The Cowboy Junkies’ seminal 1988 album made the band, and influenced their peers
To remake “The Trinity Session” could be compared to tampering with “Casablanca.”
The Cowboy Junkies’ seminal, spellbinding 1988 album jump-started their career, becoming the kind of album aspiring songwriters would name as a career pivot point. Spare and ethereal, “The Trinity Session” made haunted desolation beguiling.
In February, the band released “Trinity Revisited,” a DVD packaged with an audio CD to commemorate the 20th anniversary of this legendary release. The Cowboy Junkies will perform at the Lensic Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Sunday and at Albuquerque’s KiMo Theatre on Tuesday.
“We wanted to do something to celebrate it because it gave us a career,” singer Margo Timmins said in a telephone interview from her Toronto home.
“It was a huge risk,” Timmins acknowledged. “Our biggest concern was that we were toying with something people have real strong connections with. You don’t want Neil Young to go back and remake ‘Harvest.’ We were afraid of, ‘So what? You did it better 20 years ago.’ ’’
Recorded live around a single microphone, “The Trinity Session” took place in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Downtown Toronto. “Sweet Jane,” the Junkies’ cover of the Velvet Underground classic, exploded into the standout single, providing a soundtrack to both “Natural Born Killers” and “The Good Girl.”
The band assuaged some of its concerns by inviting three friends to join them — songwriter Vic Chesnutt, Ryan Adams and Natalie Merchant. They wanted musicians who weren’t rehearsal dependent.
“We just decided that recording friends would be the most fun for us and the most satisfying,” Timmins said. “There wasn’t one take that was lousy — and no big mistakes.”
The Junkies once shared a manager with Merchant.
“Natalie, I’ve always wanted to sing with,” Timmins said. “She has such a great voice, and our voices work well together.”
They were fans of Adams’ and had heard the feeling was mutual — especially regarding “The Trinity Session.”
“He was 12 when he heard it,” Timmins said. “ ‘Trinity Session’ was the album that for him told him what to do — ‘I have to sing, and I have to play guitar.’ Ryan was inspired, and we thought he would be great.”
Chesnutt played acoustic guitar and Merchant the piano, while Adams helmed the electric guitar. Merchant and Timmins turn “Misguided Angel” into a duet, sharing the song’s burden of toxic attraction.
“It’s a melody you can’t tamper with,” Timmins said.
Adams sings the bluesy “200 More Miles” with an impassioned vocal. Timmins, Adams and Chesnutt share “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” “Walking After Midnight” features Timmins, Adams and Merchant trading cathartic verses.
The Junkies originally discovered the church through engineer Peter Moore, who had recorded in its stainedglass space with the Toronto Symphony.
“The room is inspirational; it’s just the acoustics,” Timmins said, giggling. “It’s like when you sing in the shower — you sing louder because you sound better.”
The Junkies will tour all summer, then take a break before starting work on their next album. Chief songwriter Michael Timmins already has “four or five” songs in the works, his sister said.
“Michael and I get together at the initial stage and work on it acoustically,” she said.
“At this point, I can’t say it’s going to be any happier than the last one,” she added, laughing.
If you go
WHAT: Cowboy Junkies.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 1.
WHERE: Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe.
HOW MUCH: $25-$40.
CONTACT: 988-1234 or TicketsSantaFe.org.
If you go
WHAT: Cowboy Junkies.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 3.
WHERE: KiMo Theatre, 423 Central Ave. N.W., Albuquerque.
HOW MUCH: $31-$38.
CONTACT: (505) 768-3544. and Ticketmaster (505) 883-7800 and Smith’s stores.
