ARTIST: Bruce Cockburn 
TITLE: In the Falling Dark
YEAR RELEASED: 1976
CHART ACTION: None
SINGLES: None
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Not really
LINEUP: Bruce Cockburn, Michael Donato, Bob Disalie, Bill Usher, Dennis Pendrith, Kathryn Moses, Fred Stone, and others
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: On his seventh (7!) album, Cockburn moves away from his almost entirely acoustic material into a sound incorporating jazz and rock with his environmental folk tunes.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Cockburn had released six albums since 1970 in Canada (they’re all streaming, but they really didn’t make an impact here (barely released if at all))but this is where he moves towards a more contemporary sound.
There’s a lot of jazz elements here, especially when Kathryn Moses’ flutes mingle with the bass, drums, percussion and guitar. Cockburn’s guitar picking is outstanding, as he really lets it fly on the instrumental “Water into Wine”.
The long, acoustice “Gavin’s Woodpile” stops the record cold on the middle of side two. I’m sure fans of his previous albums appreciated it, but it’s an eight minute long acoustic diatribe that I just wanted to end.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: It’s pronounced CO-burn, you pervs.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes. Some outtakes have been appended.
GRADE: B-: Folk / jazz / soft rock ain’t for everyone, I know, especially when it’s kind of environmentally preachy. But this works on a lot of levels, except for the one long long long song.
But Is It Any Good? 