On stage or off, the Canadian quartet Cowboy Junkies is not about volume, swagger or riffs. Instead, it relies on creating an almost church-like feel in performances. Most Junkies shows, like the one coming up at the Charleston Music Hall on June 18, are about the powerful, solemn atmosphere the band creates.
The crowd reaction is more reverent silence than raucous noise, and you could probably hear a pin drop in rows as singer Margo Timmins, her brother, guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins, her other brother, drummer Peter Timmins, and bassist Alan Anton make a song come to life.
Most Junkies songs are eerily quiet (“Misguided Angel”), haunting (“Murder, Tonight In The Trailer Park”) colored with muted gray tones (“Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning”) or simply hypnotic and ethereal (“Blue Guitar”). And its live show feels less like a concert than a shared reverie, with each song unfolding at its own unhurried pace and drawing listeners deeper into the band’s richly textured world.
It’s often like being in church in the best possible way, which probably explains why The Trinity Session, the 1989 album that put the band on the map, was recorded in one day at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, Canada.
The Junkies’ show at the Music Hall is intriguing. It’s part of a tour that’s part celebration and part exploration called “Celebrating 40 Years.” The band’s first album, the self-released Whites Off Earth Now!! came out back in 1985.
On this tour, the first set of the two-set show draws heavily from the band’s most recent work, including 2023’s Such Ferocious Beauty. The second set is a deep dive into the past.
“The second set is fully from our catalog,” said Michael Timmins in a recent interview with the Charleston City Paper. “It pulls from our very first record from 1985 up to the most recent albums. So it’s quite a wide range.”
On stage, the band, along with longtime touring mate and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Bird — who the band called the “5th Cowboy Junkie” — create a respectful but not overly serious vibe, with Margo’s rich, trembling voice leading the way over a band more interested than fundamentals than flash.
“It’s all about what you express live,” Michael Timmins said. “It’s all about connecting and what I call a transferring of energy from stage to audience and back again. It all goes in a big circle and that’s what makes a really good show and that’s what we feed on.”
“On tour, the rest of the day’s pretty crappy,” he added, “but those two hours onstage is what you’re there for, that transfer of energy.”
When a band has had the same lineup for 40 years, and when three of the members are siblings, one would expect that the musical chemistry between the five musicians onstage is still a thrill for Cowboy Junkies.
“Margo, Peter and I are brothers and sisters, and I’ve known Alan for 60 years now,” Michael Timmins said. “We all grew up in the Montreal music radio culture. And we still all listen to music now. Our friendship was born from record collections and shared experience with music. And I think that translated when we started to play music together. We connect, and that was available to us from the very beginning, And that’s never really changed.”
As for the audience connection to Cowboy Junkies, Timmins says it remains strong after 40 years.
“I think we’ve always been very honest with our audience through the music,” Timmins said. “It’s about connecting and transferring that energy from stage to audience and back again. It goes in a big circle, and that’s what makes a good show. That’s what we feed on; that’s how we keep on going. And that’s how you keep on growing: one show at a time, from night to night.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: Doors open at 8 p.m., June 18, Charleston Music Hall, 37 John St. Tickets: $120 to $136, charlestonmusichall.com
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