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When Michael Timmins began writing songs for The Cowboy Junkies’ 2023 album, Such Ferocious Beauty, there was no shortage of inspiration to draw from.
Granted, none of it was particularly uplifting. For one, there was a significant death in the family. John Timmins, the father of Michael and fellow Junkies Margo and Peter, was diagnosed with dementia about a year into the COVID-19 lockdown. His health declined quickly and he was a widower. So the siblings became his primary caregivers during those final days in 2022.
Then there was the political circus happening across the border, which hit a fevered pitch on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of then-president Donald Trump supporters attacked the United States Capital Building after refusing to accept his electoral defeat.
COVID. Death. Trump.
It’s all fertile ground for a songwriter, but not exactly the sunniest of realms to reside in.
“There was deception everywhere and imbalance everywhere,” says Timmins, in an interview from his home in Toronto. “I think all that came into it. When I write, I try and write from a personal point of view but occasionally try to use the personal to explain the larger picture. These elements were perfect elements for that kind of writing. That’s where it came from, all those things. And I had a lot of time on my hands to write, too.”
After 40 years playing together, it’s safe to assume that Michael has developed something of a shorthand with his bandmates — which include Margo on vocals, Peter on drums and their childhood friend Alan Anton on bass — when it comes to developing new material. However, due to COVID and other factors, the pre-production sessions for Such Ferocious Beauty took on a bit of a different vibe. Timmins rented a barn in the country outside of Toronto for a few months. Margo lived nearby, so was able to drop in after her brother had something new to introduce.
“A lot of these songs were really fleshed out acoustically, with just acoustic (guitar) and vocals,” says Timmins, who will be joining his bandmates for a main stage performance at the Calgary Folk Music Festival on Friday. “So, initially, I thought this record would be much more in that direction, much more simple and acoustic. But then Alan started sending me his things and his things were much more developed: a lot of keyboards and bass and more grand, I guess. That all crept in there, too. Once we got the band back together, once we were allowed to get together, and started working on stuff, those two elements informed the record. There was the acoustic element and the bigger side. We let the writing go in that direction because the songs were asking for it.”
It could be argued that the Junkies have always had this dichotomy, even if they first attracted attention in the 1980s for their intimate and defiantly lo-fi vibes. They have never been a hard-rock band, of course, but their sonics were never one-dimensional, either. Part of that can be attributed to Michael Timmins. As a producer, versatile guitarist and poignant songwriter, his considerable contributions are occasionally taken for granted. After all, much of the early attention surrounding the Cowboy Junkies focused on Margo’s singular vocals and stage presence. On top of that, the band has earned a reputation as savvy interpreters of other people’s songs, including their star-making take on the Velvet Underground’s Sweet Jane from their 1988 breakthrough album The Trinity Sessions, their 1990 version of Neil Young’s Powderfinger and their 2011 album Demons, which was made up entirely of Vic Chesnutt songs.
While the band was still working on Such Ferocious Beauty, the band released 2022’s Songs of The Recollection, which collected cover tunes the Junkies had produced over the years for tribute records and other projects such as David Bowie’s Five Years, Chestnutt’s Marathon and Gram Parsons’ Ooh Las Vegas.
But the songs on Such Ferocious Beauty again show Timmins to be in top form as a writer. The pulsing opener, What I Lost, directly addresses his father’s declining years and the bewildering grief of losing a loved one. Flood begins with some Crazy Horse-inspired guitar feedback before settling into a beautiful mid-tempo ballad about regret and denial. The bluesy Hard to Build, Easy to Break seems to be at least partially inspired by the erosion of democracy south of the border.
“We understood that this was going to be a very personal record and we were going to promote it from a very personal side,” says Timmins. “A lot of albums are personal, but the outside listener doesn’t necessarily know what the specifics are about. We thought with this one – because it was dealing with dementia and it’s a relevant topic these days, especially for our audience, our age group – we should bring it into the personal even when we’re promoting it and talk about our dad and issues around that.”
As for the political songs, Timmins says they may be inspired by a specific political or sociological moment but he tries to keep them fairly universal.
“I’m not saying ‘(expletive) Trump,’ he says with a laugh. “It’s not overt. A song like Hard to Build, Easy to Break to me is very political, but you can take that any way you want. However you want to interpret it, you can interpret it.”
While Such Ferocious Beauty is certainly a strong outing for the Junkies, it’s unclear how many songs the folk-fest audience will hear from it on Friday. With nearly four decades behind them and 16 studio albums recorded, festival set lists can be tricky affairs for the band these days. Early favourites such as Sweet Jane, Misguided Angel, A Common Disaster and Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning may get priority over the new songs.
“We try to do more of an overview of our 40 years,” he says. “We do that in concert as well, but we have more time in concert. For example, if you were to see us on this tour in one of the regular shows, we’d be doing two sets. The first set would be focusing on the new record and the second set would be a catalogue of deep cuts and – in quotation marks – greatest hits type of thing. For the festival, we’ll probably do one of two of the new songs but most will be an overview of our catalogue.”
“One way we’ve kept on the road for so long and continue to do what we do is by putting out new music and playing new music and I think our audience, at least the ones who have come to a few shows over the years, expect that,” he adds. “They know they’ll get some Trinity Session in there but if we have a new record out, they’ll hear that, too.”
The Cowboy Junkies play the main stage at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Friday at 8:50 p.m. The festival runs from Thursday to Sunday at Prince’s Island Park.