The Trinity Session (RCA ‘88) Rating: A-
This is the album that first brought the Cowboy Junkies a measure of acclaim, and it remains the album that most people associate with the band. Recorded with a single microphone live at The Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto, Canada, The Trinity Session is all the more special and unique for its echo-laden sound and skeletal arrangements. Dominated by Margo Timmons’ beautiful but ghostly whisper of a voice and incorporating a strange mixture of fiddles, harmonicas, mandolins, accordions, and mournful pedal steel guitars, these songs barely have a pulse but possess a quietly affecting intensity. The band sacrifices excitement for moody late night atmospherics, and the plodding country and blues flavored arrangements of originals such as “I Don’t Get It” and “200 More Miles” sit snugly beside melancholic readings of classics such as Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” The Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” (which Lou Reed called the best Velvet’s cover ever), and Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight.” The desolate soundscapes of these sad songs are all of a piece, and at their best the band can be completely entrancing. However, I wish that they had come up with a few more melodies as stunning as “Misguided Angels” and “Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis),” easily the album’s high points along with “Sweet Jane.” Still, "To Love Is To Bury" and “Walking After Midnight” come fairly close, and clearly this is a case where the album's overall ambiance takes precedence over individual songs. Either way, this is a consistent set of songs, and kudos are in order for such an original recasting of well worn musical forms, though these late night mood pieces can be sleep inducing when listened to in the bright light of day.