An Americana icon
Folk Fest headliner on climate change, indigenous rights and summer road trips

The Four Corners Folk Festival brings award-winning folk, bluegrass, rock and more to Reservoir Hill in Pagosa Springs this weekend for the 27th time since its inception in 1996. The lineup is rich in legends like 13-time Juno Award winner Bruce Cockburn and Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee Peter Rowan, but equally strong in up-and-coming stars like indie-folk sensation Amythyst Kiah, hip-hop/bluegrass genre-benders Gangstagrass and hipster New York City indie-grassers Damn Tall Buildings.

There are plenty of longtime festival favorites returning, including Cruz Contreras, who played the festival numerous times with his past bands, The Black Lillies and Robinella & the CCstringband; acclaimed country songwriter Jim Lauderdale; and Songs From the Road Band, which will back Lauderdale on Friday and play its own set Saturday.

There’s even local flavor with Birds of Play and Liver Down the River, as well as Tewa/Hopi reggae singer Ed Kabotie. The festival’s organizer, KSUT Public Radio, was founded in 1976 as one of the nation’s first tribal radio stations and remains committed to bringing indigenous artists from a variety of genres to its festivals.

Single-day, weekend, camping and vehicle passes are on sale at ksutpresents.org and, starting Friday, at the front gate.

The main draw, however, is Cockburn, who spent some time with me via Zoom to discuss recent environmental disasters, indigenous issues and how, at age 78, he sees no need to slow down from touring and recording. He even took time to share parenting advice (Bruce has an 11-year-old daughter; mine is 9).

Cockburn released his 38th album this past May. Driven by the lead single, “On a Roll,” it has remained on the Americana Music Association’s Top 50 albums and singles charts ever since. He calls it an old guy’s song that looks at his own frustration with the current state of affairs worldwide.

“The fragmentation that we see is somewhat spawned by the internet and the polarization in the U.S. in particular, but it’s worldwide, too,” he lamented. “There’s an acceleration of anti-democratic and anti-humanity forces that’s so broad that people are frightened about it. That fear is translating itself into insularity, hostility and just an unwillingness to listen to anybody else’s point of view.”

Cockburn, who is originally from Ottawa, teamed up with Inuit singer/songwriter Susan Aglukark to draft the album’s second single, “To Keep the World We Know.” Throughout his six decades as a professional musician, Cockburn has only written with others a handful of times.

“It was fun!” he exclaimed of collaborating with Aglukark. “It’s something I haven’t done very much of over the years, very few co-writes. I’m happy with the way it came out, and I think she is, too.”

The song explores global warming, forest fires and other natural disasters on a global scale.

In the second verse, they sing “Hills of California/ Romania and France/Algeria, Australia/Siberia’s expanse/The countryside of Greece and Spain/The Amazon the same/From the tundra to the tropics/Our world’s gone up in flames,” foretelling devastating fires in Yellowknife and Lahaina.

“I think we’ve let it go a bit too long to do much about it,” he pondered when I asked if it’s too late to correct the manmade acceleration of global warming. “We’re seeing changes now that we can’t reverse. And it’s going to get worse if we don’t address those things. The fact that we can’t reverse the things we’re seeing is not a reason for giving up, because it will continue to keep changing.”

Working with Aglukark shed some indigenous wisdom into a contemporary global issue, but it’s far from the first time Cockburn has addressed the horrors that Native Americans and First Nations people have seen since the arrival of Europeans in the 1400s. Songs like “Red Brother Red Sister,” “Kit Carson,” “Stolen Land” and “Indian Wars” are among highlights of his canon.

I asked if North Americans of European descent are recognizing the original sins of their forefathers. Cockburn thought that while individuals are becoming more aware of the dark past of American and Canadian governments, there’s still a long way to go. He first heard of these atrocities not in school in Ontario, but after heading west as a touring musician. 

“I became aware of the kinds of lives that my indigenous peers had led in the early ’70s, when I first started traveling in western Canada,” he said. “In 1970, I traveled west for the first time and began to meet people my age, other musicians who had grown up as a product of the reserve system and residential school system. One friend I can think of was taken from his parents and put up for adoption and not allowed to go back to his town. It was really disturbing to hear. It really opened my eyes. From that point on, it became a matter of concern for me.

“We talk about social justice, and we rightly look at so-called Third World countries where there’s all kinds of stuff going on, but we’ve paid less attention to our own here at home and the injustices that persist,” he added. “It’s one that hopefully we can rectify to some extent. We can certainly find a more just and equitable relationship with indigenous communities and individuals than we’ve done so far.”

When I asked if he contemplated slowing down as he approaches 80, Cockburn laughed. “What would retirement consist of? Sitting around and doing what I do at home instead of going out and doing it for other people,” he chuckled. “That’s kind of where the fun is, and that’s how I get paid. I don’t see stopping anytime soon.”

At 78 years old, he still likes to get behind the wheel and see new places.

“I just drove to Ontario and back (from my home in San Francisco),” he said. “My 11-year-old daughter was going to summer camp for the second year. We decided that we would drive up, she and I, so that she can see what’s between here and there. She’s been on tour busses since she was 2 months old but it’s in the dark. You get on the bus after the gig and you wake up in the next town. I think she appreciated it. I had to wrestle with her to get her nose out of the book or out of the iPad.”

Traveling with his daughter has rewards, especially for a father whose child loves geography.

“She can tell you the capitals of every country in the world and where they are on the map. We have a dinnertime contest that we play for our own amusement. We start with all the countries that start with A and take turns and name them until we run out, and then go to another letter until we work our way through the alphabet.”

Cockburn and I worked through our personal favorites from his catalog, finding some common ground. “‘The Charity of Night’ and ‘Breakfast in New Orleans Dinner in Timbuktu’ are always among my favorites,” he agreed. “If I were to steer someone to my oeuvre it might be those two, or it might be ‘World of Wonders,’ ‘In the Falling Dark’ or ‘Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws.’ Those are pretty representative of what I’ve done through the years.”

Being somewhat of a Cockburn fanboy since the mid ’80s, I couldn’t let him off the hook without inquiring about his identifiable tone as a guitarist. 

“The style I developed is kind of idiosyncratically mine,” he admitted, adding it was something every guitarist develops in his or her own way. “I had the radio going on my drive across the Midwest the other day. Something by Van Halen came on, and I don’t know their records at all, but you just knew right away that was Eddie Van Halen. Nobody else sounds like that. Some people have described it as just being in the fingers. It’s the way you touch the instrument, the way your fingers go against the strings, the way you pluck the strings.”

Amazingly, when Cockburn closes down the Dan Appenzeller Memorial Stage at 8:45 p.m. Friday, it will mark his first time in Pagosa Springs, although he has performed in Durango, Mancos and Telluride a few times through his career, and three or four trips to Ignacio for live on-air sessions in the KSUT studios.

“I haven’t been to the Four Corners enough for my own satisfaction,” he said. “I love that part of the U.S., and I fell in love with the idea of the Four Corners as a concept when I started reading Tony Hillerman’s detective novels. He just painted that atmosphere so well. I look forward to seeing everybody down in Pagosa Springs.”

Full discloser: Chris Aaland is the development director, music director, talent buyer and an on-air DJ at KSUT Public Radio. Chris’ first experience with live concert production was loading stage gear for Cockburn’s 1997 gig at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College – the first ticketed event at what was then a brand-new venue. ?