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Bruce Cockburn played at 2009 Mississauga Festival

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My wife and I went to see Canada’s Bruce Cockburn play at the 2009 Mississauga Waterfront Festival and he was, as usual, out of this world! This guy plays solo acoustic guitar that sounds like he has a whole band behind him.

He is a WORLD CLASS GUITARIST!

The weather was great that day. Our seats, our lawn chairs that is, were fabulous! We were up as close as you could get. The view was unobstructed, until the late comers rushed to the front row! I hate when that happens.

His set that he played was great. A nice mixture of old and some stuff from his latest album titled Slice O Life.

I loved his, If a Tree Falls in the Forest.PLEASE turn down the volume before watching this one!

Below are some great pics my wife got at the show!

Bruce Cockburn Waterfront Festival Toronto 21

Bruce’s Chrome Dobro Guitar, Fender telecaster pickup(p/u) and a built in mic. Got it in 1990.

Bruce Cockburn Waterfront Festival Toronto 12

Bruce’s 12-string by Linda Manzer, side-mounted Fishman Prefix Pro, acoustic pre-amps with Matrix p/u’s and Audio-Technica internal mics.

Bruce Cockburn Waterfront Festival Toronto 11

His main acoustic, 20 years old, extra deep body. Same p/u’s as above. Mic signal goes directly to the sound board. P/U’s run through pedals. In order Boss TU-2 tuner, Empress tremolo, Boss DD-5 delay, Line 6 MM4 and DL-4. The signal then goes through a rack-mounted Lexicon Alex reverb(for World of Wonders) and a Demeter tube DL.

Bruce Cockburn is a simply a modern day acoustic guitar god!





My new playlist with the big Adrian.

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So I guess I haven’t been keeping all of you in the loop as of yet? I’ve met this great nurse/guitarist/humanitarian at work quite a while back and invited him over to jam. Nothing special, just to get together after work and make some noise in the backyard!!!

He came over one night and we all sat in the back garden. Oh, I guess I didn’t tell you either, we have a KICK ASS backyard! My wife, Adrian, our dog Midnight and myself were all there and we just started talking and jammin’.

I noticed right away that we jelled quickly. For example, I did a rough version of If I had a Rocket Launcher by Bruce Cockburn and he would be quietly doing some both simple and complex soloing in the background, nice! Then he would do a tune that he took over and I would be in the distance, filling in some holes and adding a fuller sound.

Adrian has had a very unique musical experience. He is a singer, bassist and guitarist. He’s played in Asia and Europe and has a diverse style of music that allows him to pull things out of his bad of artistic tricks out of his bag.

So last night we got together and said, let’s make a set list that we can work on and take it from there. We can mull them over the next couple of days and see what works well for each of us. It sounds like a good collaboration.

So here is what we have so far!

Hole Hearted – Extreme
Life in the Fast lane – Eagles
Summer Breeze – Seals and Croft
Barely Breathing – Duncan Sheik
I’d Love to change the world – 10 years after
Lucky Man – ELP
If I had a Rocket Launcher – Bruce Cockburn
Listen to the Music – Doobie Brothers
Jungle Love – Steve Miller
Solsbury Hill – Peter Gabriel
Ramble on – Led Zeppelin
Walk on the Wild Side – Lou Reed
There goes my Hero*acoustic – Foo Fighters
Did I also say that we are doing it acoustic? I think that we can pull around 90% of these tunes out and do them well.

So wish us luck and I’ll get back to you on the latest results when I can!

Keep on Jammin’

Bruce Cockburn plays Rocket Launcher at Live 8

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The best thing to come out of Canada, acoustically speaking that is, is Bruce Cockburn. The way he approaches songwriting is breath taking. He makes his guitar and two hands sound like a full band.

One totally mind boggling aspect of his playing live, is that Bruce mixes up how the song is executed on stage. One night he plays it one, then the other he performs the song in a completely different position on the guitar. The essence of the song remains the same but, by playing it in contrasting locations, it allows him to add little phrasings to add even more colour to the piece. Damn this guy is GREAT!

The one song that he performs solo and the one I play the most is If I had a Rocket Launcher. Bruce’s thumb acts like both the bass and drums, while the other fingers act like the melody. This becomes very clear, to even most of the non musicians out there, when the song enters the solo part.

He has an incredible amount of independence between the his fingers and his thumb on his right hand. Mr Cockburn basically has a whole band in his right hand.

The best example of this is his performance at the Live 8 concert, held in Barrie 2006. I recall getting ready for work that day while watching it. As the time to leave for work was getting closer, I was sitting at the edge of my seat just hoping to see him before heading off. With the luck of the Irish with me that day, he waltz onto the stage just before I had to go. He did not let me down!

When I perform this song now a days, I use this concert as a reference point. I do his intro, which I’ve never heard him do it quite like this before, along with sections of his solo. The only thing different about my version is that I play it in the first position (I play it at the top of the guitar). This allows me to have more strings that ring out when playing. Filling in the musical holes if you will.

The thing about this show is, every time that I watch this show, it seems that I’ve missed out many subtle changes that he does! Damn this Bruce Cockburn fellow, I will never be able to play exactly like him~!@#$%^&*()_+!

So in case you missed out on this show/version, check out the video and tell us if you think I got it right!

Keep on Jammin’ Bruce Cockburn

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