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Bruce
Cockburn
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Murray
McLauchlan
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Bruce
Cockburn
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b. 27 May 1945, Ottawa,
Canada.
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This singer-songwriter has long
been heralded as Canada's best-kept secret.
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His numerous early albums (10 from
1970 to 1979) were tainted by a strong devotional feel,
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tied to their author's Christian
beliefs. However, after his breakthrough single 'Wondering
Where
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The Lions Are' (from Dancing In
The Dragon's Jaws ), his lyrical gaze had turned to the body
politic.
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Cockburn had travelled
prolifically throughout several continents, and this had opened his mind to
a
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different strata of subjects: 'I
always go around with my notebook open in my mind'. His
experiences
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abroad became the core of his
work, particularly World Of Wonders. One song, 'They Call It
Democracy',
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was turned down by MTV until the
accompanying video removed the names of several high profile
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corporate concerns. More recent
work has embraced environmental concerns, from the
destruction
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of the rain forests ('If A Tree
Falls'), to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster ('Radium Rain'). A prolific
writer,
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Cockburn now lives in Toronto, a
divorcee who enjoys horse riding and the company of his teenage
daughter.
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He is enormously popular in his
homeland yet his brand of folk rock remains only a cult item
elsewhere.
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Even the weight of producer T-Bone
Burnett, mixer Glyn Johns and Columbia Records could not
make
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Dart To The Heart a commercial
success in other territories.
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Murray
McLauchlan
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Born in Scotland in 1948, Murray
McLauchlan moved to Canada at the age of five.
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He began playing guitar several
years later and, after graduation in the mid-'60s, moved to New
York.
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The folksinger returned in 1968
and, due to popularity around Toronto, recorded his first
album,
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Songs from the Street (1971).
Fourteen more albums for True North Records followed,
including
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Murray McLauchlan (1972), Day to
Day Dust (1973), Sweeping the Spotlight Away (1974),
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Only the Silence Remains (1975),
Boulevard (1976), Hard Rock Town (1977), Greatest Hits
(1978),
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Whispering Rain (1979), Into a
Mystery (1980), Storm Warning (1981), Windows (1982),
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Timberline (1983), Heroes (1984)
and Midnight Break (1985). McLauchlan switched to Capitol
for
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1988's Swinging on a Star and
1991's The Modern Age.
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Photograph of Bruce Cockburn and
Murray McLauchlan by John Robert Rowlands.
