The Trinity Session - Cowboy Junkies

This is such a hauntingly beautiful album. Recorded live in a church in Toronto using just one microphone the album is dripping with ambience as Margo Timmins ethereal voice delivers a set of blues and country standards, as well as some of their own compositions. Oddly, for such a quiet album, it benefits from being played as loud as possible as it helps bring out the background 'breathing' of the space it was recorded in.
It has been said that the Cowboy Junkies have only two speeds; slow and slower. On the basis of this recording that is true but later releases would find them experimenting occasionally with a more rockier blues sound.
I was lucky to catch them playing this album live at The Sage in Gateshead a few years back and I can honestly say that it was a magical evening. As I had unfortunately missed them when they came to the UK in 1990 (and played the Redcar Bowl of all places) finally seeing them live fulfilled one of my life's ambitions. Now if we could only get Kate Bush to tour I'd be sorted!