The Blood Of Others

Bruce Cockburn’s The Blood of Others was released in October 2026 through Sunset Boulevard Records, gathering 15 interpretations of songs that helped shape his musical life. Produced by longtime collaborator Colin Linden, the album moves through gospel, country blues, ragtime, folk, and pop standards, with arrangements centered on Cockburn’s intricate acoustic guitar and weathered voice. Rather than presenting a conventional career retrospective, he traces his history through other writers’ work: childhood radio favorites, formative discoveries, and melodies that have remained part of his private repertoire. The title comes from Simone de Beauvoir’s novel, though Cockburn explains that he borrowed it here because it suited an album of songs he did not write. The sparse settings make the collection feel less like an exercise in nostalgia than an intimate account of how a musician’s identity takes shape.

“Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down” opens with Robert Wilkins’ gospel blues, reshaped through the angular harmonies of Cockburn’s guitar tuning, while “As Time Goes By” receives an updated introductory verse. “Buddy Bolden’s Blues” brings out his growling, playful side, and “That’s All Right” draws more directly on Arthur Crudup’s recording than Elvis Presley’s familiar version. Mississippi John Hurt’s “Louis Collins” pairs flowing fingerpicking with a dark narrative, while “God Bless the Child” and “Fare Thee Well” reveal the expressive vulnerability of the stripped-back approach. His measured reading of “Four Strong Winds” emphasizes distance and longing, before “Peace in the Valley” closes with a quiet gospel benediction. Across these contrasting selections, the distinctive guitar phrasing provides continuity: Cockburn honors the songs’ histories without disappearing into them.