by Thom JurekA remarkably fresh and timeless recording, Bruce Cockburn's second album concentrates far more on roots music than its predecessor. There's the ragtime blues of "Happy Good Morning Blues," the ambitious minor-key troubadour folk of "Love Song," and the slide guitar country of "One Day I Walk" to kick things off. And over the album's original ten songs it just becomes more ambitious. "Golden Serpent Blues," with its poignant and percussive piano lines, is something out of a Western Canadian barrelhouse where the piano player has heard and loved "Lady Madonna." Overall, however, this album -- like Sunwheel Dance that follows it -- presents a far more mystical Cockburn. His tenderness and poetic vision are almost pastoral on these early recordings, something that would get burned off and become hard-bitten (if no less romantic and more dramatic) as his music and social vision grew.