Like a lot of bands, Cowboy Junkies started off playing covers. Unlike a lot of bands, they never really stopped.
And who can blame them? Their first big hit, after all, was a slow-burning rendition of the Lou Reed classic Sweet Jane — while their first studio album Whites Off Earth Now!! consisted mainly of vintage blues tunes. And even though they’ve written and released more than a dozen acclaimed albums of original material since then, they continue to perform and record songs by everyone from Neil Young, Vic Chesnutt and Townes Van Zandt to Dinosaur Jr. and U2.
Some of these covers get peppered into their albums. Others are relegated to B-sides and soundtracks. And some end up gathered together into compilations like their latest release Songs Of The Recollection. It finds the Toronto foursome putting their own distinctive spin on David Bowie’s Five Years, The Rolling Stones’ No Expectation, The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds, Gram Parsons’ Ooh Las Vegas and other vintage gems. A couple of weeks back, guitarist Michael Timmins and I got on the Zoom to talk about the disc, cover tunes, their next album of new material, his new podcast Music Is The Drug and much more. Check it out.
