Astounding

The album art is by Norval Morrisseau a great artist--Google his name and look at his work!! (my wife lived in Canada and knew him Thunder Bay). I pulled the LP out one day and she recognized the art. The music is just amazing. This is definitely an album that I can listen to and never get tired of it is beautiful, poetic..........

worth keeping

I've been a fan of Cockburn's since "Wondering Where the Lions Are" first caught my attention. It hasn't lost anything over time and still rates 5 stars. Hills of Morning has that odd high vocal in the chorus which is a little distracting from the rest of the beauty. The French in Badlands Flashback is a nice touch. Bye Bye Idi, one of the instrumentals, is cheerful and fast-moving but not deep. Overall, a great album.

Soar away free: 1979, album #9

(Edit: oops, actually #10) 8 tracks originally: short but very, very sweet. It seemed almost bizarrely sunny at the time, but was still hard not to like - truly stellar guitar work even by his own standards, and his compositions clearly widening fast. Cool that his big US hit wasn't anywhere near the best song on the record. That would be Incandescent Blue, with a Jaco-esque bass solo by Robert Boucher, amazing over the whole disk. Only the barest of political references here, and virtually nothing about human love - the spotlight is definitely on the spiritual. Also one of the very most specifically descriptive of his records, including some unexpectedly urban images ("gasoline spreading hungry rainbow over shiny black tar," and "black kids working out kung fu moves" among many others). Bonus tracks are the only instrumentals, quite different from each other, both nice...but get to know the original 8 really well first. They hang together as a very nearly perfect release.

Best Music Ever?

First heard this played over and over at the Sunshine Cafe in Chapel Hill NC when I worked as dishwasher and waiter during college. The more I listened the more attracted I became to the lyrical tone of the music and words. This is one fine record and ranks in my book as one of the all-time most complete alblums Kit

After nearly a decade spent in relative obscurity outside of his native Canada, Bruce Cockburn finally made a dent in the US market with the Top 40 hit “Wondering Where the Lions Are” from 1979′s Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws. The album continues the jazz-inflected folk he had been pursuing on his past several releases, but with a heavier emphasis on the worldbeat rhythms that would play a larger part in his music in the years to come. This album is the gentler side of Bruce Cockburn, beautiful and searching, with his acoustic guitar once again at the forefront; his intricate, yet melodic patterns the perfect backdrop for his poetic ruminations on spirituality and nature. From the opener, “Creation Dream,” his vision of the Earth’s genesis to the meditative “No Footprints” Cockburn is overcome by the wonderment of God’s work. Even amidst the “concrete vortex” and “people looking ill-at-ease,” there’s a sense of peace and overwhelming faith that runs throughout. Only “Incandescent Blue” (coincidentally the only song written outside of Canada) exhibits the kind of urban tension and consciousness that would become so evident in his work throughout the next decade; although he still finds a sort of respite in the chorus with its “white birds…[soaring] away free.” Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws, though it can’t match the sheer power of his next few releases, may be his most beautiful record, as well as an excellent culmination of his ’70s work. – Brett Hartenbach