By Bill Forman | Last Word Features for NorthFortyNews.com
Career-spanning set highlights classics, global influences, and songs from O Sun O Moon
Over the course of his career, Bruce Cockburn has remained a prominent figure in the music industry, crafting songs that blend spiritual depth with social consciousness. The singer-songwriter has earned 13 Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy), received six honorary doctorates, and released 35 albums, with more than one million copies sold in his native Canada alone.
Now, Cockburn is out on a solo tour, armed with just a couple of guitars — a stripped-down approach that aligns well with his reputation as a masterful guitarist and poignant lyricist.
“Back in the ‘80s, which is when a lot of people in America got introduced to my stuff, music was more band-oriented, so my guitar parts tended to shrink because I was making room for all these other instruments,” Cockburn recalled in a recent interview. “But more and more commonly over the years, I’ve been writing in such a way that the songs work either with or without a band. And the guitar parts that I include with the songs tend to function like a band — in my mind, at least.”
Over the past year or so, Cockburn has been playing a mix of career-spanning signature songs like “Wondering Where the Lions Are,” “If a Tree Falls,” and “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” alongside a selection of songs from his most recent release, “O Sun O Moon.” Cockburn’s first vocal album in six years — his 2019 album “Crowing Ignites” was entirely instrumental — it features guest appearances by Shawn Colvin, Buddy Miller, and the McCrary Sisters gospel group.
But one song fans won’t hear on this tour is Cockburn’s 1985 hit “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” which he dropped from his set list when Russia began bombing Ukraine, and he hasn’t played it since. Written after his visit to Guatemalan refugee camps that were under attack by their own government’s military helicopters, it closes with the lyric “If I had a rocket launcher, some son-of-a-bitch would die,” a line that reportedly led to some radio stations fading the song out before the last chorus.
Given changing social attitudes toward violence and the potential for misinterpretation, Cockburn doesn’t know if he’ll ever play it again. “I got really sick of hearing people shout “Yeah!” at that line,” he said. “The idea of that song representing anything to celebrate just wore on me after a while. And eventually, I said no, I’m not doing this, because the world has gotten that way, and I don’t need to further that.”
Musically, Cockburn continues to draw upon the influences of diverse cultural traditions, an approach that dates back to a time when he was determined to create a sound that was truly original.
“I went through a phase where I didn’t want to be derivative of any of the songwriters that were around at the time,” he said. “I mean, I admired artists like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. They were great songwriters. But I didn’t want to sound anything like them.”
Instead, Cockburn spent five years going out of his way to avoid listening to them or to any other popular musicians. “I listened to music from everywhere I could find,” he elaborated. “European Renaissance music, Japanese flute music, Tibetan monks chanting, guys playing a log on the beach in Guadalcanal, it was a real voyage of discovery.”
That voyage would continue, in various shapes and forms, throughout Cockburn’s career. He collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including Jamaican reggae artist Leroy Sibbles and his rhythm section, who were featured on his early hit “Wondering Where the Lions Are” and performed frequently with him at live shows. Cockburn also went on a month-long trip to Mali, West Africa, where he jammed with African desert blues musicians Ali Farka Toure and Toumane Diabaté.
Recent albums have found Cockburn incorporating more elements of American blues and early jazz into his music, although his pop and folk singer-songwriter skills are still as sharp as ever. His progressive Christian faith, meanwhile, plays a larger role in his lyrics than in years past, while his propensity for social commentary remains undiminished.
A case in point is “Orders,” which combines both elements: “The enemy outside the gate / The drunk who tags the bathroom stall / The Proud Boy headed for his fall / The list is long, as I recall / Our orders said to love them all.”
“If somebody chooses to align themselves with darkness, it doesn’t come out of nowhere,” said Cockburn. “There’s a reason that they’re doing that. It doesn’t mean that we have to tolerate their actions, but I think we should try to communicate and to confront each other with respect. And that’s something that’s been downplayed in recent years in our culture. Respect and manners and things like that have kind of gone out the window with the internet and other things. But you have to have that. Otherwise, you’re just surrendering to the chaos.”
Bruce Cockburn performs at the Armory Event Center, 314 E. Mountain Ave., Fort Collins, on Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 7 p.m., with an additional performance on Friday, March 13, 2026, also at 7 p.m. The shows are part of his solo tour and will feature a career-spanning set performed with guitar.