Canadian alternative country pioneers Cowboy Junkies will return to New Zealand for the first time in over 20 years in January 2023. Anyone who has followed Cowboy Junkies’ three-decade journey knows that the band have always stayed true to their unique artistic vision. In the late 80s, the band proved that there was an audience waiting for something quiet, beautiful and thoughtful. THE TRINITY SESSION was like a whisper cutting through the noise with its quiet, introspective intensity.

Michael Timmins says the band’s more recent studio albums reflect “empty hearts, empty nests, lost paths, lost lives and all the accounts that bring the end of things”, with GHOSTS dedicated to processing the loss of the mother of the Timmins siblings who died in 2018.

SONGS OF THE RECOLLECTION, due out March 11, is a whole other collection of songs. Michael Timmins recalls, “We grew up sitting around the record player listening to each other’s record collections and having our minds blown. It was the passion we shared. Our goal has always been to create music that grabs the listener the way that music grabbed us. These are some of the songs and some of the artists that have found their way into our lives and ultimately into our repertoire over the past 50 years.

The Cowboy Junkies inadvertently sparked a revolution when they emerged in the late 80s. THE TRINITY SESSION featured the band’s unforgettable cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane”, and combined folk, country, blues and rock in a way that has never been heard before. It sold over a million copies, but its influence was wider and deeper. Indeed, the record presaged the subsequent alt-country movement in the 90s and beyond, with its overall vibe – the album had been recorded in a church with the band playing around a single microphone.

Over the course of subsequent albums, the band helped introduce audiences to the work of seminal singer-songwriters including Townes Van Zandt and John Prine, and their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper” helped familiarize them with with the alternate world. All the while, they were building an equally pared-down canon of original songs and a catalog of acclaimed albums to rival those of their favorites.

Formed in Toronto in 1985 with siblings Michael Timmins on guitar, Margo Timmins on vocals, Peter Timmins on drums and Michael’s lifelong friend Alan Anton on bass, the band have remained true to themselves. and, unlike most long-running bands, never had to break up, undergo a line-up change or go on hiatus. The band have created a critically acclaimed body of work that has endeared them to an audience unwavering in their loyalty, and which is ripe for discovery by those who may have lost track along the way, or who discover the many charms of the group. The Cowboy Junkies’ upcoming tour of New Zealand will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the return to live gigs after the pandemic.

SONGS OF REMEMBRANCE:

1. Five years (David Bowie)
2. Ooh Las Vegas (Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris)
3. No Wait (Rolling Stones)
4. Don’t Let It Get You Down (Neil Young)
5. Love in Mind (Neil Young)
6. What I Feel (Gordon Lightfoot)
7. I decided to give myself to you (Bob Dylan)
8. Marathon (Vic Chesnutt)
9. Seventeen seconds (the cure)

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