Old Enough to Forget

Chalk Circle - As The Crow Flies (1989) Chalk Circle is probably best known for their single "April Fool" that came out in 1986. I always paired it in my head with Eight Seconds "Kiss You When It's Dangerous, I'm not sure why, but I did. They were both infectious songs, and I was going to buy the albums ... spoiler ... I never did get them. Over time I'd forget the songs, but I always remembered the bands. Not that long ago I found Almacantar by Eight Seconds, but Chalk Circle would elude me for a long time.  Then during the great sale of '23 when my favourite, and now closed, record store decided to sell everything in the store for a toonie, I found a pristine copy of As The Crow Flies . For you kids who weren't there, by '89 (earlier, but whatever) CDs were the shit, and vinyl was dead ... the fact this was still pressed was in some respects an anomaly. Not that I'm complaining. But for those who go on about the warmth of vinyl you should ...

It's been a long time since I've sat and listened to this one all the way through. When I wrote about World of Wonders almost a year ago I spent half of the meanderamble talking about this particular album before finally getting to the point ... or as close to point as I ever get. When I think of this album I think of two songs, which happen to be the one two punch that kick of side one. The title track and the awesome stick work by Dennis Pendrith, and "Candy Man's Gone" a song so good that it still stops me in my tracks. When Mister Cockburn had a mind to he could craft one hell of a pop song that had some real bite to the lyrics. There were no baby baby songs here. This was heavy stuff that you needed to sit and read as you listened. I'll be the first to admit that I like the shiny objects and the pretty music with a hook. For Bruce it seemed like he relished setting the hook early and then seeing how much he could getaway with before he lost the fish. In ...

Bruce Cockburn is an artists' artist. One whose conviction and seriousness seem overwhelming and to be honest a little intimidating. He always seemed like a guy who had a sense of humour but kept it in a shoe box one the shelf in his closet lest he use it and undermine his own sense of purpose. As a teenager my first exposure to him was when he hit it big with "Wondering Where the Lions Are" a song that is intricately structured. I saw him perform the song on Saturday Night Live, and I remember thinking, "Wow, he's on T.V." followed closely by "Man, I can't stand that song." It was true, it was right up there as a tweofer along with Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as songs I could appreciate the grandeur and scope of, but couldn't stand. Then there'd be other songs, and for whatever reason I never forgot his appearance on The Alan Hamel Show (that later devolved into The Alan Thicke Show, and would ...