Demons

I have been listening to the Cowboy Junkies since I was about 13 years old. Well, perhaps, I should clarify, I took up listening to the Cowboy Junkies when I was thirteen years old, and have owned every album they have made from Whites off Earth Now to Miles from Home. I have seen them live (they were fantastic), and tried to read and listen to every interview with the band that I could possibly get my hands on. Then the 2000s came and I kind lost interest in them, though I have always counted Black Eyed Man as one of the top five albums ever recorded, better than Abbey Road in mind, but maybe not as good Tapestry by Carol King. Anyway, the decade past and I never played one Cowboy Junkies song. I still admired them as a band, but there has been so much great music put out between 2000 and 2010, I really didn't work to keep up with what the Cowboy Junkies were up to. I know they rerecorded The Trinity Sessions, and I have meant to purchase it, but I have yet to get around to it.Anyway, one musician I fell in love with during the last decade was Vic Chestnutt. What a sweet, insightful, thoughtful soul and it breaks my heart to think of all the Demons he must have carried around inside of him during his short, tragic life. He is such a fantastic writer and singer and given that he could only really play 3 chords on his guitar, he played the hell out of the thing. So when I learned the Cowboy Junkies recorded some of VC's music, I had to get the CD.The Cowboy Junkies, and Margo Timmons in particular, have this very lovely way of taking another musicicans' song and making it their own without outshining the original artist. For example, their interpretation of Townes Van Zandt's "To live is to Fly" is phenomenal, but when Townes sings it, it is also a beautiful song, albeit a bit more melancholy than Margo's version. I think that the Cowboy Junkies have produced something very similiar with Demons. If you didn't know that these songs were performed by another musician you may think that it is absolutley amazing that the Cowboy Junkies could have written so many good songs for one album. But if you are familiar with Vic Chestnutt's work, Demons does not leave the listener thinking, "Wow, the Cowboy Junkies have performed these songs so much better than Vic ever did." Perhaps, it is because Margo has a very insightful way of providing a woman's perspective to these male penned tunes that make them this way. I am really not sure.There are definatley some differences between the Cowboy Junkies now and the Cowboy Junkies of my youth. In some songs, Margo sounds a little like Natalie Merchant, which isn't necessairly a criticism, but her voice has definately changed. Perhaps, it has grown/matured, maybe it has aged. I would suspect a little of both. Still, the music is still so lush and beautiful, just as it was when they were young'uns.I know that if the Cowboy Junkies had not been performing Vic Chestnutt songs, I likely would not have purchased this album, but I am really happy that I did. It is special and I hope that the Cowboy Junkies tour in support of it. If they come my way again, I think I would really enjoy seeing them live, at least one last time.

And when I say "made in heaven," I don't just mean that figuratively. The great singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt is no longer with us, having ended his own life on Christmas Day of 2009. Although Vic was an atheist who had no use for notions of an afterlife, his wonderful, idiosyncratic music lives on. He was an icon to both lovers of Americana and admirers of his drive to create despite disabilities (an accident at age 18 paralyzed much of his body).He collaborated with an amazing spectrum of performers, including Cowboy Junkies (on their 2007 album "Trinity Revisited"), Bill Frisell, Widespread Panic, Van Dyke Parks, Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, and Billy Bob Thornton (with whom he acted in the film "Sling Blade"). His songs were covered by the likes of Madonna, R.E.M., Garbage, Cracker, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Soul Asylum. But leave it to our alt-country neighbors to the north to pay him a fitting final tribute.This album is the second of what the Junkies are calling their "Nomad Series." They cover Chesnutt's oeuvre in a classic, low-key, instantly recognizable style. Michael Timmins' guitars, both acoustic and electric, buzz hypnotically as his sister Margo dreamily sings and whispers the dark, introspective lyrics. Piano, organ, bass, drums, mandolin, and other instruments join in to cast a subtle, mesmerizing, often disturbing spell.The first two tracks, "Wrong Piano" and "Flirted with You All My Life," kick things off with anthemic ballads, the latter addressed to death itself. After this the CD settles down into a subdued groove for three acoustic cuts, "See You Around," "Betty Lonely," and "Square Room." The latter song, about a suicidal alcoholic, is one of the bleakest musical statements ever recorded.The album's temperature rises on the grungy "Ladle," falls on the haunting songs "Supernatural" and "West of Rome," and rises again on the rocking "Strange Language," which together with "Wrong Piano" is one of my favorite songs on the album. The penultimate track, "We Hovered with Short Wings," is quiet and sad, while the final cut, the lovely, horn-backed "When the Bottom Fell Out," is prefaced by a recording of Chesnutt himself making an off-color crack at one of his own live performances.This is revelatory music making, a respectful, moving, and truly worthy addition to the Cowboy Junkies' 25-year body of work. Highly recommended.

I love the music of Cowboy Junkies, their melodies, excellent playing and intelligent, insightful, poetic, sometimes morose lyrics. I also appreciate the clean, uncluttered sound of the band and the obvious care taken when recording their music. So it puzzles me that a band which puts so much effort into creating such clear and beautiful recordings would let all that go out the window when time comes to master their discs.This recording, like so many others, suffers from the ravages of the loudness war. There's obvious brickwall limiting, audible clipping distortion and harshness in the sound that I'm certain isn't present in the studio tapes.I wish artists like Cowboy Junkies would take a greater interest in the quality of their consumer product. Making a great-sounding Studio Master tape is certainly appreciated, but the fans don't get to hear the studio master; we only get to hear mass-produced CD's and/or digital downloads. It's a real shame to have all the effort invested in great sound ruined at the near-last stage in the production chain by nonsensical CD mastering practices. If I want more loudness, I can simply turn the volume knob that's present on every playback device ever made. If, however, I want less distortion and compression, I have nowhere to turn.

this is is pure junkies fayre. lots of slow paced ballads. some distorted guitar on on two or three songs.the star as always is margo timmins,one of the best singers of slow moody ballads around. she does all these vic chessnut songs proud. the downside as in recent albums is micheal timmins distorted guitar on two or three songs. fortunately it doesent become an obsession. all in all a decent album by a band that you always know what you will get.

Having not really heard Vic Chesnutt's work and only knowing him from the Trinity Revisited album I wondered what the Junkies were doing producing a tribute album to him. Boy can you be wrong, on two counts! One the songs contain some great lyrics and two the Junkies absolutely nail them. Margo sings as wonderfully as ever but the band really rise to the occasion and match her stride for stride. 'Flirted with you all my life' seems to be a poignant song given Vic's life but there are so many other stand out tracks, 'See you around', 'Square Room' to name but two. Well worth a listen.

Very good

Great CD

If you are a Junkies fan who has never heard of Vic Chesnutt then please read no further, mentally substitute 3 or 4 stars for the two posted, and buy with confidence. I guarantee that you will not agree with, or maybe even understand, the following criticism. It is interesting, incidentally, to note that in Amazon's "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought..." selection that there is not a single Vic Chesnutt album.If you are coming to this as a Chesnutt fan, however, it is this "tribute" album that you won't understand! Not only does it not reveal anything new about these songs or the artist who wrote them, but actually travesties the best of them, "I've Flirted with You All my Life". Several of their versions show a lack of sensitivity to the originals that is genuinely surprising and upsetting. If you can manage to think of the album as just "the new Junkies CD", you may find it bearable.If anything, I come away from this disc with a greater respect for Chesnutt's abilities as an arranger of his own music. That the Cowboy Junkies are excellent musicians there is no doubt, but I have started to doubt their ability as artists, as they have singularly failed to find the poetry and pain in this fragile genius's songs.On the other hand, since I seem to be a lone voice amongst the gushing 5* praise, I have to concede that, at least, they have understood their demographic.