FOLK HERO

Ahead of his induction into Mariposa Hall of Fame, Bruce Cockburn looks back fondly on festival's earlier years

- NICK KREWEN

Bruce Cockburn, who plays the Mariposa Folk Festival this Sunday, recently received an honorary degree from Sir Wilfred Laurier University.

The second time he played Orillia’s Mariposa Folk Festival, in 1969, Bruce Cockburn wasn’t supposed to headline.

That honour belonged to Neil Young, fresh from his split with Buffalo Springfield, until a lastminute health issue forced the Ottawa-born folk singer and songwriter — who, until that point, had played in such bands the Children, the Esquires, the Flying Circus and 3’s a Crowd — into the spotlight.

“I was terrified,” recalled the 79year-old Cockburn from his home in San Francisco. “But I got up, did my little half-hour set and people liked it. It was really the first time I played as myself in front of a big audience.

“It was pretty intimidating, but I got away with it. And it set me up in a pretty great way in terms of the Toronto folk scene.”

Cockburn, who will be inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame at 7 p.m. on Sunday, following his ninth performance at the Tudhope Park event, looked back fondly at the festival’s earlier years.

“In the beginning, it was the only one (festival),” he remembered. “Later on in the ’70s, the western festivals started up — Winnipeg and Edmonton and Vancouver — and they were good festivals, too.

“The scene was great. Back in those days ... I’d play whatever I was there to do, and the rest of the time I’d go around and hear this amazing music that you might never encounter otherwise.

“There was also a nice social part of it, too. You’d get to see the people that over time you’d get acquainted with, and you’d only see them at festivals.”