In preparation for their upcoming Open Road 2001 tour of North America, Toronto's Cowboy Junkies performed an intimate show at the city's Horseshoe Tavern on Monday night. Since before their 1988 breakthrough album, The Trinity Sessions, made the hypnotic rockers a household name, they have played the club frequently, and their return show sold out instantly.
The Junkies have continually evolved over the last fifteen years from somnolent blend of blues, country and folk to a strikingly heavy, more guitar-oriented direction on the new album, Open, all held together by the mellifluous voice of Margo Timmins.
So where fans once sat cross-legged on the floor to see and hear the tranquil Junkies in a setting such as this, there was no chance of that happening tonight. Fans rushed to the stage, and others stood on chairs, benches -- anything elevated -- to see over them.
Looking stunning in a sleeveless black sparkly shirt and non-sparkly black skirt, Margo was joined by core Junkies -- brothers guitarist Michael Timmins (who took his usual place on a chair, head-down hovered over his guitar), drummer Peter Timmins and bassist Alan Anton -- along with auxiliary players, multi-instrumentalist Jeff Bird and keyboardist Simon Kendall.
As the band launched into "Murder, Tonight, in the Trailer Park," the Junkies were off into the darkness for nearly two hours. Margo paused to let the crowd of about 150 know about the new album and that she was looking at the year ahead of touring in one-month increments. That's all she could handle to get her through it.
While the audience respectfully didn't call out for old faves like "Sweet Jane" or "Misguided Angel" (they'd get neither), when the Junkies launched into three new tracks in a row, "Upon Still Waters," "Small Swift Birds" and "Close My Eyes," the folks at the back of the room were less attentive when the soft-spoken singer was talking between songs.
Only those with bionic ears or close enough to the stage were charmed by Margo's tale of taking her vehicle to the car wash so it looked good for a shoot in the "Wheels" section of the Toronto Star newspaper. "They didn't tell me to close the sunroof," she recounted. "And I had these long sheets of tentacles dragging in my car."
As far as segues go, "Hard to Explain," which she described as "a song about life," was as good as any, but then Margo set off on another interesting tidbit about the band being flown last week in a private jet to perform the at a wedding of a obviously wealthy man. "It's hard to play a wedding, because we don't have very many happy wedding songs," she quipped.
Later, Margo actually requested that the audience quiet down for the next two songs, seeing as they were stripped-down without the full band. "I know it's a club and you're drunk and trying to pick up the girl next to you," she acknowledged, as she ventured into "30 Summers" and "Something More Besides You."
The next song, "Bread and Wine," from Open, she described as one of her favorite songs on the album this week. "It's a song about adultery," she said. "I definitely did not play this at the wedding." The single, "I'm So Open," followed, along with "Lay It Down" and an as-faithful-as-the-Junkies-get rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road."
Following a two song-encore of "Dragging Hooks" and "Anniversary Song," Margo invited the audience to hang around if they wanted autographs or photos -- a long way indeed from the first Horseshoe show.
KAREN BLISS
(June 13, 2001)