Music review

By Andrew Griffin The Town Talk

Four years since the release of his underrated "Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu" album, we find Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn ready to tackle the very real issues facing humanity on his latest Rounder Records release, "You've Never Seen Everything."

Cockburn is not afraid to "speak truth to power," as the tired old bumper sticker says. I found this out back in the 1980's while listening to his overtly political songs that addressed U.S. intervention in Central America, human rights abuses in the Third World and environmental degradation across the globe.

On the 12-song "You've Never Seen Everything," Cockburn is in top form. He seems re-energized. I'd have to say this is his strongest album since his classic 1988 release "Big Circumstance."

On the opening track, "Tried and Tested," drummers...