Classic Album Review: Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session
Originally released 1988, Latent Recordings

1. Mining For Gold
2. Misguided Angel
3. Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis)
4. I Don't Get It
5. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
6. To Love Is To Bury
7. 200 More Miles
8. Dreaming My Dreams With You
9. Working On A Building
10. Sweet Jane
11. Postcard Blues
12. Walkin' After Midnight

Cowboy Junkies sophomore effort provided them with both their artistic and commercial breakthrough, and took the low-fi, whispered midnight blues of their early years to it's zenith.

The album's unique recording circumstances have been well documented. On November 27th 1987, the band gathered around a single microphone at Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity to perform a combination of original songs and covers from (amongst others) the likes of Hank Williams and The Velvet Underground, who's classic 'Sweet Jane' would become one of the Junkies most enduring hits in its new bare-bones form. Michael Timmins' original compositions pack a powerful emotional punch, and are far from dwarfed by such lofty company. Indeed the beautifully sad 'To Love Is To Bury' and concert-favorite 'Misguided Angel' are amongst the album's greatest moments, as is their interpolation of the well-worn 'Blue Moon'.



Cowboy Junkies emerged from Trinity with a unique, haunting, gossamer masterpiece of a record, and the finest roots release of the 1980s.

Both the band's sparse, methodical approach to the material, the awe-inspiring Margo Timmins languid, dreamsome delivery and the brief recording time ensure that there's nothing out of place on 'The Trinity Session'. The project has a raw immediacy and cohesion rarely heard outside of early 1930s and 40s blues recordings and is an essential listen for all roots music fans.

In 2007 the band returned to the Trinity church to revisit the album with guest musicians including Vic Chesnutt and Natalie Merchant. The beautifully shot DVD of this performance also comes highly recommended.

Classic Album Review: Karen Dalton - It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best

Karen Dalton It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love you The Best
Originally released 1969 on Capitol Records

1. Little Bit Of Rain
2. Sweet Substitute
3. Ribbon Bow
4. I Love You More Than Words Can Say
5. In The Evening (It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best)
6. Blues On The Ceiling
7. It Hurts Me Too
8. How Did The Feeling Feel To You
9. Right, Wrong or Ready
10. Down On The Street (Don't Follow Me Down)

Yesterday I talked about The Beach Boy's Today, an album often overlooked in favor of it's critically acclaimed successor. The same could be said of today's selection, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best by Karen Dalton.

It's followup, In My Own Time, is most often considered to be the pinnacle of Karen's woefully brief recording career - a career that has only recently come to be appreciated on a wider scale. Vinyl copies of Karen's two studio albums had changed hands, been copied and passed around for decades, eventually forming the kind of cult appreciation afforded to those dubbed 'musician's musicians'.

Finally, over the last few years her albums have seen the kind of deluxe reissue treatment they deserve thanks to small labels Light In The Attic Records in the US and Megaphone in Europe, and both a live album and a disc of home recordings have been added to her discography. All are worth checking out.

However, neither of Karen's original albums were particularly successful upon their first release, and the woman who Bob Dylan described as his favorite singer from the Greenwich village folk scene of the 1960's passed into obscurity. She would never release a further album during her lifetime, which was cut short in 1993 when she passed away, reportedly following an 8 year battle with AIDS.

Of her 2 studio offerings, 1971's In My Own Time is lushly produced, jazz oriented, and provides a warm, accessible environment for Karen's unusual voice, which is frequently compared to that of Billie Holiday. It is indeed an underground classic, but to find the woman Bob Dylan spoke so highly of, you have to look to her debut. It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best takes an altogether sparser, more stark approach. It's uncompromising, raw and challenging while also beautiful and vulnerable. Karen plays the banjo like no one else I've ever heard, and much like Lady Day, her material has those unflinching, not-to-be-messed-with, yet sensitive and sympathetic characteristics at its core.

Her versions of traditional folk songs 'Ribbon Bow' and 'In The Evening' are particularly affecting, and her take on 'It Hurts Me Too' rivals Elmore James' as a personal favorite. If you're in the mood for it, the stark intimacy and hushed tones of the album are absolutely arresting, and the delivery of the material has an authenticity that personally I've never found from her contemporaries like Joan Baez and Judy Collins. Uncloaked and uncompromising, Sweet Mother K.D. is the pure heart and the dark soul of folk blues.

Classic Album Review: The Beach Boys - Today!

The Beach Boys Today!
originally released March 1965
Capitol Records

When it comes to The Beach Boys, most fans and critics agree, Pet Sounds was unquestionably their masterpiece. It's landmark sound saw the 23 year old musical prodigy Brian Wilson take the Phil Spector produced pop production that he loved and turn it into something entirely his own. It's timeless, unique, endlessly moving and for some people has never been matched.

But Pet Sounds' direct predeccessor, The Beach Boys Today! is often unfairly overlooked, and rarely discussed. Reissues have been few and far between, and all but the diehard fans seem to have forgotten it's existence.

It's impossible to overestimate how key this album was to the band's development. Today! is the junction where the innocent, fun-in-the-sun Beach Boys of the early days meets the sophisticated and poignant genius of Pet Sounds, and consequently is one of the band's most satisfying albums.

Fittingly, the album is divided into one side of upbeat pop tunes, and a second of the kind of longing, lovelorn ballads that would make the Boys' next album a classic.

But first side one, which opens with a storming version of Bobby Freeman's frequently covered 'Do You Wanna Dance', which gives Dennis Wilson his first ever lead vocal slot. While he may technically not be a great singer, he brings a nervous energy to the song that really brings it to life. Undoubtedly its a great party song, and a killer jolt of energy to kickstart the album.

Brian and Mike feature significantly for the rest of the half. It's almost like the end of an era - it was their songwriting partnership that gave the band it's first taste of success with songs like 'Catch A Wave', 'Fun, Fun, Fun' and 'I Get Around', but as Brian's creativity flourished, he would increasingly look to outside collaborators like Tony Asher and Van Dyke Parks to fulfil his vision.

The always pitch-perfect voice of Al Jardine takes lead on Help Me, Ronda. Unfortunately the titular character's 'h' isn't all that's missing in this version - so is much of the musical sparkle and polish that would make this song's later single release a huge hit. While this early cut has potential, it's hard to argue that the single version isn't vastly superior.

The second half, not surprisingly is where Today! really comes into its own, offering a side of The Beach Boys that had only been hinted at before on songs like 'In My Room', 'The Warmth Of The Sun' and 'Don't Worry Baby'.

Songs like Please Let Me Wonder, She Knows Me Too Well and I'm So Young are simply beautiful, incredibly moving and perhaps represent Brian's peak as a lead vocalist. The harmonies are lush, plaintive and amongst the group's best - and The Beach Boys early 60's lineup always had the best harmonies in all of music available on tap.

Lyrically side 2 of Today! is much more introspective, emotionally invested, and meaningful than much of what had gone before. Musically, it's nothing short of stunning. Brian's arrangements feature session musicians like Steve Douglas, legendary bassist Carol Kaye and even a young Glen Campbell to fill out the sound, which incorporates vibraphones, saxophones, timpani drums and other instruments that had rarely been used in pop music until that point. Listening now leaves you in no doubt of where the group were headed, and that it was this experimental approach that would come to full fruition on Pet Sounds.

Clocking in at under half an hour, as a standalone album or simply listened to as a companion to it's followup, The Beach Boys Today! is a true classic.

- Michael