Life Short Call Now: Bruce Cockburn Plays Chandler!

The last time Canadian acoustic troubadour Bruce Cockburn played the Chandler, he arrived in the midst of a blinding snowstorm.

And so did local Vermonters, who came close to packing the beautiful old music hall in Randolph to catch an earful of Cockburn's tunes.

This year, with spring in the air, Vermonters again have another chance to hear the veteran performer at one of the Green Mountain state's premiere small theaters. With its sprightly acoustics and intimate live feel, Chandler is a venue made for the likes of Cockburn, one of the world's most passionate, gifted, and politically outspoken songwriters.

I first heard Bruce Cockburn's now-classic “Dancing In The Dragon's Jaws” CD when I was in college, and, like many others, was immediately struck by his unique combination of guitar virtuosity (among other techniques, Cockburn helped to popularize both open tunings, which allow a solo acoustic performer to create a “drone-like” bass sound, and the use of the left hand thumb as a bottom strings bass walker) and refreshingly honest songwriting. Tunes like “Wondering Where The Lions Are” and “All The Diamonds” combine the poetic and the political with an intense, intimate and personal mojo that is all Cockburn, and with in-your-face tunes like “If I Had A Rocket Launcher” and “If A Tree Falls,” he wears his political heart on his well-traveled sleeve.

On his newest CD, entitled “Life Short Call Now” (featuring a provocative image of an old rotary dial telephone, going up in flames), Cockburn continues to mine the same veins of story-telling he has for several decades now, fusing post-modern landscapes and ancient themes with his rich and lilting voice.

Consider the title track, which is vintage Cockburn:

Billboards promise paradise/
And tattoos done while you wait/
Possible futures all laid out/
On the sweeping curve of the interstate

Or track #3, the appropriately titled “Mystery.”

Can't tell me there is no mystery/
It's everywhere I turn/
Moon over junkyard where the snow lies bright/
In my heart to burn

And the gripping “This Is Baghdad,” with its Middle Eastern-tinged modal dimensions, and Cockburn driving his lyrical sense and tempered outrage straight into the heart of the most broken city on the planet, the war-ravaged capital of modern Mesopotamia.

Everything's broken in the birthplace of love/
As generation two tries on his tragic flaw/
America's might under desert sun/
I saw her frightened eyes under the muzzle of her gun

I'll stop there, because no review can give Cockburn's music the kind of poetic justice it deserves. Instead, make plans to go spend an evening with him yourself.

Hear Bruce Cockburn live at Chandler! music hall on Saturday night, March 24. The performance begins at 7:30, and tickets can be ordered by calling the Chandler box office 802-728-6464, or via email: tickets@chandler-arts.org.