Relisten

1:42:29

Taper:

Scott Bernstein

Transferrer:

Scott Bernstein

SHNID:

cj2000-03-02

Source:

FOB Audience

Lineage:

Original master recording: Neumann TLM-170s (hypercardoids, FOB center sweet spot maybe 30' from stage) -> Sonosax SX-M1 -> Teac DA-P20 (@ 16/48) DAT playback: Sony R-500 -> Sound Devices 722 digital input (@24/48) Mastered: File processed with SOX 14.4.2 to remove pre-emphasis. Steinberg Spectralayers 11.0.3 to scrub out yells/whistles/feedback; File processed in Soundforge Pro 13.0 for clap scrubbing; volume normalization; 24 -> 16 bit dither using POW-r Dither with POW-r #3 noise shaping. Tracked in CDWav. Tagged in Tag&Rename 3.9.15

Taper Notes:

View Notes* = Margo and Michael duet

Margo Timmins - vocals
Michael Timmins - guitar
Pete  Timmins  - drums
Alan Anton - bass
Jeff Bird - mandolin, harmonica, percussion
Linford Detweiler [Over The Rhine] - keyboards
Karin Bergquist [Over The Rhine] - harmony vocals

Josh Rouse was the opening act, and you can stream or download his set here <a href="https://archive.org/details/joshrouse2000-03-02" rel="ugc nofollow">https://archive.org/details/joshrouse2000-03-02</a>

Recorded by Scott Bernstein
Transferred 6/12/2012, Tracked 9/23/2024, Mastered 9/23-10/7/2024.  Posted 10/8/2024

Taper notes:
For BARN260, I decided to go in a completely different direction once again -- after some hip-hop, which was proceeded by several jambands, some reggae, and jazz, I bring you a BEAUTIFUL and (mostly) mellow set of music from Cowboy Junkies.  They have been one of my favorite folk/alt-country/Americana bands [despite hailing from Canada] for many years -- ever since I saw them perform the song "'Cause Cheap Is How I Feel" back on the David Letterman show on 4/27/1990.  Their performance of this song absolutely entranced me (and my recording of this actually maded it onto a cassette mix tape I made around then!) and I played their album "The Caution Horses" absolutely to death (I used it put it on to relax and fall asleep to every night for years...)

Unlike most bands that tend to want to amp things up and rock out, the Cowboy Junkies work to slow things down and exercise restraint in their music.  This restraint Margo Timmins' (the group's lead vocalist) achingly beautiful voice into sharp relief (and her striking beauty was recognized by People Magazine when she was named one of the "50 most beautiful people in the world" in 1990).  This is a true family band as Margo's brother Michael is the group's songwriter and guitarist, and their brother Pete is the band's drummer.  In a live setting, the band has been augmented by Alan Anton on bass and Jeff Bird on other instruments for many years.  On this tour they were also augmented by 2 members of the band Over The Rine on keys and harmony vocals.

This show was the 3rd time I'd seen them (I'd previously seen them in 1992 and 1994 -- and I posted the 1994 show on <a href="https://archive.org/details/cowboyjunkies1994-03-02.early.ecm959.flac16" rel="ugc nofollow">archive.org as BARN138 back in 2012</a>) and this is a super crisp and clean recording of the band touring behind their live album ("Waltz Across America") and as they were in the process of recording their next studio album "Open" (which would be released over 15 months after this show) -- and they even broke out two of the songs that would make it on that album -- "Upon Still Waters" and "Still Small Birds".  They featured a number (but not all) of their classics at this show:  "Crescent Moon", "Southern Rain", "'Cause Cheap is How I Feel", "Misguided Angel", "Ring on the Sill", "I'm So Open" and "Miles From Our Home"; and they feature other beautiful deeper cuts that deserve to be classics like "Five Room Love Story" (listen closely to Margo's introduction to this song for a glimpse into how beautiful it actually is), "White Sail", "Hollow as a Bone"; exactly one cover (they are well known for their unique takes on Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Garcia, Townes Van Zandt, Lou Reed, and Robert Johnson among others) -- a relatively faithful cover of Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" which rocks out a bit.  They actually bring the full-on rock sound to another song "I Saw Your Shoes"; but the segment when the rest of the band leaves the stage and Michael and Margo duet is breathtaking.

Margo also has an engaging and sweet stage presence as you can hear from her stage banter.

I spent 2 weeks tweaking this recording to make it just as close to perfect as possible -- scrubbing out hundreds of yells and whistles that were distracting from this (often) sensitive music -- using Spectralayers pro, scrubbing out loud claps using SoundForge, and gently boosting the quiet parts and stage banter so they wouldn't be overpowered by the loud moments in the show.  I believe that my final presentation of this recording is extremely enjoyable to listen to and I hope you all appreciate my careful work.

Enjoy!

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