CD Odyssey Disc 1295: The Cowboy Junkies

I’ve been pretty good restricting my music purchases lately, but over the weekend I once again succumbed to the urge. New to the collection are:

• Johnny Cash, “Blood, Sweat and Tears” – a 1963 tribute album to the blue-collar worker. This album has lots of references to hammers.
• The Creepshow, “Run For Your Life” – the fourth album to join my collection by the psychobilly band from Burlington, Ontario and one of their best.
• Alela Diane and Wild Divine – an eponymous release, and the only one not on my list (if you don’t want to spend too much on impulse music purchases shop for it like you shop for groceries – bring a list). I took a chance because I love Alela Diane’s work. I was not disappointed.

All great new albums, but today let’s go back in time to one that has been in the collection since my university days.

Disc 1295 is… The Trinity Session

Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? The band is hanging out. Based on the stark lighting and lack of colour they appear to have travelled back in time to the 1940s.  

How I Came to Know It: I don’t fully remember, but I know it happened when I was in university. I think I saw someone perform the Junkies’ version of “Sweet Jane” at a poetry reading. When I asked how she had come up with that arrangement, she told me about the “The Trinity Sessions”. A couple of friends were discovering the band at around the same time and whole thing started to snowball. I went to the record store to buy it, but it wasn’t in (I got “The Caution Horses” instead). I kept checking back though, and it was eventually restocked.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Cowboy Junkies albums. I put “The Trinity Session” in at #5 but coming in last out of these five albums is no slight. Because this is the last Cowboy Junkies album in my collection, here’s a recap:

1. The Caution Horses: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 155)
2. Black Eyed Man: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 589)
3. Lay it Down: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 800)
4. Pale Sun, Crescent Moon: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 267)
5. The Trinity Session:  3 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 3 stars

“The Trinity Session” is an album that is like an evening walk in the woods. It is a haunting, emotionally evocative and beautiful even when it loses its way.

The record was the band’s big breakthrough, and features a mix of covers and original material, all delivered in what would become the Junkies’ signature sound; a subdued echoing combination of country mosey, blues and just a hint of jazz.

When the Junkies play a note they like to let it linger, and the songs on “The Trinity Session” take their sweet time getting from A to B. Everything is languorous and laid back, from the breathy whisper of Margo Timmins’ vocals to the gentle strum of brother Michael’s guitar. Even the drum is quiet, often consisting of little more than a brush played lightly on the snare. This is subtle music that requires you to lean in and listen with intent.

The record begins with Margo singing the traditional work song “Mining for Gold” acapella. It is stark and beautiful and sets the perfect tone for the record. For a year after this record was released it was hard to go to anyone’s house and not have them shush you and urge you sit in the dark and listen to this little gem. I never once regretted those 90 seconds of Margo’s voice filling the room. I’m sure I’ve done it to someone myself.

The next song, “Misguided Angel” is an original and for my money the best song on the record. The sound they would perfect two years later on “The Caution Horses” is on full display here, adding just the right amount of jump and sway to the band’s ghostly charm. The song is the heartbreaking tale of a tragic romance, filled with equal parts love and darkness. The chorus paints a complicated picture in four simple lines:

“Misguided angel hangin' over me
Heart like a Gabriel, pure and white as ivory
Soul like a Lucifer, black and cold like a piece of lead
Misguided angel, love you 'til I'm dead”

Other standouts include a re-imagined version of “Blue Moon” called “Blue Moon Revisited” mixing the original song with the Junkies’ own notions on where to take the melody. Also brilliant is the aforementioned “Sweet Jane” a slow and quiet introspective treatment of the song which I heard long before I ever heard the Lou Reed original, and which I continue to love equally after all these years.

There are moments where the record loses me. I found the cover of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” took a few too many liberties with the melody. “Walkin’ After Midnight” meandered a little too far in the woods. However, for a band filled with this much natural reverie getting a bit lost in the journey is an expected hazard. While I sometimes found myself wanting just a little less noodle, there is no denying they do a fine one, and this album represents the shape of even greater things to come.

Best tracks: Mining for Gold, Misguided Angel, Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis), Sweet Jane

CD Odyssey Disc 800: Cowboy Junkies

After an exciting day of football watching, where my beloved Miami Dolphins won a close one over the Eagles, I am squeezing in this momentous review – my 800^th – before the evening game gets going in earnest.

Disc 800 is….Lay it Down

Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? The white background was a fad in the nineties, both for album covers and music videos. So was featuring dancers in spandex shorts, so at least the Cowboy Junkies knew where to draw the line.

How I Came To Know It: By the time this album came out I was a firm fan. Even so, I didn’t buy the album immediately, but a few years later. I don’t know why. I suspect it was a money thing.

How It Stacks Up:  I have five Cowboy Junkies albums and it seems like each time I review one I end up bumping the rest down a bit in this section. I guess that just means I like all their albums. Once again I am bumping – this time “Pale Sun, Crescent Moon” (reviewed back at Disc 267) is getting moved out of third to make room for “Lay it Down.”

Ratings: 4 stars

After the relatively louder rock and roll sound of “Pale Sun, Crescent Moon” the Cowboy Junkies returned to the softer understated feel of “The Caution Horses” for “Lay it Down.”

The lessons learned from “Pale Sun…” remain, with a thicker more layered sound, but the songs on “Lay It Down” feel introspective and quietly thoughtful even by Cowboy Junkies standards.

The result is a record that has to be played loud or played on head phones to be appreciated the way it is intended. Since I listened on headphones on my walk home from work I got to hear it in its best light.

Part of this is the production, which is expansive, without ever feeling busy or overdone. There is a lack of edges to the sound and the instruments often sound like they are being played underwater. The band also knows just when to let Margo Timmins’ voice rise up, thin and frail for some emotional high point. At the other end, the bass guitar gets a lot of love and grounds the tracks that might otherwise feel like they were about to drift away.

This production suits the themes of the album, which vacillate between the sad tales of things falling apart, and an inner core of character and determination that grows stronger when you survive those experiences.

The best example of both is “Hold On To Me” which has quickly become one of my favourite Cowboy Junkies songs. This is a song that looks for signs of love in those small and fragile moments that are so important and so often casually dismissed. This can be in casual conversation:

“If you offered me a point of view

Would I dismiss it saying that it was too

Black and white?

Or would I see it as the special thing

That it would no doubt be?

Hold on to me.”

Or just when you do simple tasks around the house:

“If I asked you for a simple thing

Would you do it without too much thinking or fuss?

Would you see it for the precious thing

That it would surely be?

Hold on to me.”

Bottom line: remember to take out the trash and empty the dishwasher. These little conversations and acts of kindness are the tiny threads that knit together become as strong as the steel cables that hold up a suspension bridge. Or as my friend Jeff likes to say, “Always say thank you, always say sorry.”

This being the Cowboy Junkies, there always has to be a darkness lurking out in the deep water. “Lonely Sinking Feeling” is a song that explores depression and anxiety, which can visit us even when everything in life is going great. Fortunately, although the Cowboy Junkies are masters of making you experience hopelessness, the song is so good you enjoy the wallow.

The guitar work on “Lay It Down” is mostly relaxed country strumming, surrounded by bluesy production. It is the gift of the Cowboy Junkies that they pull these sometimes disparate sounds together, and show you just how closely akin they are. Musically and lyrically this is an “inner space” record that leaves you feeling contemplative.

I finished listening to “Lay It Down” on my walk from work to dinner with friends on Friday. I arrived at the restaurant with two minutes of the album still to play. Instead of turning it off, I took a last minute turn into an alley forty feet from my destination.

There, in a quiet, dark and rain-soaked alley, I found a wall to lean against and let the final track, “Now I Know” wash over me. “Now I Know” is probably the most depressing song on the record. I took in all that Margo had to say about grief and broken spirits. Then I returned to the world, happier than ever to greet my dinner companions and stronger for having let this understated, subtly great record work its magic on me.

Best tracks: Something More Besides You, A Common Disaster, Hold On To Me, Lonely Sinking Feeling, Now I Know

CD Odyssey Disc 589: Cowboy Junkies

Well damn it, I’m sick. I pride myself on rarely being sick, and I even subscribe to the theory that you can ward off sickness by simply ignoring it for a while.  That strategy worked for about five days, but today I gave in and took some cold medication.

Luckily when you take medication rarely it works really well (that’s another one of my theories – I’ve got plenty of ‘em). I call the experience “the velvet tunnel.”

Alright, back to ignoring the ague, and on with the review.

Disc 589 is….Black Eyed Man

Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Year of Release: 1992

What’s up with the Cover? As the old saying goes, if you cut a hole out of roses, you’ll just get a man’s head, and if you cut away a man’s head you’ll just find more roses.

OK that isn’t a saying, but it could be and it seems to be what’s happening here.  Whatever is happening, I like this picture.  Beautiful Etruscan colours and a jarring concept made somehow gentle, not unlike the music of the Cowboy Junkies.

How I Came To Know It: When I was reviewing “Pale Sun, Crescent Moon” back at Disc 267 I learned that there was an album between it and 1990’s “The Caution Horses” and that album had a Townes Van Zandt cover.  I spent about six months looking for it and then gave up and ordered it on Amazon.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with ordering music on Amazon, I try to hold out for as long as possible and hope to find it in a local record store.  I do this for three main reasons.

1. It is good to support your local record store – they are usually run by fellow music lovers that have turned their passion into a business, usually for very little profit.  Support their efforts!
2. It is more fun and exciting to poke around until you find a rare album – and even when you don’t find what you’re looking for you find other interesting albums.  As Motorhead teaches us, the chase is better than the catch!
3. It helps control my habit.  If I just ordered anything I wanted on Amazon, I’d soon be in the poorhouse.  I’ve got a wait-list of 37 albums right now I’m looking for and I could have them all in ten minutes of online shopping.

How It Stacks Up:  Originally I had “Caution Horses” and “Pale Sun, Crescent Moon”  ranked 1-2 but that was before I bought “Black Eyed Man.” While it falls just short of knocking off “Caution Horses” for first, it is plenty good enough to displace “Pale Sun Crescent Moon for the new #2.

Rating:  4 stars

After a very Canadian-focused album with “Caution Horse” the Junkies adopted a lot more southern US sounds and themes on “Black Eyed Man.”

The decision works well for them. If the Junkies’ music was a film, it would be shot in soft focus.  The guitar is muted and Margot Timmins’ vocals are always breathy and ethereal.  The combination usually makes me think of snowy days and prairie roads – lots of vastness and plenty of room for the notes to explore the emptiness, not to mention the mind.

When combined with down-south themes it introduces a new twist on the starkness.  The emptiness is still there, but you can feel the heat on your back now.  Things seem lazy and relaxed like a summer afternoon, but there is a sense of unease amidst it all.  The cold prairie north creeps in; if not in the surroundings then definitely in the listener.

A great example is “Oregon Hill,” which at first sounds like it is a pastoral song about a man relaxing with his girl, Suzy, as she cuts carrots up on Oregon Hill.  Margot’s voice lilts away as she describes Oregon Hill’s location as:

“A river to the south

to wash away all sins.

A college to the east of us

to learn where sin begins.

A graveyard to the west of it all

Which I may soon be lying in.”

Why such grim thoughts?  Because our narrator soon reveals he remembers Oregon Hill from his prison cell, and live or die, he is planning to escape, even for only a single night with his love.  Foolishly, his plan later is to sleep in and wait for the cops to arrive.  Um…next time tell her to meet you in Mexico, dude.

The desperate quality of the characters on “Black Eyed Man” reminded me strongly of Springsteen’s “Nebraska.”  These are tales about simple folk with real anguish in their lives.  Towns decaying around them, and creeping into their hearts, like on the amazing “This Street, That Man, This Life.”

“This street holds its secrets

like a cobra holds its kill.

This street minds its business

like a jailer minds his jail.

That house is haunted.

That door’s a portal to hell.

This street holds its secrets very well.”

Coupled with Timmins’ delivery you can feel the haunting run right through you like the cold damp of a fog; intimate but clammy cold.

 “The Last Spike” is a song about a resource town, abandoned after its resources are used up. An environmental song for sure, but even more a song about the slow sad death of a town with nothing left to hold on to.

And of course, I would be remiss not to mention the reason I bought the record in the first place; Townes Van Zandt!  The album has a Van Zandt composition written for the Cowboy Junkies (unimaginatively titled “Cowboy Junkies Lament”) which is – of course – excellent and a song about Townes (unimaginatively titled “Townes’ Blues”) which is…er…not as good.  But hey, it is still pretty good, and few can compete with Van Zandt when it comes to writing a song.

Speaking of which, the album ends with a Van Zandt cover, “To Live Is To Fly” – one of my all-time favourites.  The Junkies do a very pretty job of it, starting out very slow and still before catching up to the song’s original tempo, and then slowing down at the end of it again.  I admit I prefer both the original and the Steve Earle version, but this is still a fine imagining.

The songs on “Black Eyed Man” are like a bouquet of roses from some southern garden, pretty but covered in thorns that threaten to draw blood.  It may seem a grim garden, but it is a beautiful grim.  You know what they say: cut a hole out of roses, you’ll just get a man’s head.  I’m pretty sure someone says that.

Best tracks: Oregon Hill, A Horse in the Country, This Street That Man This Life, The Last Spike, Cowboy Junkies Lament, To Live is to Fly

CD Odyssey Disc 267: Cowboy Junkies

This next album is one of those ones that is critically excellent, but didn't truly resonate with me emotionally until I had it out of the car and on to headphones as I wrote this review.

Disc 267 is...Pale Sun, Crescent Moon

Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Year of Release: 1993

What’s Up With The Cover?: It is an apple hanging on a piece of twine. I've never really liked this cover - it is hard to read the text behind it with my colour deficient vision. The back of the album has the song titles written in a clear font that makes them almost impossible to read. Just list the tracks next time, Junkies - and as for the cover - just the apple would've been fine, without all the text cluttering up the place. Each to his own, I suppose...

How I Came To Know It: I loved 1990's "The Caution Horses" (reviewed back at Disc 155) and so I bought this record, thinking it was their next release. As it happens, when looking it up, I discovered an album in between - 1992's "Black Eyed Man" which has a song written for the band by Townes Van Zandt and a cover of Van Zandt's masterpiece "To Live Is To Fly". Looks like there is a CD purchase in my future...

How It Stacks Up: I have four Cowboy Junkies albums. This one is pretty good, but can't beat out "The Caution Horses" so I''m going to put it tied for second.

Rating: 4 stars, but I meant to give it 3 (see below).

As alluded to in the introduction, "Pale Sun, Crescent Moon" is an album that I have a strange relationship with.

From a pure songwriting perspective, I think it is the strongest of the Cowboy Junkies albums I own - particularly the powerhouse first four tracks, "Crescent Moon", "First Recollection", "Ring On the Sill" and "The Anniversary Song".

The latter of this foursome was a radio hit in its day, but I don't hold that against it. It is a song about how much more enjoyable the world is when you have someone to share its beauty with. Naturally, it always makes me think of my wife, Sheila, who not only keeps me going when I think my tank is empty, but helps me make sure I take in the rich details of the passing landscape along the way.

The album has a lot of great songs about relationships, and while a bit schmaltzy, I hope you'll forgive me for indulging in "The Anniversary Song." Besides, there are plenty of darker, more complicated love songs including the aforementioned "Ring On The Sill" and "Cold Tea Blues" lest you think the Cowboy Junkies have inexplicably lightened up.

The album also branches out into more varied storytelling, character studies of a rural and frozen north that perfectly suit Margo Timmins Cirrus-thin voice. So high, so insubstantial, and always floating above the musical arrangements without overpowering them in the mix. It is a voice for lonely contemplation, where the songs pose complicated questions, and leave you no answers other than the wind blowing back at you.

My one quibble would be with the production. At this juncture, the Junkies are exploring a more alt-rock sound, and their production has progressively become more complicated. These songs are some of their best stuff, and I can't help but wonder what a song like "The Post" would sound like with a more traditional rock arrangement, or whether "Ring on The Sill" would sound better with a few less layers of sound.

To which the Junkies might retort, "we recorded them the way we wanted them" or, to quote "Cold Tea Blues":

"But if I measure the sugar
to satisfy your expectant tongue
Then that is love,
Sitting untouched and growing cold."

Well played, Margo. And chastened by the power of this imagined musical argument, I will give this record 4 stars, even though I planned up to this very sentence to give it 3. It stole very quietly into my soul, but I must admit it got there - and on its own terms, no less.

Best tracks: Crescent Moon, Ring On the Sill, The Anniversary Song, The Post, Cold Tea Blues

CD Odyssey Disc 155: Cowboy Junkies

Although I've been on a bit of a new CD purchasing rampage, the latest entry in the DVD Odyssey is one of the discs I've owned the longest.

Disc 155 is...The Caution Horses
Artist: Cowboy Junkies

Year of Release: 1990

What’s Up With The Cover?: I dunno. The band walks around the corner of some old building in the fading light. I like the light in this picture, but whenever I see a picture of an old building in beautiful light I prefer it when there aren't a bunch of people in the way of the shot. This was a problem on our recent trip to Paris and London, you can imagine - there's always someone in front a famous building.

I'm not sure why the Cowboy Junkies are all assembled in front of this building. Maybe it is famous to them. Anyway, I'll rate this cover the dreaded...OK.

How I Came To Know It: This is one of those where I went to the record store looking for a different album (In this case, "The Trinity Sessions") but it wasn't there, so I bought something else by the same artist. I recognized "Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning" which was a minor radio hit at the time, so I went for it. I'm glad I did.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Cowboy Junkies albums, including "The Trinity Sessions" (they stocked it eventually). Of the four, "The Caution Horses" is by far my favourite. I'm glad it was there that day.

Rating: 4 stars.

Little known fact I remember from a Cowboy Junkies interview back when this came out - the album's name comes from the band one day following a horse trailer. On the trailer it had that warning, "Caution: Horses". The band liked the sound of it, and they changed caution from a directive to an adjective. I don't think it is a great title, but I like knowing the story without looking anything up on wikipedia.

The record itself is an understated and moody Canadian alternative folk album. Lead singer Margot Timmins is at her most breathy and introspective. When she sings on this record it is like she's whispering her secrets into the mirror, and you're just evesdropping. For all that, her voice is beautiful and its quiet honesty draws you in.

On later records it was said that Margot "found her voice" meaning she sang out with more conviction. This is true, but later records also lost some of the raw edge in the process, and never matched what was accomplished on "The Caution Horses."

The playing is similarly understated but sincere, and I enjoyed picking out the subtle little pieces of mandolin and steel guitar punctuating many of these songs. I can see why people have mixed reaction to the steel guitar (it's usually previous exposure to New Country that makes for a bad association). That said, anyone who isn't moved by a mandolin must be missing some vital organ.

The lyrics on this record are also top notch, in particular I love the opening of my favourite song, 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel":

"It's the kind of night that's so cold, when you spit
it freezes before it hits the ground.
And when a bum askes you for a quarter, you give a dollar
if he's out tonight he must be truly down."


That's not just cold - that's Canada cold, my friends.

"Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning" has a line that formed a piece of philosophy for me back when I was twenty - "Telephone's ringing, but I don't answer it/'cause everybody knows that good news always sleeps till noon."

I dunno if this is true, but it sure makes sense when Margot sings it.

"The Caution Horses" also features a remake of Neil Young's song "Powderfinger". For easily fifteen years, I thought this song was a Cowboy Junkies song, until I got more heavily into Neil Young and bought 1979's "Rust Never Sleeps." There it was, right alongside "Pocahontas" which I had thought since 1995 was a Crash Vegas song. Oops and more oops.

Neil Young's "Powderfinger" is a masterpiece, but I think the Cowboy Junkies' version is its equal. Which is saying something, because when it comes to Canadian alternative folk music, Neil Young is the man.

Because "The Caution Horses" is so quiet and introspective it takes a couple of listens to appreciate how truly great a record it is. Also, it doesn't really suit the car, where it fights to compete with background engine sounds and traffic. That said, I defy you to put it on headphones, listen without interrupting yourself, and not fall in love with Margot Timmins.

There's another favourite saying of mine - one I think I made up myself - or at the very least I've forgotten the origin: "True beauty steals its way into only the quietest of souls."

I'm not sure if that's true either, but listening to this album makes it easy to believe.

Best tracks: Sun Comes Up - It's Tuesday Morning, 'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel, Powderfinger, , Thirty Summers, Witches