In 1999, Canada's preeminent singer-songwriter went to Mali to narrate a film on desertification, "River of Sand." Along the way, he got to match his filigree, finger-picking guitar style with a variety of Malian musicians including kora maestro Toumani Diabaté and the grand man of Malian blues, Ali Farka Touré. As it happened, Cockburn's encounter with Farka went down in Timbuktu before a gathering of Afropop Wordwide listeners on their own tour of Mali--not an ideal circumstance for anyone concerned. But that's another story. As it turns out, Cockburn has a much older link to the Afropop story.

Twenty years earlier, when this writer was a reggae nut and a diehard Cockburn fan who had yet to hear a lick of African guitar playing, and Afropop Worldwide was still years in the offing, Cockburn released the original version of Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws. He was moving towards the band setting that would dominate his 1980s albums, but here, Cockburn was still basing the sound in dense, rhythmically aggressive acoustic guitar picking. Now, Rounder Records is reissuing much of Cockburn's vast catalogue, adding previously unreleased bonus tracks, and as I listened to the remastered version of the original eight songs on this album, I had a small revelation. I realized that Cockburn's rhythmic approach to the guitar had done a lot to prepare my ears for the intricacies of African guitar, the music that has obsessed me for over fifteen years now.

Start with the driving, free-flowing guitar work on the opening track, "Creation Dream," a tour de force that still sounds fresh today. It's not just Cockburn's sterling tone and virtuoso speed that stand out. It's the way he plays with rhythm, setting up one feel and then veering off it in his improvisations to find the other side of the groove. This album is full of these moments. On "Badlands Flashback," sung in French, Cockburn spirals into a cycling, hypnotic guitar vamp, backed only by bass, conga drum, and the trilling piano of Pat Godfrey, who also plays a very African sounding marimba on "Creation Dream." Most will remember this album for the top-40 hit "Wondering Where the Lions Are," an acoustic reggae number featuring Toronto-based Jamaican Leroy Sibbels' rhythm section. Back then, a folkie playing reggae was big news, but in retrospect, this album seems ahead of its time for its African qualities as well.

The original album's concluding numbers, the visionary "Incandescent Blue" and soulful, sad "No Footprints" are fine, vintage Cockburn, but I was keen to hear what surprises the vault had yielded in the form of bonus tracks. In this case, both are instrumentals, and the first, "Dawn Music" is a bit of a throwaway, featuring pulsing chimes and wandering guitar lines. But then comes an absolute zinger of a solo guitar piece. In 6/8 time, and just under four minutes long, the new album's final track absolutely explodes with rhythm. Cockburn sets up a low vamp that loops kora-like while he springs harmonics and racing, cross-rhythmic lines that would do many a Malian guitarist proud. Who knows what musical sources may have inspired this masterpiece, or why it was omitted from the original album? But any doubt that Cockburn had Africa on his mind when he played this piece are laid to rest by its title: "Bye Bye Idi," a reference to the murderous Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, who was deposed and went into exile that year.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org