Now Playing on Festival Radio
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Now featuring Van Morrison, plus new Cowboy Junkies
This week's (June 26 through July 4) featured artist is Van Morrison. I think his new CD, Magic Time is great and we'll be featuring tracks from it, plus many of the classic tunes you know and love.
Cowboy Junkies: Early 21st Century Blues
Here's what it says on their website about the Cowboy Junkies motivation for their new CD: "By the middle of this past February (2005), we had been off the road for a few months, winter had her claws dug in deep, and it seemed like a good time to get together and play some music. An invitation was extended to our older brother John to come and sit in with his guitar. We decided to give our gathering a context: we were all to bring along two or three songs, written by others, and the themes of the songs had to relate to war, violence, fear, greed, ignorance, loss….We hoped to reach a critical mass of material that would reach out and touch a couple of hearts and souls. Our goal was to create our own small document of hope. Over the course of five days we sat in The Clubhouse and interpreted the words and melodies of others. We let the tape run while we played and did our best to channel those early 21st century blues…..."
What they ended up with was a pretty cohesive collection of mostly cover tunes, done in the Cowboy Junkies style. The centerpiece of the CD is a fantastic cover of Richie Havens' "Handouts in the Rain" as well as two Springsteen covers - "You're Missing" and "Brothers Under the Bridge". The CD goes back to the more acoustic and organic Junkies style with Margo Timmins' voice out front, rather than buried in the droning fuzz so prevalent on their two most recent studio CDs. For me that is welcome return to form. The only miss is a cover of John Lennon's "I Don't Want to be a Soldier" which is interrupted by a guest rap by someone credited as "Rebel." The Junkies close the CD with a nice, subdued take on U2's "One", which ends up sounding more like a whispered prayer than U2's overdramatic, anthemic lamentation.
Cowboy Junkies: Early 21st Century Blues
Here's what it says on their website about the Cowboy Junkies motivation for their new CD: "By the middle of this past February (2005), we had been off the road for a few months, winter had her claws dug in deep, and it seemed like a good time to get together and play some music. An invitation was extended to our older brother John to come and sit in with his guitar. We decided to give our gathering a context: we were all to bring along two or three songs, written by others, and the themes of the songs had to relate to war, violence, fear, greed, ignorance, loss….We hoped to reach a critical mass of material that would reach out and touch a couple of hearts and souls. Our goal was to create our own small document of hope. Over the course of five days we sat in The Clubhouse and interpreted the words and melodies of others. We let the tape run while we played and did our best to channel those early 21st century blues…..."
What they ended up with was a pretty cohesive collection of mostly cover tunes, done in the Cowboy Junkies style. The centerpiece of the CD is a fantastic cover of Richie Havens' "Handouts in the Rain" as well as two Springsteen covers - "You're Missing" and "Brothers Under the Bridge". The CD goes back to the more acoustic and organic Junkies style with Margo Timmins' voice out front, rather than buried in the droning fuzz so prevalent on their two most recent studio CDs. For me that is welcome return to form. The only miss is a cover of John Lennon's "I Don't Want to be a Soldier" which is interrupted by a guest rap by someone credited as "Rebel." The Junkies close the CD with a nice, subdued take on U2's "One", which ends up sounding more like a whispered prayer than U2's overdramatic, anthemic lamentation.
