THE PRESS RELEASE: “In July of 2018 we released our album All That Reckoning. Two months later our mother died and we realized that there was more reckoning still to come. Ghosts is the result of that realization; a suite of songs revolving around grief, pain, fear, anxiety, beauty; a set of songs examining the complexity of emotions that subsume us after losing a parent. We were writing and creating these songs while we were touring ATR and as they took shape it became clear to us that they belonged as part of, or at least as an addendum to, the songs that make up All That Reckoning. They deal with the ultimate reckoning, the reckoning that comes with the death of a loved one and the reassessing that one goes through as one tries to process such a loss. The concept behind this project was to present it as a two-disc vinyl-album set. All That Reckoning and Ghosts work best as two bodies of work, reflecting off of each other, but you know what they say about the best laid plans of men … “
MY TWO CENTS: This time it’s personal. And devastating. Haunted, ethereal and mournful songs have long been Cowboy Junkies’ stock in trade. But here they’re obviously coming from somewhere far deeper and closer to home, as the three Timmins siblings — singer Margo, guitarist Michael and drummer Peter (joined as always by bassist Alan Anton) — channel the grief over the loss of mom Barbara into their art. As usual, quietly intense alt-country ballads are the main course, but doses of swirly psychedelia, post-rock noise, twangy honky-tonk and even free jazz help make the moving Ghosts even more substantial than you might have initially expected.
