Cowboy Junkies
Album: The Nomad Series Sing In My Meadow Volume 3
Label: Proper
Tracks: 8
Website: www.cowboyjunkies.com

As the title suggests, this is the third volume in the Nomad Series, a series that will eventually total four, with the final release "Wilderness" due before the end of the year.

"Sing In My Meadow" will probably catch people that haven't seen the band live, or only really know them through their seminal "The Trinity Session", very much by surprise as this is one hell of a blues rocker and at eight tracks long, the album with the least tracks in the series.

Whilst the band have always been known for their quieter material, they have often rocked out, with duelling blues inter-plays that occasionally venture into jazz, on stage. They are a band that knows where 11 is on the amp.

Margo Timmins has a voice that could easily have lead to her being a real rock chick, though the idea of the Cowboy Junkies being lead by a Joan Jett clad clone does bring a smile to my face. In directing that voice into songs of sex and violence, she leads the hard rocking Junkies into another world.

Of course the Cowboy Junkies have peppered their material with songs of sex, violence and ultimately death for years, but they've often been more subtle about it and in many ways more chilling, but there is something 'in your face' about this album, like they are almost making you part of the crime rather than an observer.

"Sing In My Meadow" is a very atypical album, but still one that will appeal to most Cowboy Junkies fans as all the subtlety and interplay is there, just very much louder. It's also an album that I think will appeal to blues and rock fans who may never have considered listening to the band anymore or even at all. If you've not thought about the Cowboy Junkies before, give this one a go. If you're already an addict, consider this a hard hit.

Neil King