Speechless: The Instrumental Bruce Cockburn

So pronounced is Bruce Cockburn's reputation as a celebrated singer songwriter that it's sometimes been easy to overlook the fact that Cockburn is also an exceptional guitarist. This collection of previously recorded and new tracks should change all that - it is the first ever all-instrumental album from Cockburn and it puts the spotlight squarely on his brilliant acoustic guitar playing.

'Speechless' showcases the breadth of Cockburn's eclectic guitar style. There's a strong cinematic quality to much of the album, whether it's in pieces from the 1970s like "Islands in a Black Sky" "Water into Wine," or in the 1990s instrumentals such as the emotional "When It's Gone It's Gone" and the ambient "Mistress of the Storms." Meanwhile, a strong country-blues feel is evident on "Sunrise on the Mississippi" and Cockburn's jazzier side comes across on "Rouler Sa Bosse" and "Rise and Fall," a piece that was previously only available on the Japanese edition of 1999's 'Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu'.

'Speechless' also includes "Foxglove" with its distinctive fingerpicking style and "Sunwheel Dance", the first two instrumental pieces that Cockburn ever recorded.

New tracks featured are "Elegy" played on the dobro, "The End Of All Rivers" and "King Kong Goes To Tallahssee".
"dazzling ... Cockburn is compositionally and technically years ahead of his time"
- Acoustic Guitar magazine

"one of the very few singersongwriters to last 30 years with no embarrassing period whatsoever"
- Guitarist magazine