23 years ago Cowboy Junkies recorded an album called ‘Trinity Sessions’ in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Ontario. In 1989 their cover of a Lou Reed track, ‘Sweet Jane’, from this historic album, included in the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, became a worldwide hit and thrust them onto the international scene.

The band soon faced the choice of staying ‘huge’, living the rock ‘n roll life and having very little creative freedom vs. doing small tours, having complete control and protecting the family as the core band consists of a sister, two brothers and sometimes a cousin, but the larger ‘band’ included the extended Timmins family. They chose the family, critically acclaimed albums, complete creative freedom and sleeping better at night.

On the 20^th anniversary of releasing ‘Trinity Sessions’ they returned to the Church of the Holy Trinity and re-recorded the whole album with guest musicians Natalie Merchant (10 000 Maniacs), Ryan Adam and Vic Chestnut. It is called ‘Trinity Revisited’.

(As they have dropped off the international radar, the album is not available in South Africa and it took me a while to get over my carbon mile guilt, I only laid my hands on a copy of the concert CD/DVD in 2010. Most of their other albums you can download off their site www.latentrecordings.com)

They might not have recreated the magic of the first album, which would be impossible as they ‘know’ too much, they have experienced so much since and they don’t have the innocence they had back then, but they certainly created another, different, perhaps more mature magical experience.

What I find inspiring is the life experience, good and bad, that can be found in the voice of a really great singer. Think of Piaf, Joplin, to name but a few. I had the pleasure of seeing Margot Timmins perform live so I know how effortlessly she fills a room with her warm, strong voice. As I listened to the music CD first, I was completely enthralled, yes by the considerable talent of Margot and Natalie Merchant, but also by the voice that is first heard on track #4, ‘Bluemoon Revisited’, but that shines on ‘Floorboard Blues’. It was peculiar, filled with sorrow, great sorrow and a definite longing. I was convinced it was Marianne Faitfull but couldn’t find her on the credit list.

It is not in fact Marianne, I noticed when I watched the DVD. It is Vic Chestnut (November 12, 1964 – December 25, 2009) and if you see the shape of his body contained by a wheelchair you will understand the great sorrow. Chesnutt died in 2009 from an overdose of muscle relaxants. He has been quoted as saying, “You know I’ve attempted suicide three or four times. It didn’t take.”

Their songwriting genius, musical skills and passion cannot be faulted by their biggest critic. The audio and visual recording quality on this album is, as it is on all their DVD’s and CD’s, perfect. Natalie Merchant (piano) and Jeff Bird’s (violin) rendition of ‘To love is to bury’ is a highlight.

But more in their own words…

“The recording of The Trinity Session was a momentous occasion in, not only, our bands life, but also, our individual lives. The day that the album was recorded, we walked out of the church feeling that we had just participated in something that was much greater than the sum of its parts. The subsequent release of the album and the way that it captured the hearts, minds and souls of so many people in so many different ways, and in so many different parts of the world seemed to indicate that something special did happen in the church that day and, lucky for us, we had a tape deck locked in record. The day after the recording our mother happened to be visiting us while we listened to the playback. After listening for a while she turned to us and said, “your lives will never be the same”… and she was right.

In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that very special day we decided to take the risky move of going back to the Church of the Holy Trinity and seeing what twenty years of experience would bring to those same set of songs. Our goal was not to re-do The Trinity Session, but to re-interpret it. In order to give the project an edge we asked along some artists whose own work and lives were in some way affected by Trinity and whose work has also had an affect on our lives and music. Much like the first time around, we kept rehearsal to a minimum. The idea was to cobble together a loose band sound and to let the church and music take over while the tape was running. Ryan Adams, Vic Chesnutt and Natalie Merchant all showed up keen to participate in our little experiment and once again, the church took over.

We couldn’t have dreamed of a better end result for this project. We were all a little astounded at how good things sounded and how easily it was for the eight of us to meld together as a group. The Lamoureux brothers, Pierre and Francois, did an astounding job at capturing the performance on the fly. The DVD looks and sounds beautiful.

Trinity Revisted is a special document celebrating a special day in our lives. Sometimes its unwise to revisit past glories, but sometimes, that’s just what those glories require… .enjoy.”