From The Desk Of Cowboy Junkies: Fairfield Circuitry’s The Barbershop

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.

Michael Timmins: Gearhead Alert. It takes a lot for me to add anything to my guitar chain, but occasionally something gets put in front of me that I can’t do without. On a recent trip to Quebec, my guitar tech Tim Mech (the best guitar and stage man in the biz) came across a pedal, developed and built out of a small shop in Gatineau. The company is called Fairfield Circuitry and the pedal is The Barbershop. It’s sort of a cross between a drive and distortion pedal, but the beauty of it is that it allows you to keep your tone while adding some crunch. It is especially good at low volume, when you want some grit but can’t afford to crank the amp. Try it; you’ll like it.

Video after the jump.