He also believes that, on this album, he is at something of a turning point. The musicianship, the writing and the performance on the record are of the continuing high caliber that Cockburn audiences have come to revere over the years, but still, something is different. Perhaps his history can help contextualize his present. Hindsight is always more revealing, Cockburn says, and sometimes things that were unintended turn out to be true. In the Falling Dark and 1977 s Circles in the Stream , a pattern seems to have emerged.
Every third album seems to be accompanied by a change in direction or a profound growth spurt.
Bruce s first work with producer T-Bone Burnett. I learned a lot from T-Bone, says Cockburn. He had a sense of capturing the essence of the song in the studio, a way of thinking about recording songs that was enlightening for me. Three albums later, on The Charity of Night , Cockburn was ready to take the production reins in earnest. He had cut his teeth on the Christmas album in 1993, and he felt that, with an able assist from longtime musical associate and co-producer Colin Linden, he was ready to step behind the console.