Further Adventures of Bruce Cockburn" and the original album cover the title is simply "Further Adventures of". The album cover displays a picture of a small globe of the Earth after the title, implying that the adventures referred to are those of the planet Earth, not of Cockburn.
Rewind the Film is the eleventh studio album by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 16 September 2013 by Columbia Records. The sound is very different from previous records and is more acoustic-driven. It features guests Lucy Rose, Cate Le Bon and Richard Hawley.
