Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Sessions

Hard to believe this album is almost 30 years old!

Honestly, I’m not entirely convinced a better contribution has been made to acoustic/folk/folk-rock/country/country-rock/alt country/Americana/singer-songwriter music in the years since this album was delivered to history from an old church via a single stereo microphone.

This really IS how it should be done. Real musicians playing real instruments as they record real songs written by real songwriters, all in real time.

This album is everything you want it to be—ghosty, vibey, moody, and beautiful. Whether through the re-arranged covers or the originals, you’re not so much transported as changed. You don’t actually go elsewhere with this music; rather, where you are changes. Your space becomes a place of solemnic beauty.

The quiet grace of this album is an extraordinary accomplishment, and unlike so much of what has followed in its wake, this is not a case of assuming that if one dresses like a folk singer, one must BE a folksinger (Brooklyn, I’m looking at you.) This is genuinely real music. It strives for nothing, and by this humility, achieves everything.