When you went back to the Church of the Holy Trinity to film the Trinity Revisited concert, was that the first time you'd been back since you recorded the album?
It was the first time we had been back inside the church since we recorded the album.
Did playing those songs at the church stir up any memories from the original recording session? Something you had completely forgotten about?
The way the walls just soaked up the sound and the way the building resonated. And how young and innocent we were and how big my hair used to be!
You had special guests for the live concert, and I thought Natalie Merchant was especially stunning when she was singing with you. How did she come to be involved?
We have had a peripheral connection with Natalie forever. Michael's wife, Patty, knew Natalie from the mid-'80s, and we shared the same management team with 10,000 Maniacs in the late '80s and early '90s. We ran into each other occasionally and have great admiration for each other.
The band has talked about how you did not want Trinity Revisited to be just a straight re-recording of the original album. Did any of you have to be convinced to go back to the church to celebrate the The Trinity Session's 20th anniversary, or did it just seem like the natural thing to do?
We were looking for a way to commemorate the anniversary and had considered just doing one public show at the church, but it evolved into what it became. We had to find a way to make it different, and bringing Vic, Ryan, and Natalie in really made it something we felt would be completely different and worthy.
During the filming, were you always aware of the cameras, or do they just sort of fade away once you all start playing?
The first time we did Trinity Session, it was just us and Peter, the producer. This time it was a crew of about sixty people. Once we finally got done setting up and rehearsing and they yelled, "Action!" it was just us again, making music. I had no idea it was being filmed.
Are there any new artists or bands out there that you're excited by or who you think are doing something special?
I'm so busy raising a 5-year-old hellion that I couldn't tell you a thing about current bands!
You're heading out on a long tour. Any plans for a New York City date?
I don't have much to do with the planning of tours. I just show up on the bus and get surprised every morning when we arrive at the next city, so I'm not the one to ask about where we are going to be! I think we've been in New York City three times in the past eighteen months or so, so I think we'll probably be back there soon. But I'm not the details-person of the band, so I can't tell you specifics.
There's a great moment in the Trinity Revisited documentary where you talk about how you once hired a really great crew who were used to having their own rooms, so the band ended up having to share. Have you been able to upgrade yourselves since then?
Yes, we all get our own hotel rooms now, and on some nights, I even get my own dressing room. But I still share a bus every night with nine stinky men.
Is another Cowboy Junkies album in the works?
Yes. We have begun writing and recording songs, and we will be trying some of them in front of live audiences later this month. The next album will be out sometime in 2009.
You're more than twenty years into your career. Has there come a time yet when being a musician is just a job to you, or do you still get as much of a rush out of it as you ever did?
Every day it is just a job—the desperation, loneliness, and exhaustion of sharing an 8-foot by 45-foot space with nine stinky men for weeks at a time. Have I mentioned that yet? But it's still a joy to sing every night and to walk on stage every night, and so I guess the answer is yes. |