It’s rare to see a consensus by critics on a new Cowboy Junkies album, and it’s no different with “One Soul Now.”
Not that the thumbs-up, thumbs-down mini-drama matters much to fans of the Canadian band, which performs Wednesday in Redmond.
The loyalists have supported the alt-country-rockers since “The Trinity Sessions” in 1988.
“Everyone wanted us to sound like that forever,” said bass player Alan Anton. “When we didn’t, they slammed us for that. And when we didn’t change over the years, they slammed us for that.
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COWBOY JUNKIES
7 p.m. Wednesday, Marymoor Park, Redmond. $39.50, $49.50, 206-628-0888.
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“You either like the band or you don’t. It’s the kind of music that doesn’t reach out to you; you have to go to it. Either you want to do that or you don’t.”
Indeed, fans have to have a gut-level appreciation of lead guitarist Michael Timmins’ morose approach to songwriting, although Margo Timmins’ ethereal soprano often lifts it above the melancholy.
It’s what they do best. Although “One Soul Now” comes across as louder, more challenging and more outward focusing than previous efforts, it still has the CJ signature.
The band started in Toronto in the early 1980s with the same quartet that currently takes the stage: Anton and the three siblings, guitarist Michael, drummer Peter and vocalist Margo.
They recorded the underground album “The Trinity Sessions” in a Toronto church; “Misguided Angel” became a top-10 single; and their cover of Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane” edged them into the commercial success category.
“Michael’s really a great lyricist, more of a poet than a songwriter. He just does what he does and the stories evolve to the situation, or the age. With his experience, he doesn’t write songs about teen love,” Anton said.
Cowboy Junkies’ audiences are all over the map.
“At Canadian shows, sometime I think we’re at a funeral parlor, no response, light applause. In some parts of the States, they think we’re AC-DC or something. In other states, it’s quite the theater crowd digging it but they’re laid back.”
Anton has worked a bit in the film industry (soundtracks), but said it’s too frustrating getting jobs for him to make it a career path.
“It’s hard to do both properly. If you’re in the soundtrack business, you have to do full-time; otherwise they see you as a musician who’s dabbling.
“I was lucky that I had a producer friend so I worked on a few films. Music plays a secondary role to the picture, so it’s interesting when the director’s involved and tells you what to do. You have to agree with him.”
It’s more collaborative with the Cowboy Junkies. Anton and Peter Timmins work off each other in a planned interplay on “Why This One,” for instance.
“Mike writes the lyrics and chord structure. There’s hardly any on that one. We sat down and came up with a groove for it and made it go somewhere.
“Generally we start with lyrics and a guitar and chords and figure out where it takes us.”
Although they have almost 20 years of performing, Anton doesn’t see an end.
“It’s more complicated with kids. We complain more about going on the road but once we’re on the road we’re really happy. We hate traveling but love playing. Playing those two hours a day makes it worthwhile.
“So as long as we want to make music, for ourselves, primarily, then we’re lucky enough to make a career out of it. We feel like it’s a job, but we owe our fans the live aspect of it.”
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