Rock, Metal

Cowboy Junkies - One Soul Now (2004)

2010-04-21T13:21:13Z

Cowboy Junkies - One Soul Now (2004)


1 	One Soul Now 	4:54
2 	Why This One 	3:47
3 	My Wild Child 	3:52
4 	From Hunting Ground To City 	4:41
5 	The Stars Of Our Stars 	4:20
6 	Notes Falling Slow 	5:56
7 	No Long Journey Home 	4:17
8 	He Will Call You Baby 	5:47
9 	Simon Keeper 	5:52
10 	The Slide 	3:49

Margo Timmins – vocals
Michael Timmins – guitar
Alan Anton – bass
Peter Timmins – drums
+
Jeff Bird – percussion, electronic mandolin (track 9), melodica (track 5)
Jaro Czerwinec – accordion (track 9)
Linford Detweiler – organ (track 9)
Richard Bell - organ, piano

While it seems more common in the '80s, '90s, and beyond for a good band to remain intact for ten-plus years, they all face the same challenge: how does one continue to keep the music fresh and remain relevant? The Cowboy Junkies faced an uphill battle from the get-go, always living in the shadow of The Trinity Session (1988), and moving from the mainstream (including major labels, radio play, and a gig on Saturday Night Live) to just under the radar. Despite these changes, the Junkies have still been able to make great albums, like 1992's Black Eyed Man and 2001's Open. Both of these albums also showed a band willing to delve into new sounds (country and classic rock, respectively) and come up winners. One Soul Now seems to pick up where Open left off, retaining the tougher sound highlighted by edgy guitar work and a more rhythmic pulse. The title cut opens with acoustic guitar before transforming into a sleepy rocker that manages to be seductive and sinister at the same time. Margo Timmins' vocals are hypnotically lovely as usual, merging with bluesy guitar riffs and emerging above the morass as the chorus kicks in. Here, and on the following cut, "Why This One," it's easy to believe that the Junkies are going to pull off another coup. The arrangements and production of both cuts seem to bring a perfect balance to these songs, and the execution is handled with confidence. On second listen, however, Michael Timmins' songs tend to float more than move, and by the time the listener reaches the third cut, "My Wild Child," a familiar complaint against the Junkies emerges: the songs begin to fade into one another, more somnolent than hypnotic. Perhaps that's why a number of the later cuts choose different approaches by adding everything from organ to accordion to handclaps. Unfortunately, the guitar work on "Hunting Grounds" sounds like an outtake from "Dark Hole Again" on Open, while "Stars of Our Stars" seems cheerfully dissident from the surrounding material. Similar complaints can be made against the remainder of the album, with the Junkies veering between lethargic rockers like "Call You Baby" to atypically upbeat pieces like "No Long Journey Home." Longtime fans, wondering what the Cowboy Junkies have been up to for the last three years, will probably find several songs to like on One Soul Now. Newcomers will be much happier by picking up Open. ---Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., AllMusic Review

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Cowboy Junkies - Phoenixville PA 2009

2010-01-20T16:39:58Z

Cowboy Junkies - Phoenixville PA 2009


1. Intro 
2. Crescent Moon 
3. Shining Moon 
4. A Common Disaster 
5. Brand New World 
6. Hold On To Me 
7. The Confession of Georgia E 
8. Singing My Medal 
9. Don't Let It Bring You Down 
10. Working on a Building 
11. Fairy Tale 
12. Angels In The Wilderness 
13. This Street, That Man, This Life 
14. He Will Call You Baby 
15. Murder Tonight In The Trailer Park 
16. Band Intros 
17. I Don't Get It 
18. Crowd 
19. E 
20. Misguided Angel 
21. Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morcing



The Colonial Theatre, June 17, 2009
Phoenixville, PA

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Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session (1988)

2010-08-18T09:37:36Z

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session (1988)


   1. Mining for Gold (traditional)
   2. Misguided Angel
   3. Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis) (Margo and Michael Timmins; "Blue Moon" by 	Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart)
   4. I Don't Get It
   5. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)
   6. To Love is to Bury
   7. 200 More Miles (Michael Timmins)
   8. Dreaming My Dreams with You (Allen Reynolds)
   9. Working on a Building (traditional)
  10. Sweet Jane (Lou Reed)
  11. Postcard Blues (Michael Timmins)
  12. Walkin' After Midnight (Don Hecht, Alan Block)

* Margo Timmins – lead vocals
* Michael Timmins – guitar
* Alan Anton – bass
* Peter Timmins – drums
+
* John Timmins – guitar, backing vocals
* Kim Deschamps – pedal steel guitar, dobro, bottleneck slide guitar
* Jeff Bird – fiddle, harmonica, mandolin
* Steve Shearer – harmonica
* Jaro Czewinec – accordion

Who says you can't make a great record in one day -- or night, as the case may be? The Trinity Session was recorded in one night using one microphone, a DAT recorder, and the wonderful acoustics of the Holy Trinity in Toronto. Interestingly, it's the album that broke the Cowboy Junkies in the United States for their version of "Sweet Jane," which included the lost verse. It's far from the best cut here, though. There are other covers, such as Margo Timmins' a cappella read of the traditional "Mining for Gold," a heroin-slow version of Hank Williams' classic "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "Dreaming My Dreams With You" (canonized by Waylon Jennings), and a radical take of the Patsy Cline classic "Walkin' After Midnight" that closes the disc. Those few who had heard the band's previous album, Whites Off Earth Now!!, were aware that, along with Low, the Cowboy Junkies were the only band at the time capable of playing slower than Neil Young and Crazy Horse -- and without the ear-threatening volume. The Timmins family -- Margo, guitarist and songwriter Michael, drummer Peter, and backing vocalist and guitarist John -- along with bassist Alan Anton and a few pals playing pedal steel, accordion, and harmonica, paced everything to crawl.

That said, it works in that every song has its own texture, slowly and deliberately unfolding from blues and country and drones. An example is the Michael and Margo song "I Don't Get It," ushered in with a few drawling guitar lines, a spooky harmonica, and brushed drums. Margo Timmins doesn't have a large range and doesn't need it as she scratches each song's surface like an itch until it bleeds its truth. This is also true on "Misguided Angel," another original where the verses become nearly a round alternating between her voice and Michael's snaky spare guitar lines to fill an almost unimaginable space. The Williams tune becomes a dirge in the Cowboys' hands. It's a funeral song, or an elegy for one who has dragged herself so far into the oblivion of isolation that there is no place left to go but home. Michael's guitar moves around the changes as bassist Anton plays them; he colors the space allowing for Margo to fill the melodic space spot-on, yet stretching each syllable out to the breaking point. For most, this was the Cowboy Junkies' debut -- Whites Off Earth Now!! was re-released in the States a few years later -- and it established them firmly in the forefront of the "alternative" scene with radio and MTV. As an album, it's still remarkable at how timeless it sounds, and its beauty is -- in stark contrast to its presentation -- voluminous and rich, perhaps even eternal. ---Thom Jurek, AllMusic Review

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Cowboy Junkies - Toronto 2008

2014-02-26T16:36:37Z

Cowboy Junkies - Toronto 2008


01 Intro
02 Mining For Gold
03 Misguided Angel
04 Margo Talks
05 Blue Moon Revisited
06 I Don't Get It
07 Margo Talks
08 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
09 Margo Talks
10 To Love Is To Bury
11 200 More Miles
12 Margo Talks
13 Dreaming My Dreams With You
14 Working On A Building
15 Sweet Jane
16 Postcard Blues
17 Margo Talks
18 Walking After Midnight
19 Outro

Line-Up:
Margo Timmins - vocals
Michael Timmins - guitar
Peter Timmins - drums
Alan Anton - bass
Jeff Bird - harp & mandolin
Jaro Czerwinec – accordion

Massey Hall
Toronto, ON
February 23, 2008

Broadcast on "Canada Live" - CBC Radio 2

It seems like it was only yesterday when the Cowboy Junkies burst into the scene when they released the haunting Trinity Session in 1998. Recorded live on a single microphone at Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity, it was the Canadian group's second album and it made the world take notice.

This is what Anthony DeCurtis wrote in Rolling Stone magazine when the album first came out:

"The Trinity Session is in the great tradition of albums that establish a mood and sustain it so consistently that the entire record seems like one continuously unfolding song. The mood in this instance is hypnotic and introspective - an intense, melancholic longing that blends the elemental emotions of country music and the blues with the poetic world-weariness of the Velvet Underground.

"All of the songs on the album are given spare, airy, slow-tempo treatments that evoke an atmosphere of mystery and allow the listener's imagination to wander through their dark, empty spaces as if exploring a haunted house... The definitive feature of the Cowboy Junkies' sound, however, is Margo Timmins's remarkable voice. Ethereal and cool, it is just throaty enough to impart a sirenlike sensuality to the music.

"Having good songs, the skill to convey what they have to say and, most important, a vision, the Cowboy Junkies dispensed with hightech trumpery and made their record simply and seriously. That attitude helped make the album as important as it is inspiring."

In 2007, the Cowboy Junkies released Trinity Revisited, a re-recording of the album, with guest artists that include Ryan Adams, Vic Chestnutt, Natalie Merchant and Jeff Bird.

And on February 23, 2008, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Trinity Session, the group performed the entire album at Massey Hall in Toronto. --- bigozine2.com

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Cowboy Junkies – Sing in My Meadow (2011)

2018-01-11T13:34:20Z

Cowboy Junkies – Sing in My Meadow (2011)


01 – Continental Drift
02 – It’s Heavy Down Here
03 – 3rd Crusade			play
04 – Late Night Radio
05 – Sing in My Meadow		play
06 – Hunted
07 – A Bride’s Price
08 – I Move On

Bass – Alan Anton
Drums – Peter Timmins
Guitar – Michael Timmins
Harmonica, Mandolin – Jeff Bird
Vocals – Margo Timmins

There’s something extremely enigmatic about Sing In My Meadow. It is the third volume in Cowboy Junkie’s Nomad Series and comes after the band has been together for 25 years. Surprisingly, the album doesn’t feel like recycled material, but instead sounds as if it would fit right in with their platinum records from early in their career. This latest release features a group of songs that weave alternative country into an atmospheric grunge sound that results in a psychedelic blues feel and really makes the listener think about what exactly is happening on each track. No song is overly problematic; it’s a pleasant mixture of sounds that perfectly compliment Margo Timmins’ vocals.

Michael Timmins, lead guitarist, songwriter and brother to Margo, crafted distinctive tracks that can rile you up, but he also has the ability to fade into the background, creative a calming effect. The fuzzy guitars and country undertones recreate the well-remembered Seattle sound while Timmons’ vocals sound more like the lighter alternative vocals of Natalie Merchant from 10000 Maniacs. The combination results in unique twist of familiar sounds of the early 1990s.

Meadow opens with heavy distortion and dirty horns blaring on “Continental Drift” for a solid amount of time before Timmons’ soft country voice lightens the track up. Her voice barely is loud enough over the music. It isn’t because of the lack of mixing, but it sounds artistically done to draw the listener into intently paying attention. While a lot of the album sounds like grungy alternative rock, “Late Night Radio” brings more of a country vibe thanks to slightly twangy vocals and lyrics of a good, old-fashioned road ballad. The tone of Meadow switches again a few tracks later with a Black Keys-like “A Bride’s Price” with steady beats and eager, distorted guitars.

The retro resonance may come due to the band wanting to explore their live performance tendencies on a record. A jam-session recording can become overbearing, but Cowboy Junkies never foray into anything over-the-top, and after a free-flowing guitar riff they are able to reign themselves in every time. It’s clear that they have been able to hone their sound and perfect not only what listeners have come to love and expect, but also music the band itself wants to hear. --- Adam Vitcavage, pastemagazine.com

For the third in their Nomad Sessions, a series of 25th anniversary releases that go beyond their natural nocturnal minimalism, Cowboy Junkies go heavy, distorted and sprawling.

The title of ‘Continental Drift’, the opener, captures the massive slow heave all-too perfectly. But ‘3rd Crusade’, which grows into a Dylanesque hallucinatory vision of the fields of Kandahar, is monumental in the right way. --- David Honigmann, ft.com

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Cowboy Junkies – Whites Off Earth Now !! 1990

2010-08-17T15:51:25Z

Cowboy Junkies – Whites Off Earth Now !! (1990)


01 Shining Moon
02 State Trooper
03 Me and the Devil
04 Decoration Day
05 Baby Please Don't Go
06 I'll Never Get Out of These Blues Alive
07 Take Me
08 Forgive Me
09 Crossroads

Bass – Alan Anton
Drums – Peter Timmins
Guitar – Michael Timmins
Vocals – Margo Timmins

Featuring only one original song, the Cowboy Junkies' debut, Whites Off Earth Now!!, captures the band forming their own sound through covers, including songs by Robert Johnson and Bruce Springsteen. It's not as captivating as their later releases, but it's fascinating to hear their signature country-on-valium sound develop. Margo Timmins sings beautifully. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

This is the album that introduced the world to the Cowboy Junkies. And it could not have been a better debut. For those who are only familier with the Cowboy Junkies from the last couple or so albums they have released you might not realize that Whites Off Earth Now was by them. This is an out and out blues album. Performing songs by Robert Johnson,John Lee Hooker, Bukka White and Lightning Hopkins the Junkies showed that even a group from Canada knows how to get down with the blues. Then to top it all off they throw in their own version of the Bruce Springsteen song State Trooper.

It is one of the most haunting songs I have ever heard. Over the years the sound of the Cowboy Junkies has evolved through many different styles but their roots, as heard in this album, is planted right in the blues. --Janet Chandler, amazon.com

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