One of the songs on Cowboy Junkies’ critically acclaimed 2023 album Such Ferocious Beauty takes dementia as its theme, but it’s also about so much more.
We will almost certainly hear that central song, What I Lost, played live soon because this iconic band’s tour of Australia and New Zealand is imminent. It starts in Brisbane on November 11, with shows in Newcastle, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne throughout the month.
An Evening With Cowboy Junkies Celebrating 40 Years will have them playing songs from the multiplatinum The Trinity Sessions to their most recent and universally acclaimed album, Such Ferocious Beauty.
What I Lost is a direct reflection of the band’s father’s experience with dementia. Considering that three of the band members are siblings, that makes poignant sense.
Formed in Toronto in 1985, the band features Margo Timmins as vocalist, joined by siblings Michael Timmins on guitar and Peter Timmins on drums, along with Michael’s lifelong friend Alan Anton on bass. That began a journey that has evolved over 29 albums.
Michael Timmins’s lyrics on What I Lost address fragmented memories of his late father John’s life, such as his time as a bush pilot and his love for jazz. Timmins has stated that lyrics like “This is what I lost” are more about his own feelings about witnessing his father’s decline.
You might like
I woke up this morning I didn’t know who I was, begins the song with Margo Timmins’s hauntingly beautiful voice. I looked at the room and didn’t know where I was or if I ever was.
And while the song is about dementia, in a poetic way it is also a kind of existential exploration of identity and grief and loss. Another song from the album, Shadows 2, is a gentler companion piece also reflecting on the experience of watching a loved one with dementia. It is told from both the father’s and the offspring’s perspectives, capturing the quiet, shared moments as one person’s mind fades.
Such Ferocious Beauty is framed by the theme of grief and their father’s dementia, making these two songs central to its emotional core. But when I talk to 66-year-old Michael Timms by phone from his home in Toronto (the band is Canadian), he points out that there is more to the album.
“Yes, I do explore that side of things but it’s not all about grief,” Timmins says. “It’s an exploration of other things too. But What I Lost I is very much about that and an experience I had when I showed up one day and my dad said he had woken up and didn’t know who he was. He was in another world then, although he was in and out.”
The song is haunting and sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack of a David Lynch film. I’m not the first to suggest that, Timmins tells me.
Cowboy Junkies play original music but they are also a covers band, although that description doesn’t do them justice. Rather than cover other people’s songs they reinterpret them as they famously did with The Velvet Underground classic, Sweet Jane. The song’s writer, the late great Lou Reed, acknowledged their version as the best. Coming from Reed, that was some compliment.
“Lou could be grumpy but he wasn’t grumpy about that,” Timmins says. “He said something about it being the best and most authentic version he had ever heard.”
Subscribe for updates
While most bands chase trends, Cowboy Junkies has stayed the course, maintaining a low-impact excavation of melody and evocative language delivered sotto voce in singer Margo Timmins’ feathery alto.
In 1988 they proved that there was an audience waiting for something quiet, beautiful and reflective. The Trinity Session cut through the noise and stood out amid the flash and bombast that defined the late ’80s.
The Trinity Session featured that unforgettable cover of the Velvet Underground’s Sweet Jane, combining folk, country, blues and rock in a way that had never been heard before. The album went on to sell more than a million copies.
Such Ferocious Beauty came out in 2023 and the year before they did a covers album that included an amazing interpretation of David Bowie’s Five Years.
“From a very young age The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars was one of my favourite albums,” Timmins says. “We love that song and thought we’d give it a shot. Doing other people’s songs is a big part of what we do. We never do that, though, unless we feel we can put our personal stamp on it.”
They have even played a couple of Leonard Cohen songs live, but have never recorded one. We might get to hear one on this tour, if we are lucky.
Unlike most long-lasting groups, Cowboy Junkies have never had a breakup or taken a sanity-saving hiatus. There’s an appreciation of each other that keeps them constantly working.
“It’s that intimacy and understanding of what each one of us brings to the table,” Michael Timmins says. He is the band’s elder statesman, the chief architect, songwriter and guitarist. He works with his sister Margo on sculpting the emotional planes and vocal performances before bringing in younger brother Peter on drums and Alan Anton on bass to create the soundscapes that have made Cowboy Junkies a band that defies categories.
“The expectations and responsibilities of our roles are a big part of the band’s ethos,” Timmins says. “We’re still amazed that we’re doing things our way and continuing to grow the band, but the longer we are at it, the more fun it’s become. We don’t take it for granted.”
Cowboy Junkies play the Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, November 11; and Woodville Town Hall, Adelaide, November 20.