Cowboy Junkies are planning a special project to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album, “The Trinity Session,” in 2007. Guitarist/songwriter Michael Timmins tells Billboard.com the group plans to gather some other musicians and play a concert at Toronto’s Holy Trinity Church, where the album was recorded in a one-night session using only a microphone and a DAT recorder. The band will film and record the show and, according to Timmins, “see what we get.”
“We’re not trying to recreate [the album] — just re-interpret it in that environment,” he says. “We get a little uneasy about nostalgia, so as long as we don’t try to recreate it … that would be impossible. But this might be a good way of celebrating it.”
The rights to “The Trinity Session” are currently owned by Sony BMG, and Timmins says Cowboy Junkies have had discussions with the company’s Legacy division about some sort of release to commemorate the anniversary.
“They certainly want to do something,” he says. “There’s a certain amount of relevance for that record in their catalog. But there’s no other songs from that day. There are different versions of the same songs, basically just not as good as the ones on the record — nothing radically different. And no songs that didn’t make the CD, so it’s not like they can add two new songs or anything they usually do.”
Timmins says that the band hopes to nail down plans for the anniversary — including a date and guest list for the concert — in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Cowboy Junkies are releasing “Long Journey Home,” a concert CD and DVD from a 2004 show in Liverpool, England, on Oct. 24, while Timmins’ lyrics are featured in the new book “XX,” paired with works by the artist Enrique Martinez Celaya.
In addition, Cowboy Junkies are finishing up a new studio album, which Timmins says should be out in the spring of 2007.
