Cowboy Junkies

This 1988 album was a revelation in that the idea of combining the Velvets and country hadn't really existed before this. Not to mention the idea of playing country like you were loaded to the gills on enough heroin to flatline King Kong. Margo Timmins' zombie-vocals and her brothers' playing make this one of those records where style and substance are equally important.

The Trinity Session' is in the great tradition of albums that establish a mood and sustain it so
consistently that the entire record seems like one continuously unfolding song. The mood
in this instance is hypnotic and introspective – an intense, melancholic longing that blends
the elemental emotions of country music and the blues with the poetic world-weariness of
the Velvet Underground. As the Cowboy Junkies' name implies, that blending is... More >

One consequence of the rootsy two-track recording is that despite her austere-to-impoverished arrangements and bell-like murmur, it's often hard to understand what Margo Timmins is saying--is she driving to "Nashville" or on "ash-fault"? The tempos don't help either--takes her many seconds to get from subject to predicate. Leaving us with the usual oxymorons--histrionic understatement and vague specificity. Why is she so sad? She just is, that's all. (Grade - C+)