Description
Nothing But a Burning Light is the sixteenth studio album by the Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bruce Cockburn, released on True North Records in November 1991, distributed by Columbia Records outside of Canada. (The title was derived from a line in the Blind Willie Johnson blues classic “Soul of a Man”, a song covered on the album.) The album was recorded and mixed May-July 1991 by Pat McCarthy at Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California; with T-Bone Burnett producing assisted by Joe Henry. (Except track 1 recorded by McCarthy and mixed by David Leonard at Scream Studios in Hollywood.) All songs written by Bruce Cockburn except “Soul of a Man” written by Blind Willie Johnson.
What had been fresh in the mid-’80s for Bruce Cockburn (with ‘Stealing Fire‘) became increasingly sterile and didactic by the decade’s close. There is only so much socio-political insight (no matter how astute), and assimilated-but-blanched Latin American pop influences a fan can take. ‘Big Circumstance‘ signaled a need for change. The conscientious Canadian’s live album of last year provided a preview.
Enter T-Bone Burnett, just the man to pare down Cockburn’s sound to a rootsiness unplumbed since his early albums in the ’70s. Burnett aficionados will recognize a spartan quality to the tracks, similar to his work with the BoDeans and Los Lobos. No surprise, then, but an effective familiarity that works well with Cockburn’s increasingly emotive vocal range.
What is surprising is that this aesthetic re-invention coincides with a renewed spiritual depth and contentment evident in his honest-as-always lyrics. If his last few albums gave the impression of a mostly dour man, «A Dream Like Mine» is most empoweringly joyous. Likewise with «Child of the Wind» and «Great Big Love», any of which could prime Cockburn as a newfound darling of VH-1.
But you can’t keep a good politicker down. «Kit Carson» and «Mighty Trucks of Midnight» hit upon the dark side of U.S. imperialism and greed in appropriately brooding manners. Cockburn’s only poetic miscue this album comes in «Indian Wars», the subject of which he served with more justice on «Stolen Land» (especially the live version), though the former’s mourning flamenco feel compensates duly.
If «Wars» treads over old territory, new ground a plenty gets covered, too. Is «Actions Speaks Louder» his first surf instrumental? «Cry of a Tiny Baby» is Cockburn’s first Christmas song in over 15 years. More traditional contact with the divine is explored in the remake of Blind Willie Johnson‘s «Soul of a Man» and Cockburn’s first love song to God in a long time, «Somebody Touched Me».
Perhaps all this contentment on Cockburn’s part stems from his hanging around North America for the past couple of years (check the “city citations” he provides after the lyrics). Perhaps his restrengthened musical vim comes in part from the vocal contributions Burnett elicited from Sam Phillips and Jackson Browne and ace instrumentalists like organist Booker T. Jones and fiddler/mandolinist Mark O’Connor. In any case, ‘Nothing But a Burning Light’ is more than that; it’s Bruce Cockburn’s most “Christian” and musically satisfying album in more than a decade. [Jamie Lee Rake, CCM, November 1991]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/nothing-but-a-burning-light/360945234)
CD tracklist:
01. A Dream Like Mine – 3:53
02. Kit Carson – 4:12
03. Mighty Trucks of Midnight – 5:54
04. Soul of a Man – 3:52
05. Great Big Love – 5:11
06. One of the Best Ones – 6:57
07. Somebody Touch Me – 4:14
08. Cry of a Tiny Baby – 7:30
09. Actions Speaks Louder – 2:59
10. Indian Wars – 6:58
11. When It’s Gone, It’s Gone – 4:14
12. Child of the Wind – 4:09
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by True North Records. Also released on 12-inch vinyl LP in Europe by Columbia Records. Available at Bandcamp: https://brucecockburn.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-but-a-burning-light
An advertisement for Bruce Cockburn’s Nothing But A Burning Light was featured in the December 1991 issue of CCM Magazine.
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