could it be even better than the original?
Everyone has a copy of Trinity, as well they should. When I saw that the Junkies were going to re-record it, I was more than a bit apprehensive. My most recent experiences with an artist revisiting their old work, such as Tori Amos's re-working of several songs for her retrospective "Tales of a Librarian", left me cold. So this has been sitting on my shelf for a few months now, waiting for me to listen.

I'm now kicking myself for waiting so long. They didn't just re-record the old tracks, they took a fresh look at them. This fresh look is helped along by bringing in a surprising slate of guest artists: Natalie Merchant, Ryan Adams, and Vic Chesnutt. It works, it works really really well. I am in awe.

The album starts out with Margo doing "Mining for Gold". Even though it's acapella, and even though I don't think she's changed the phrasing, she made it sound more plaintive this time around. It's a great introduction to the album.

Next up is "Misguided Angel". I've listened to this song hundreds of times, and I've heard it live a couple of dozen times. Maybe it's my long association with this song, but it's also the song that I think is least well-served by the introduction of an additional voice. Natalie Merchant sings with Margo on this one. Natalie Merchant has a distinctive voice that I generally like, but which I don't think is a general-purpose voice. Margo could sing the phone book and I'd love it, but not Natalie. And here, Natalie's voice makes it feel like she's intruding on the song. On first listen, this gave me pause for the rest of the album. Thankfully, I needn't have worried.

Vic Chesnutt comes in on "Blue Moon Revisited", which is the first song that made me remember exactly why I like him so much. Vic is an acquired taste, to be sure, but this is probably one way to make him more accessible. His voice on this track, and even moreso on "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Dreaming My Dreams with You" is nothing short of haunting. These three songs have been in constant rotation on my iPod for the past couple of weeks.

Ryan Adams can be heard playing guitar on most of the album, with his singing coming to the fore on "I Don't Get It". The song, while still sedate, becomes a bit more boisterous and fun. He's a great foil to Margo's singing here. Later on, his take on the slightly-melancholy "200 More Miles" is inspired.

Natalie Merchant returns to take on "To Love Is to Bury". This is a Junkies-free tune: she plays piano, and the unofficial (although I don't understand why he's unofficial) fifth Junkie Jeff Bird plays fiddle. The rest of the band is nowhere to be seen. This song shines, which serves to make the earlier "Misguided Angel" all that more disappointing. She's really well-suited to this song, and I think that she does a better version of it than the couple of live versions that I've heard from the Junkies themselves in the past few years. I feel a bit guilty for saying that, but there you have it.

"Working on a Building", "Sweet Jane", "Postcard Blues", and "Walking After Midnight" feature all of the musicians. "Working on a Building" and "Walking After Midnight" especially feel like the listener is getting a
special look at a group of people who are just playing together for the fun of it, and in the course of having fun, they're creating some exquisite music. Sometimes a band jams together and magic happens; four separate incidents of that occur on this album.

The DVD is just gorgeous. The artists are in a circle in the church, and the lighting and shooting make for a beautiful concert video, the likes of which haven't been seen before. The DVD intensifies the feeling of sneaking a peak into an intimate jam session.

I hesitate to throw around the term "instant classic", but I'm not sure if any other descriptor could possibly do it justice. It's so good that it begs the question of whether this album is better than the original. Both are great. The original is one of the seminal works of our time, the latter feels like it will get there after a few more listens. Is one better? I honestly can't answer that question -- and that underscores the strength of this album. I can't recommend this album highly enough.

Aaarghh....
I so much wanted to like this CD. Love the Cowboy Junkies, and am a big Natalie Merchant fan as well. Listening to them collaborate in this setting, though, is just a nails-on-chalkboard experience.

Some great tastes don't go great together.

Trinity revisited
I love this album, I have always loved Cowboy junkies, but my true love is Natalie Merchant, so when I saw this colaboration I knew I had to have it and have not been disapointed.

Junkies: Great -- Guest Musicians: Not So Much
As a long time Junkies fan, I was looking forward to this album like a child looks forward to Christmas morning. But I have to say it was quite a let down. Kinda like getting clothes instead of the Xbox 360 you were really hoping for -- not the worst gift in the world, but ultimately unsatisfying.

The Junkies sound great, as always, but the guest vocalists really turn me off. Especially Natalie Merchant. I like a lot of her solo and 10K Maniacs stuff, but she sounds just dreadful on this CD. I literally shudder when she starts bleating the classic lyrics I've listened to for so many years.

It's not that I feel that the Junkies lyrics are so sacred that no one else should sing them (well, maybe part of me feels that way), but hearing someone other than Margo singing those lyrics with the rest of the Junkies band - as opposed to a band doing an outright cover of the Junkies music - just sounds really out of place -- the auditory version of looking at a really bad Photoshop.

Maybe it will grow on me, but right now it's my very least favorite Junkies album. Which I didn't have before...

If you have the chance to listen to this album before you buy it, I would strongly advise that you do.

Addicted to Cowboy Junkies
Trinity Revisited is a amazing album.
I came to Cowboy Junkies recently from an odd direction (that I need not go into here). I now wish I had been with them their whole career. I have a very small reference point, but I can say "that be you longterm fan, short term fan, never heard of the band you'll fall in love with this album. The more you listen to it the deeper you'll go. And, you'll soon be addicted like me."