Cowboy Junkies

Pale Sun, Crescent Moon (RCA)
by Carolyn Gaines

I must be honest before I go on. When the Editor put the Cowboy Junkies album on my desk, I groaned. My first thought was, “Fuck. Another ‘girl’ album.” You know, mellow music for the passive chic. After barraging him with about ten minutes of “You dirty chauv!,” I relented and decided to do the review just to spite him.

It figures that a group calling themselves Cowboy Junkies would admire the Velvet Underground. In fact, the band is best known for their cover of the V.U. classic “Sweet Jane.” Pale Sun, Crescent Moon is a mellow album. Sad, knowing vocals winding their way through countrified, low-key guitar, bass and drums. Supplementing this are occasional accoutrements of organ and harmonica. It’s a haunting, modern folk, pop album. Just like the rest of the albums reviewed in Lollipop. (HA!)

The band is sister Margo Timmins with her dream-like voice, brothers Michael on guitar and Peter on drums, and “close friend” Alan Anton on bass. The Junkies seem to enjoy working with one another and it shows. “We’ve grown up with a sense of strength of the family,” Michael explained in a recent interview, “and the band is a further bond.” “We haven’t turned into the Kinks, yet,” says Margo, citing rock’s most famous dueling brothers.

Although lyricist Michael has his feet firmly planted in the “classic singer/song writer customs.” the Junkies’ defining album, The Trinity Sessions, felt as dirgelike and candlelit as a pop album could. The band had since warmed up (disappointingly), going for more narrative lyrics and resonant instrumentation. Pale Sun, Crescent Moon, their fifth album, luckily, more closely recalls the “sparse, clinical-depressed” Junkies that attracted the bands first loyal fans.

For those still thinking “Ho, hum,” there is something else to perk-up interest. Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis wrote a song on the album entitled, “The Post.” True to J.’s style, “The Post” is definitely one of the more rockin’ tunes on this disc.

Basically, Pale Sun, Crescent Moon is a subtle combination of pop, folk, and (GULP) country!! Well, not exactly country, but the music does evoke images of fresh air, mountains, and generally content people. Yes, they do exist, only I thought all the good ones were either taken or straight.