PEL Presents NEM#255: Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies): Mellow But Energized
episode
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
1h 12m
2 speakers
3 chapters
transcribed 15 hours ago
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How did Michael Timmins and the early Hunger Project shape the origins of Cowboy Junkies?
You're listening to Nakedly Examined Music, a podcast about songs and songwriters. My name is Mark Lintonmeyer. My guest for episode 255 is Michael Timmons, best known as the guitarist and songwriter for Cowboy Junkies. You're right now listening to Misguided Angel from their second album, The Trinity Session, 1988, co-written with his sister Margot Timmons. As Michael will tell us, he had started out in the late 70s, early 80s, playing with Alan Anton, the eventual bass player for Cowboy Junkies. in projects called Hunger Project and Germinal. Cowboy Junkies formed in the mid-80s with Alan and Margo and two other Timmons siblings, one of whom Peter Timmons stuck around as their drummer. They've released about 21 albums plus several live releases, couple EPs.
Michael has recorded an instrumental solo album, did a soundtrack. has participated in a couple collaborations, including one called Lee Harvey Osman that has released four albums. We're going to stick to Cowboy Junkies in our discussion today. We'll look at Throw a Match from their last released studio album, Such Ferocious Beauty, 2023. Then the 2025 acoustic release on More Acoustic Junk of He Will Call You Baby, which is a song originally released on their 2004 One Soul Now album. Then we'll look all the way back to The Caution Horses, the album from 1990. For more information, please see CowboyJunkies.com. For more about this podcast, see NakedlyExaminedMusic.com or support the effort at Patreon.com slash NakedlyExaminedMusic.
I will play a little bit of misguided angel from the Trinity session, 1988, the first album of more originals. Right. And actually it was just this morning. I heard your, your pre that you were doing stuff all the way back to like 1982 and was hearing some more, more jam oriented stuff. Yeah. Do you want to say a little?
Yeah. Even earlier than that, Alan and I, there's a bass player and cowboy junkies got together. I mean, we've been friends for our entire lives, but we started playing in bands together in 1979, a band called hunger project. And that was sort of a, like a Susie and the band. cheese type post-punk type band and that went for a few years we did a few recordings on that i don't know if they exist anywhere except on youtube is the
single
anyway okay okay and then we uh that band broke up we went on to play a form back called germinal which was a sort of an improvisation free form bangs and no vocals and then out of that cowboy junkies developed been going for 41 years but alan and i have been going for so getting close to 50 years yeah so
that was all very clarifying i mean i i had just you know known the popular stuff in the late 80s early 90s when it came out and just okay i'll take the name of the band at least the cowboy part uh it's a you know it's an atmospheric kind of soft country rock band but no no you got this it's really i feel like velvet underground might be the the key to unlocking this
Yeah, that to me is the touchstone for us, I think. Before we brought in the country elements, you know, before Trinity Session, there was an album called White Sufferers Now, which borrows very heavily on blues music. And really our aesthetic is always being Velvet Underground. You know, there are some soft songs on there, like the Velvet Underground. There's also a recognition and appreciation for noise, even if it's quiet noise, and just sort of a bit of psychedelic as well, especially live. I think if you see us live, you get a better sense of the range of the band's oeuvre, if you want to use that word.
Well, it was nice for me. You know, normally I only have a couple of weeks to prep for these things, but we were supposed to do this in December. So I tried to listen to through all the albums for that. Got through most of it, but it kind of all washed together. Then was able to see you live in Milwaukee between then and now. And then just over the past week, you listened again through all the albums. And like, okay, this actually makes sense now. Do you want to say a little about where you're at with the, I guess we were hoping maybe the new one would be out.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
How did Michael Timmins and the early Hunger Project shape the origins of Cowboy Junkies?
0:11–24:02
2
What is the story behind the new track “Throw a Match” from *Such Ferocious Beauty* (2023)?
24:02–46:49
3
How did the acoustic‑reimagining of “He Will Call You Baby” evolve from *One Soul Now* (2004) to *More Acoustic Junk* (2025)?
46:49–1:12:21
Speakers
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