Cowboy Junkies: Music Is The Drug - The Podcast

Welcome to the 50th episode of "Music Is The Drug", and we're marking the occasion with Michael Timmins and Alan Anton discussing perhaps the Junkies' best known recording, "Sweet Jane", from "The Trinity Session".

A song that was in the repertoire as far back as "Whites Off Earth Now!!",  we look at the reasons why "Sweet Jane" and the Velvet Underground have always been Junkies' touchstones and hear just what songwriter Lou Reed thought of the band's recording of the song that takes us right back to the day he wrote it.

To listen to "Sweet Jane", click here.

To order "The Trinity Session", click here.

To order "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To listen to "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To order "The Barn Demos" CD and writing notebook, click here.

To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

Welcome to the third part of our special series of podcasts to mark the release of Cowboy Junkies’ new album, “Such Ferocious Beauty”.

With the help of music from the album, some demos and an excerpt from an as yet unreleased track, this time we’re talking to Alan Anton to get his take on the record, its writing and production and playing it live.

To watch the video for "Hard To Build. Easy To Break.", click here.

To watch the video for "What I Lost", click here.

To order "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To listen to "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

On June 2nd 2023, Cowboy Junkies release their new album, “Such Ferocious Beauty”, an album of ten songs that is up there with anything they’ve done right across their career. 

To celebrate its release, we’ve got a two part conversation with Michael Timmins about the thinking behind the record, its themes and its recording process. Added to that, there’s plenty of music both from the record itself as well as the songwriting and early production demos. 

In this second part of our "Such Ferocious Beauty" special, there are six songs still to cover. Come on, dive straight in...

To watch the video for "Hard To Build. Easy To Break.", click here.

To watch the video for "What I Lost", click here.

To order "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To listen to "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

On June 2nd 2023, Cowboy Junkies release their new album, “Such Ferocious Beauty”, an album of ten songs that is up there with anything they’ve done right across their career. 

To celebrate its release, we’ve got a two part conversation with Michael Timmins about the thinking behind the record, its themes and its recording process. Added to that, there’s plenty of music both from the record itself, the songwriting and early production demos and even a demo of a so far unreleased track sprinkled in there too. 

To watch the video for "Hard To Build. Easy To Break.", click here.

To watch the video for "What I Lost", click here.

To order "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

A morality - or immorality - tale for a modern age "Simon Keeper" looks at how greed can, sometimes, bring business to its knees, and, on the opposite side of the coin, how once a scammer, always a scammer...

Recorded originally for "Open", using the songwriting demo, the "Open" mix and the finished version on "One Soul Now", Michael Timmins. and Alan Anton go through the story of bringing "Simon Keeper" to life and also ponder just how tough it is to put a concert set list together when you've been making records for over 35 years...


To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

To pre-order the band's upcoming album, "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from the band, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

To listen to "One Soul Now", click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here.

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

"Where Are You Tonight?" was first released on "The Caution Horses" in 1990, was on last year's "Sharon" release which looked at the band's first pass at recording that material, was included in the "200 More Miles" live album and is still often included in the live set to this day.

So what makes a song such a hardy perennial in the Junkies' huge catalogue, why has it endured and where did it spring from in the first place?

Michael Timmins and Alan Anton have the answers on this episode of "Music Is The Drug"...


To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode of "Music Is The Drug", remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Audible, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

To pre-order the band's upcoming album, "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from the band, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

To buy "The Caution Horses" on vinyl, click here.

To buy "Sharon" on vinyl, click here.

To listen to "The Caution Horses", click here.

To listen to "Sharon", click here.

To listen to "200 More Miles: Live Performances 1985-1994", click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

When Cowboy Junkies were putting together "Early 21st Century Blues" in 2005, their response to a post 9/11 world where the possibility of greater understanding and unity had, as ever been bulldozed by the rush to war, they were looking to find songs with an anti-violence message, in all the possible senses.

On the 2004 "One Soul Now" tour, they had been playing George Harrison's "Isn't It A Pity", and that was a song that translated perfectly to that album's themes.

In this episode, we revisit the live and studio versions of "Isn't It A Pity?" and Michael Timmins and Alan Anton talk us through the intricacies of capturing the essence of Harrison's typically idiosyncratic song.


To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode of "Music Is The Drug", remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

To pre-order the band's upcoming album, "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To listen to "Isn't It A Pity?", click here.

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

In this episode, it's the turn of "Hard To Build. Easy To Break.", another new song from the band's upcoming album, "Such Ferocious Beauty", to come under the spotlight.

Like "What I Lost", the song is a  co-write by Michael Timmins and Alan Anton and they are both here to talk us through it, along with some exclusive clips from the songwriting demo to boot.

Musically built on a loping groove that has roots that you might not immediately associate the Junkies with, the lyric looks at both the personal and the political and our growing addiction to tearing things down just for the sake of it.


To listen to "Hard To Build. Easy To Break.", click here.

To watch the video for "Hard To Build. Easy To Break.", click here.

To watch the video for "What I Lost", click here.

To pre-order "Such Ferocious Beauty", out on June 2nd, click here.

To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

Cowboy Junkies were in the midst of recording 'Renmin Park' for what became the 'Nomad Series' when they heard of the sad death of Vic Chestnut on Christmas Eve 2009.

Vic had toured with and supported the band on a number of occasions and their immediate reaction was to produce an album that was a tribute to him and his songs.

'Demons' was the upshot and from that album, in this episode Michael Timmins and Alan Anton discuss Vic's song 'Supernatural' and the joys and challenges of covering material by someone just as idiosyncratic as Vic Chesnutt. 


To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

To pre-order the band's upcoming album, "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To listen to "Supernatural", click here.

To buy "Demons", click here.

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.

In our last episode, we talked about a brand new song, "What I Lost", from the band's upcoming new album, "Such Ferocious Beauty".

In it, Michael Timmins referenced its thematic links with "Follower 2", a song from "AtThe End Of Paths Taken", so what better time to cover that song than in this episode?

Mike and Alan Anton discuss the thinking behind the song, including the string section that so illuminates the track. We've got a few little heard clips of the recording session to illustrate things too. Dive in, why don't you?


To make sure you don't miss out on each weekly episode, remember to subscribe to "Music Is The Drug" at your favourite podcast provider - Apple, Amazon, Google, Spotify, Deezer, Stitcher, TuneIn, Podchaser and all the rest...

To pre-order the band's upcoming album, "Such Ferocious Beauty", click here.

To listen to "Follower 2", click here.

To buy "At The End OF Paths Taken", click here.

"Cowboy Junkies - Music Is The Drug" is hosted by Dave Bowler, author of the authorised biography of the band. To order it from them, click here.
To order direct from Omnibus Press in the UK & Europe, click here.

For the ever expanding "Music Is The Drug" playlist on Spotify, click here.

For more info on Cowboy Junkies, click here.

For tour dates, click here. 

Copyright 2023 Latent Recordings.