COWBOY JUNKIES - TRINITY SESSION CD

Formed in Toronto by siblings Micheal, Peter, and Margo Timmins, The Cowboy Junkies purvey a surreal brand of moody, slow motion country music. The Trinity Sessions was recorded with a single microphone in Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity (hence the title), an engineering circumstance that has everything to do with the record's stark, spacious atmosphere. Bass and lightly brushed drums provide a soft, pulsating background, while gentle guitar embellishments weave around singer Margo's haunting vocal performances. While it is the record's many covers-including treatments of the Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane, Hank Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, and Patsy Cline's Walking After Midnight - that first catch a listener's attention, the originals also sparkle. Misguided Angel, in particular, received a good deal of airplay. The combination of gentle, smoky atmospherics and the somewhat unsettling distention of conventional country song structures make The Trinity Sessions an intriguing and worthwhile listen.