When Margo Timmins strolled up to the microphone in her low-cut black cocktail dress, wrapped in a scarlet shawl, with a rusty shock of hair draped over one eye a la Veronica Lake, even if you’d never seen Cowboy Junkies before, there was no mistaking her star power at the Villa Montalvo’s Garden Theatre in the summer of ’09. Timmins and two of her brothers, Michael on guitar and Peter on drums, along with bassist Alan Anton, have been doing the slow boil as Cowboy Junkies since 1985. As its name implies, the Toronto-based quartet specializes in quiet, ultra-slow tunes that might sound comforting to strung-out cowpokes hunkered down around a campfire after a long day rounding up stray dogies. Cowboy Junkies will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with Margo.
Peter Timmins: I have spent countless hours between load-in and soundcheck searching out independent record stores across North America. Here are two more of my top four:
Music Millennium, Portland, Ore.
This city is home to Powell’s, the best bookstore in the world, so most of my money is spent there. I have a fond memory of a in-store we played at Millenium many years ago. The store we played was in Northwest Portland and is no longer open, but the original store still exsists.
Waterloo, Austin
A great place to find music by local acts. In the past, record stores would let you choose some free CDs after a in-store show, and Waterloo was always generous.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN535XORIrA
