Over the span of fifteen years and eight studio albums (including this year's Open), the Cowboy Junkies have managed to remain vital, progressive and interesting, but in a most subtle way. The Canadian four-piece has developed that which once defined popular music, but to a certain extent, has disappeared: a style.
The Junkies have been knocked for doing little to alter their formula since their breakthrough with The Trinity Session more than a decade ago. But to spend time and absorb each of their albums reveals worlds of differences from recording to recording. "I think people aren't always apt to hear that," says guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins. "We're not making a reggae record and then a rock record and then a heavy metal record. No matter what other instruments we add, we get that very strong style -- and to us that's something that a lot of bands strive for."
Indeed, from the particularly spare soundscapes of Trinity (which cost less than $300 to record) to the more countrified focus of Black Eyed Man to the Faulkner references in the darker Pale Sun, Crescent Moon to the crunchier studio sound of Miles From Our Home, the Junkies defy genre by becoming their genre. Sure, there's the strumming shuffle of the country blues of Lightnin' Hopkins, the literate songcraft of their friend the late Townes Van Zandt, the wry way with a phrase like John Prine, but the myriad elements that are incorporated always melt together into something that sounds like a Cowboy Junkies album, though not necessarily like a previous Cowboy Junkies album.
The last album, Miles From Our Home was something of a life cycle, moving from life through death through birth. Did any of that spill into Open?
From record to record you always carry something over and I like to think there's some continuity between them all, because in a sense, they're a documentation of the writer's life and the band's life and that of the people in it. It makes sense that there's some carry over, but you don't necessarily sit back and think, "OK, it's time to jump to the next record." It just sort of happens more naturally as a result of the writing process.
The sound of this album is a little less textured.
With Miles we really wanted to make a very layered studio record with lots of textures. For the first time it was a pure studio record. This one was really a live album recorded in the studio. And we used a seven-piece band, and there's very little overdub. What you hear is the band playing on the studio floor. That way you get more natural dynamics. And one aspect of our sound is that spaciousness and that comes into play. We made a conscious decision not to try and fill the sound out.
Almost a throwback to the early, early days.
It is, in a way it's the exact way we recorded Whites Off Earth Now, The Trinity Session and even Caution Horses, for that matter. Just go in, set up and play. It's an easy way for us to make a record. If you're prepared, which for this record we were, because we had been touring and all of these songs we had played up on stage, so we'd be playing them live and road-testing them for a couple of weeks. The band was feeling very settled, and it was just the way to go.
Was there a primary influence on the new album?
It wasn't necessarily a specific person or record or style that we tried to emulate. I think that with our jamming elements, because of the nature of how we recorded it, we took a lot of the stage into the studio. I think that was the influence was the long hours put in before we recorded it.
The sound has filled out considerably since Trinity. Have you met much resistance for not repeating that album?
People ask that question -- to try and recreate a Trinity sound or recreate a Cowboy Junkies moment, but I don't think we could achieve that style of play. It was natural for us then, but I think today it would come across as false. We could certainly record like that, with one microphone, if the songs we were working on called for it.
By resurrecting your own label [Latent Recordings], the band has gone the DIY route for the past couple of years. How is that treating you?
So far it's been great. It's been very liberating on many fronts. Little things matter more; you feel more personal with every little success. The failures are OK too because they're your failures instead of some guy in New York or L.A. who decided to scratch your name off a list because the numbers didn't work. It's a ton of work, but it's really invigorated the whole project. The music has never been a problem, because all of us do that independently of a label, but when the record is coming out and you have to sell it, it's not as anonymous.
And it doesn't hurt that the band has a fiercely loyal fan base.
We've always been aware of that. I hope we never lose that dynamic between us and them. It's something we've always been very careful to protect.
ANDREW DANSBY
(July 26, 2001)