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The Cowboy Junkies are a unique band. Their music, a mixture of rock, blues
and country, mightn't even be all that memorable, were it to be played by
anybody else, but the way that they play it makes all the difference: this
band like to take it slow. Their gentle treatment of their songs,
their soft and frequently melancholy tone, Margo Timmins's mellow yet
intense voice and brother Michael's instantly recognisable guitar style
give the music a very special feeling, and even manage to breathe new life
into old warhorses like Bukka White's "Baby Please Don't Go", Neil Young's
"Powderfinger", or Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane". Indeed, the Cowboy Junkies
achieved that rare feat in popular music, the perfect album, with their
gorgeous 1988 release The Trinity Session. That the band, still
centred around the three Timmins siblings (brother Peter is the drummer),
have managed to stay together virtually unchanged for one and a half
decades now is a clear sign that the formula works.
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It's probably saying more about me than about the band, but one problem
I've had is that they've strayed from that winning formula on their recent
works -- in short, their sound has become rockier, and where they used to
play at half the speed of 'normal' rock, they've now accellerated to
three-quarters, it seems. Perhaps the band think so, too: many of the
slower songs were given prominent spots in yesterday's live concert in
Brisbane -- the first of their first-ever Australian tour. Indeed, the
highlight and show-stopper of the show was a selection of songs performed
only by Margo on vocals and Michael on electric guitar -- including a
version of "If You Were the Woman" that was stripped down to its utmost
core and far surpassed the original release on Black Eyed Man, and
"Anniversary Song", according to Margo Timmins "the only completely happy
song we do. So, enjoy."
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Before the show, there could have been some questions as to whether this
music, so much of which seems to link to the traditions of American blues
and country, could really translate to an Australian setting. In many ways,
the Junkies' Canadian origins are deeply inscribed in their songs: how
could Queenslanders (people from the Sunshine State, after all) possibly
relate to lines like "it's the kind of night that's so cold, when you spit
it freezes before it hits the ground" ("'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel")?
Somehow, the band pulled it off, though -- from the opening chords of "Sun
Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning", the very attentive audience seemed
captivated by the music.
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The band chose to ignore any material from their brilliant debut album
Whites Off Earth Now!!, and predictably focussed on their latest
release Miles from Our Home, but much like on their live album
200 More Miles the mix of older and newer songs worked very well.
With the only downside being that the band -- still jet-lagged, perhaps? --
performed for little more than 90 minutes (including an all too brief
one-song encore), this was a wonderfully mellow concert experience;
hopefully the Timminses will drop by again on future tours. I'm even
starting to enjoy their recent material more.
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Details
Cowboy Junkies, Brisbane Concert Hall, 28 Jan. 1999.
Concerts in other cities around Australia to follow.
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Axel Bruns. "A Visit from the Timminses: the Cowboy Junkies in Brisbane." M/C Reviews 29 Jan. 1999.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/music/junkies.html>.
Chicago style:
Axel Bruns, "A Visit from the Timminses: the Cowboy Junkies in Brisbane," M/C Reviews 29 Jan. 1999,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/music/junkies.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Axel Bruns. (1999) A Visit from the Timminses: the Cowboy Junkies in Brisbane. M/C Reviews 29 Jan. 1999.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/music/junkies.html> ([your date of access]).
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![[image]](http://www.geffen.com/cowboyjunkies/Images/pub3sm.jpg)