Cowboy Junkies visit Nelsonville

Toronto folk band Cowboy Junkies have been a band since 1985- longer than most of Ohio University's undergraduates have been alive- but they certainly aren't slowing down.

I think when we first realized we could play something were the early punk days in the '70s

with all these guys not being able to play and starting bands said bassist Alan Anton. That is what got us into actually playing.

Twenty-three years later, the band will be performing tonight at Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville. The rest of the band is comprised of three siblings: songwriter Michael Timmons, vocalist Margo Timmons and drummer Peter Timmons. The band is currently on tour for promotion of their latest album, the 2008 release Trinity Revisited, a CD/DVD combination that is a remake of their second album The Trinity Session, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Both the original album and the remake were recorded in Toronto's Church of the

Holy Trinity.

We were looking to do something for the 20th anniversary of that release and there was a filmmaker in Montreal wanting to film us playing Anton said. We suggested playing the record all the way through and also recording it.

Along with re-recording the album, the band added some special guests, which include Natalie Merchant, Vic Chesnutt and Ryan Adams.

We went through a long list of people and we got really lucky with those three

Anton said. We didn't know Ryan was a huge fan of ours from way back

and he already knew the words to all of the album's songs. Natalie has known the songs for years as well and we have loved her voice; it works well with Margo's voice.

With the remake now released, Cowboy Junkies is taking 2009 to tour and begin work on its new album. Alton said that Mike writes all of the lyrics and the band then comes together to work out their music, with Margo coming in last to work on her vocals. The band plans to work on new songs while they are on their current tour and wants to be finished recording the new album by the end of the summer.