Editing Bruce Cockburn (section)

===Early career===
In early 1967 he joined the final lineup of [[The Esquires (Canadian band)|the Esquires]]. He moved to [[Toronto]] that summer to form [[The Flying Circus (Canada)|The Flying Circus]] with Marty Fisher and Gordon MacBain, former [[Bobby Kris & The Imperials]] members, and Neil Lillie, ex-[[The Tripp|Tripp]] member. The group recorded some material in late 1967 (which remains unreleased) before changing its name to Olivus in the spring of 1968, by which time Lillie (who changed his name to [[Neil Merryweather]]) had been replaced by Dennis Pendrith from Livingstone's Journey. Olivus opened for [[The Jimi Hendrix Experience]] and [[Cream (band)|Cream]] in April 1968.<ref>Cockburn, pp. 89, 93 & 94</ref> That summer Cockburn broke up the band with the intention of going solo, but ended up in the band [[3's a Crowd (band)|3's a Crowd]] with [[David Wiffen]], [[Colleen Peterson]], and Richard Patterson, who had been a co-member of The Children. Cockburn left [[3's a Crowd (band)|3's a Crowd]] in the spring of 1969 to pursue a solo career.

Cockburn's first solo appearance was at the [[Mariposa Folk Festival]] in 1967, and in 1969 he was a headliner.<ref>Cockburn, pp. 100–101</ref> In 1970 he released his self-titled, solo album. A single, "Going to the Country", appeared on the RPM Top 50 Canadian Chart.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=2507 |title=Top 50 Canadian Chart |publisher=RPM Magazine |volume=13 |issue=23 |date=July 25, 1970}}</ref>

Cockburn's guitar work and songwriting won him an enthusiastic following. His early work featured rural and nautical imagery and Biblical metaphors. Raised as an [[agnostic]], early in his career he became a [[Christians|Christian]].<ref>"I was brought up as an agnostic … and when I first became a Christian in the Seventies I didn't really know what it was I'd adopted." [http://cockburnproject.net/issues/personal/christianity.html Faith in Practice: Holding on to the Mystery of Love], by Bruce Cockburn as told to Cole Morton, Third Way, September 1994, page 15.</ref> Many of his albums from the 1970s refer to Christian themes, which in turn inform his concerns for [[human rights]] and [[environmentalism]]. His references to Christianity include the Grail imagery of 20th-century Christian poet [[Charles Williams (British writer)|Charles Williams]] and the ideas of theologian [[Harvey Cox]].<ref>Adria, Marco, "Making Contact with Bruce Cockburn", ''Music of Our Times: Eight Canadian Singer-Songwriters'' (Toronto: Lorimer, 1990), p. 97.</ref>

In 1970 Cockburn became partners with Bernie Finkelstein in the music publishing firm Golden Mountain Music.<ref>{{cite journal| last= McPherson| first= David| title= Bernie Finkelstein's Golden Mountain| journal= Words and Music| date=Fall 2012}}</ref> He won the Juno for Canadian Folksinger of the Year, three years in a row, 1971–73.<ref>Cockburn, p. 121</ref> He was nominated for Canadian Folksinger of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year at the 1974 Juno Awards.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Juno Award Nominations Listed|magazine=Billboard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vAcEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54|date=March 9, 1974|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|page=54}}</ref>

While Cockburn had been popular in Canada for years, he did not have a big impact in the United States until 1979, with the release of the album ''[[Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws]]''. The album's first single, "[[Wondering Where the Lions Are]]", reached No. 21 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] in the US in June 1980, earning Cockburn an appearance on [[NBC]]'s TV show ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.  Cockburn's label, True North Records, also signed a distribution deal with Recordi Records in Italy.<ref name= "Inc.1979">{{cite magazine|title=Cockburn Push|magazine=Billboard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8yMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT89|date=June 2, 1979|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.| pages= 89– |issn= 0006-2510}}</ref>