Show Review

Cowboy Junkies are doing their part. They keep writing beautiful, haunting songs filled with heartache and hope. They keep getting on their bus, driving from Toronto to your hometown, so you can listen to these songs in a live setting. They are fan friendly--lead singer Margo Timmins always greets her fans after each show, signing stained CD covers, posing for numerous photographs, working while she should be cooling off. Lead guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins regularly chats with his fans on the band’s official message board (check out www.cowboyjunkies.com) and writes a tour diary entry after every show he plays. They believe in their fans.

They want more people to listen. Unfortunately, they don’t always get their wish.

Playing to a St. Louis crowd that filled maybe a third of The Pageant’s main floor, the Cowboy Junkies could have easily mailed this one in and got the bus rolling to Memphis. St. Louis being the first stop on the second leg of their North American tour supporting their ninth studio record, One Soul Now, this probably wasn’t what they had in mind as they performed “Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning” and “I’m So Open,” to a hushed audience.

But the Cowboy Junkies aren’t an all or nothing band. If they were, they wouldn’t have lasted beyond their 1988 cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane.” Instead, they choose to always live in the moment, searching for another way to perform a song like “The Slide,” which was presented at the end of the first set in an entirely different arrangement than heard on One Soul Now. They fight through an occasional train wreck and keep the show going, laughing off each other’s mistakes throughout the night, while keeping the music fresh. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, and for the members of Cowboy Junkies, like their setlists, there is a different method to the madness each time that they take the stage.

For this particular tour, just like the wonderful shows they put on last year, they have decided to open most of their shows themselves--with a delicate, 40 minute acoustic set. Billing themselves as the “Folk Fusion Quartet,” the quiet set featured just Michael and Margo for the first song, while multi-instrumentalist Jeff Bird and accordion player Jaro Czerwinec, both who gave many thrilling solos, joined them for the final six numbers. The sparse set included an exquisite “Cold Tea Blues,” which was dedicated to a fan, and also treated ticket holders to a rare acoustic performance of “A Horse in the Country,” a song from Black Eyed Man that is usually given full-band treatment. Its acoustic offering allowed Margo to show off her mature vocals that have only gotten stronger through the years.

After a short twenty-minute break, the Junkies returned with bassist Alan Anton and drummer Peter Timmins as they cranked into “From Hunting Ground to City.” This led into a false start of “Crescent Moon,” but once they got on the same page, the set began to smoke, including fiery versions of “I Don’t Get It” and “Why This One.” Peter Timmins was especially “on,” displaying his vastly underrated talents on drums during the latter song.

Probably the most exciting moments of the night were during cover songs. The Junkies happily tackled The Grateful Dead’s “To Lay Me Down,” Townes Van Zandt’s “To Live is to Fly,” George Harrison’s “Isn’t it a Pity,” and Robert Johnson’s “32-20 Blues.” As Margo left the stage for “32-20,” her brother, Michael, rocked hard on guitar, painting a canvas of electronic sounds that found every corner of the room, forcing many to leave their seats and come closer to the stage, interested in the sudden change of mood.

The Junkies, obviously impressed by the small, attentive crowd, thanked them with a total of 4 encore performances, the last being a graceful version of “Misguided Angel,” which had many in the audience singing along with Margo as only Michael joined her on the stage with his guitar. And as the final line of “misguided angel, love you till I’m dead” echoed through the room, one could only hope that the Junkies would once again be back, miles from their home, only next time playing to a much larger crowd.