*Editor's Note
-while Cat took beautiful photos from the show, we do not have clearance to host them. Sorry about that, and try to guess who's featured in the photo gallery. Hint: it's not the Cowboy Junkies.
Canadian band Cowboy Junkies are not one to rest on their laurels, banking solely on the nostalgia of veteran fans to fill seats at their gigs. Rather, they are constantly creating new music. In 2010, these prolific musicians decided to celebrate their 25th year together by putting out four albums in 18 months.
At Fête in Providence this past weekend, the band filled their first of two sets with sultry soulful songs from this recently completed project called the Nomad Series.
Lead singer Margo Timmins promised the sold-out audience that the second set would be filled with old favorites, joking that she knew how it was. "When I go to a Neil Young concert I want to hear the old stuff...but you're going to have to hear our new material first."
The crowd was warm and receptive, filled with folks who looked like they have been following the band since their college days. They were eating up the new songs like"Wrong Piano" and "I Flirted With You All My Life." Whether seated in the front rows or standing by the bars on the first floor or balcony level, there wasn't a bad spot in the house. Margo's style and sensual voice shrank the space and made it feel nice and intimate.
The second set opened with their biggest hit, "Sweet Jane," delivered with a mellow calmness that ran throughout the whole show. The band did cheat, however, and stuck an extra new song into the second set, "Fairytale." "It's my mother's favorite," said Margo, because her brothers aren't "making such a racket" and can make out all the lyrics. Of all the new songs they played, this may well be my favorite as well. It's an acoustic lullaby flavored with mandolin.
Awash in a deep blue light - which I wish lighting designers would stop torturing photographers with, Margo, her brothers Pete (drums) and Mike (on many many different guitars), Alan Anton (bass), contributors Jeff Bird (mandolin, harmonica) and Joby Baker (keyboard) laid down sweet tracks all night long, finishing the evening with two encores.
If you live in New England and missed the Providence show, you can catch them with special guest Joe Purdy at the Somerville Theater on March 8 at 7:30 PM. If you're in the mood for a chill bluesy sound with a hint of country twang, I highly recommend it.
The final installment of the Nomad series, Wilderness, will be released on March 27, joining the prior albums Renmin Park, Demons, and Sing in My Meadow.
"Common Disaster"
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