Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn is on tour — 19 upcoming shows; next: Jul 24, 2026 in Beaver Creek, United States.

• Folk
• Rock

"Bruce Douglas Cockburn" born May 27, 1945 is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011, and his musical career spans over 40 years. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll. Just as his musical style has varied through the years, his song lyrics have dealt with a broad range of topics. A review of Cockburn's lyrics reveals a passion for human rights, political issues and Christianity over his long musical career. Cockburn was born in 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and spent some of his early years on a farm outside Pembroke, Ontario. He has stated in interviews that his first guitar was one he found around 1959 in his grandmother's attic, which he adorned with golden stars and used to play along to radio hits. Cockburn was a student (but did not study music) at Nepean High School, where his 1964 yearbook photo states his desire "to become a musician". He attended Berklee School of Music in Boston for three semesters in the mid-1960s. In 1966 he joined an Ottawa band called The Children, which lasted for about a year. In the spring of 1967 he joined the final lineup of The Esquires. He moved to Toronto that summer to form The Flying Circus with former Bobby Kris & The Imperials members Marty Fisher and Gordon MacBain and ex-Tripp member Neil Lillie. The group recorded some material in late 1967 (which remains unreleased) before changing its name to Olivus in the spring of 1968, by which time Lillie (who changed his name to Neil Merryweather) had been replaced by Dennis Pendrith from Livingstone's Journey. Olivus opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream in April 1968. That summer Cockburn broke up the band with the intention of going solo, but he ended up in the band 3's a Crowd with David Wiffen, Colleen Peterson, and Richard Patterson, who had played with him in The Children. Cockburn left this band in the spring of 1969 to pursue a solo career.

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