4th in The Nomad Series, The Wilderness is a rich and moody tone poem from Canada’s alt-rock-country group

The Cowboy Junkies are touring Canada and the US this summer promoting their new CD.
‘Angels in the Wilderness’ – acoustic performance from NPR

‘The Wilderness’ is the 4th in the ‘Nomad Series’. While it doesn’t surprise me that the Cowboy Junkies are still creating compelling music, frankly I forgot what the band was up to. That was my loss.

Cowboy Junkies have been creating interesting, intimate and personal music on high level.

The Wilderness

Margo Timmins sweet, intimate singing is the sound of the Cowboy Junkies. A quiet introspective person in her real life, she conveys that inward person in music that touches you.

The dynamics are all low-key, measured energy and slow burning sexuality. Some of the lyrics are barely above a whisper. This is not dance music.

The music behind the singing has a perfection to it that matches Margo’s voice. Michael has recorded some of the deepest bass sounds from guitars and bass I have heard.

It’s the deep bass that Daniel Lanois used to say only existed in the deep south and New Orleans.

The music works on every level I tested. In the car, it sounds great. When I play it at home on a Velodyne sub-woofer, there is bass music that I didn’t hear in the car. The bass is full but not overpowering on headphones where the lyrics become more intimate.

Taking it as far as I could, I played the CD on my studio monitors that use a Neumann K+H 810 subwoofer which goes down to 18 Hz. “The Wilderness” had even more clearly defined bass than before. That level of recording engineering is rarely found.

The effect is a mesmerizing tonal balance that works magic on the music.

Margo cuts lose

Margo breaks the mold of her goddess persona with one song – “Fuck, I Hate The Cold”.

If the song ever gets air play it could become the Canadian national anthem.

Michael and Margo Timmins

Michael has been touring, composing and producing other musicians on his Latent Recordings independent label.

Margo has been raising a family and touring with Cowboy Junkies.

Michael produced Tom Wilson’s ‘A Quiet Evil, the first album of his alt-country-rock band “Lee Harvey Osmond”. I fell upon the CD by accident – OK I begged Tom Wilson for a copy.

I love ‘A Quiet Evil’. There is a brooding, sweet malevolence enhanced by Margo Timmins singing on “I’m Gonna Stay That Way.” The song gets inside your head.

On “The Wilderness” we get to enjoy 10 songs of Margo Timmins and the Cowboy Junkies. It was worth the wait.

Summer Tour

The Cowboy Junkies are the front end of a pan-Canadian tour that takes them west to east as part of John Cougar Mellencamp’s  No Better Than This Tour.

Check out The Cowboy Junkies site for separate concerts as a solo act along the way as The Nomad Tour.

The Cowboy Junkies publicist graciously sent us a review copy of ‘The Wilderness.’

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