Yes, people of Toronto, this amazing Canadian band is still together
The Cowboy Junkies have one of the best music catalogs of the last 40 years, filled with more a dozen studio albums that have only grown more intriguing and impressive over time.
The Canadian band remains best-known for the 1988 major-label debut “The Trinity Session,” a lo-fi gem that mixes country, rock, folk and pop in ways that absolutely astound, and includes the album’s signature cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane.”
The Junkies went on to release a number of popular offerings in the ‘90s — including “Caution Horses” and “Lay It Down” — but then began to fade from the public’s eye as they rolled into the new millennium.
That did not, however, stop them from putting out great music. Indeed, their post-‘90s material — from 2001’s “Open” to 2007’s “At the End of Paths Taken” to 2018’s “All That Reckoning” — have arguably been the strongest of their entire career.
The run of amazing artistic success continues with the band’s newly released full-length album “Such Ferocious Beauty,” which the band — siblings Margo, Michael and Peter Timmins and lifelong friend Alan Anton — will support with two shows, July 18-19, at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are $46-$50; thefreight.org.
I recently had the chance to chat once again with guitarist-songwriter (and fellow massive hockey fan) Michael Timmins and catch up on the latest developments with the amazing Cowboy Junkies.
Q: We’ve spoken to each other numerous times over the decades, so I feel like I can just skip over some of the small talk and go straight to the really big question: Do you think Connor Bedard is going to be a huge game changer for my Chicago Blackhawks?
A: I don’t know. The people who seem to know these things, say he is. I find he’s a little small, you know? That’s my only concern — is he big enough to enforce his will? He’s got the skill — like phenomenal crazy skills. But there are a lot of guys with great skills, but when it gets down to crunch time — like the playoffs — are they big enough to just impose themselves? We’ll see.
Q: Patrick Kane was kind of small, but he worked out pretty great for the Blackhawks.
A: There you go! You’ve got the template right there. You’re right.
Q: OK, enough about hockey — at least for now. I think you also make music, right? And you have a band?
A: Yeah, apparently. I get asked that a lot up here in Toronto — “Oh, are you guys still together?”
Q: No way! Do you really get asked that question?
A: I do — in Canada only. All the time. “Oh, yeah, Cowboy Junkies, I use to listen to you guys when I was in college. Are you guys still together?” (Laughs).
Q: Oh, wow. Not only is the band still together, but it continues to make excellent music. I love newer CJ albums like “All That Reckoning” as least as much as I do the bigger sellers from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
A: Oh, thank you. That is nice to hear. I appreciate that.
Q: The new album is also great. And it might just have the most appropriate title of any Junkies album, because that is what you are — your band is indeed “Such Ferocious Beauty.”
A: People have asked me about the title and I’ve been deflecting it, (saying that) “one of the themes throughout the lyrics is sort of the ferociousness of life — and even in the midst of that ferociousness, there’s beauty.” But in the back of my head, I started saying, “It kind of describes our band, too.” I hadn’t said that out loud yet, so I’m glad you said it.
Q: When most people think of the Cowboy Junkies they think of the soft, folk-oriented material. Yet, that’s only one side of the equation — and one that seems to be growing smaller, at least in concert, over the years in favor of more aggressive, electric-guitar-driven rock.
A: I agree — certainly live. We try to have that reflect in the studio as well. But it’s a lot more obvious live.
You know, I am very conscious and aware of not losing the earlier stuff, because it’s a big part of who we are and, obviously, it’s a big part of what turned people onto the band in the first place. But even that stuff — “Sweet Jane” in concert now can get a little raucous and a song like “Working on a Building” now is really a 10-minute psychedelic workout. So, even those songs have really evolved in many ways.
Q: Your tour schedule always impresses me — and intimidates me a bit as well. You just seem to play so many shows in a row, often traveling between venues that are hundreds of miles away from each other.
A: We are trying to get smarter with that. As you get older, it’s harder to do the back-to-back-to-back. Three in a row is now what we try to do maximum.
Occasionally, we will get stuck with four in a row, which is kind of hard.
It’s not so much the show, but the travel, day of show, is what’s hard. Doing a show and then getting up and having to travel three or four hours and then doing a sound check and doing a show and then doing it all again the next day. It’s hard on the body and mind.
We are trying to get a bit smarter. But the reality is that being on the road, especially coming out of COVID, the expenses are insane now — hotels, gas. It’s getting harder and harder to do it. We’d like to have an easier schedule, but we also have to make some money, you know? So, there’s that balance.
Q: It also seems like you play some of the best venues on the planet. You are playing just these gorgeous theaters and clubs, as opposed to some nondescript community hall.
A: Something that we’ve really come to grips with in the last several years is that, you know, the venue you’re playing you’re in for six, seven hours a day. You show up for sound check and you are there for dinner and then a couple hours before show time, then you do a show, and then you’re there for another hour after the show. If you are at some (expletive) club or some really stale place, it’s no fun — and it can affect the show.
Q: I am thrilled that you are playing two nights at the Freight — which is a marvelous venue. Yet, I’m greedy when it comes to the Cowboy Junkies. Any chance I can talk you into playing Santa Cruz on the night before the Berkeley shows?
A: There is that great theater there.
Q: You are talking about the Rio Theatre.
A: Yeah, the Rio. We like that place. But, nope, sorry. We need the time to get south. And then take a day off just to sort of breathe.