The
Toronto quartet have made a career out
of its soft-focus sound, initially emphasizing
the drowsily pretty vocals of Margo Timmins,
with brother Michael Timmins’ droning
guitar leads gradually assuming a bigger
role. They’ve maximized that rather
limited approach by evincing exquisite
taste, particularly on the covers-heavy
early albums, and by playing off the tension
between Margo’s lullaby voice and
the frequently dire imagery of Michael’s
lyrics. Their breakthrough came with “The
Trinity Sessions,” recorded through
only one microphone at the Trinity Church
in Toronto. That was 20 years ago…
“To celebrate the 20th anniversary
of The Trinity Session, we decided to
head back to Toronto’s Trinity Church
with the idea of revisiting the album
from the perspective of twenty years’
experience,” reflects Cowboy Junkies
guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins.
“We enlisted a few musicians for
whom The Trinity Session had some personal
and professional resonance, and whose
individual work resonates with us.”
Joined by Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt, Natalie
Merchant, and longtime cohort Jeff Bird,
Cowboy Junkies dedicated themselves to
a fresh exploration of The Trinity Session’s
songs - as spontaneous and open-ended
as the original. “The idea was to
cobble together a loose band sound with
just a few hours of rehearsal, and a one
day recording schedule,” Timmins
continues, “much in the same way
we created the original recording. We
came, we played, and the church, once
again, did the rest.”
In November of 1987, the young and road-worn
Cowboy Junkies gathered there and, around
one microphone in the course of a few
quiet hours, recorded the epochal set
of songs that were released one year later
as The Trinity Session. The album not
only put the nascent Junkies - composed
then and now of siblings Michael, Margo,
and Peter Timmins and bassist Alan Anton
- on the musical map: it also ushered
in a new approach to roots music. Imbued
with a bewitching and ominous radiance,
The Trinity Session was modest in its
means, unpretentious and honest. Drawing
from the elemental yearning that underpinned
the band’s heroes (from Hank Williams
to the Velvet Underground to Robert Johnson),
the Junkies fashioned a direct, unmannered
sound they then wrapped around Michael’s
poetic originals and an insightful selection
of outside material. The album has long
been heralded as a touchstone for both
the Junkies and for a new generation of
musicians in the burgeoning alt-country
and Americana genres.
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Cowboy
Junkies
Thurs. Feb. 5, 2009
8pm
| TICKET
PRICES |
Reserved
seating:
$28.00 plus theatre restoration fee.
A limited amount of gold circle seating
will be available for $35.00 plus restoration.
| TIX
ON SALE FRI 11/7 AT 10AM |
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