Any Cowboy Junkies - Junkies ?

dee1949

....How much better could the Trinity Session sound in SACD or DTS......LIVE albums capture the AIR.

unc2701

There's not much more you could pic up from the master. Single stereo mic, and DAT tape that was at best 48 kHz.

I suppose you could ask the "what if" of having more mics or a better master, but I think most the magic was in the simplicity.

mhardy6647

well... not a junkie, but I've always liked them.
There is a terrific version of Come Calling on the Live from the River Music Hall vol. 1 compilation CD from WXRV-FM Haverhill, MA.

MillerLiteScott

Give the Trinity Revisited CD&DVD a listen. I think they are avery good live recording.

Scott

dkg999

Or get the MFSL Whites off Broadway Now SACD/5.1 DD CD. It's pretty incredible.

ND13

Just watched the 2005 "Trinity Sessions" on HD Net. Absolutely, positively impressive. I really enjoyed seeing/hearing Natalie Merchant's involvement in the production, too. I've always dug the Junkies, but even a non-fan would enjoy this. A must see. A replay is at midnight eastern time.

rabies_70

I saw the junkies in a bar in Austin TX when I lived there. They were very fun

msg

Last week, I heard the version of Misguided Angel from this recording, with Natalie Merchant, prompting me to go looking for it. Sure would have been nice to pick it up on vinyl, but at $160+, I'll settle for the CD/DVD.

Still can't get over the first album being recorded on a single mic.
The liner notes/director's address on Revisited offers a neat story/perspective on his experience filming it, talking about how they played/filmed on Saturday night, and had to be loaded out and cleaned up for the Sunday morning service at 8am, and leaving behind nothing but echoes of the performance

mhardy6647

Not exactly a single microphone per se; The Trinity Session (which wasn't quite, technically, their first album, either*) was recorded using the (Calrec) "Ambisonics" microphone 'system'. In other words, it is a stereo recording, using a crossed-mic (I think) technique to capture something like true (three-dimensional) stereo. Stereo, it will be recalled, means "solid" in the original Greek combining form, στερεός.

The Trinity Revisited recording is excellent, but the performances are a little wearier overall -- and the guests, to my taste, run hot and cold -- including Natalie Merchant, whose voice just sounds weird to me on Misguided Angel.

The "Revisited" album, though, sure sounds to me like a mixed down multitrack recording. I haven't ever watched the companion DVD, so I don't know fo' sho', but it just has that hyper-close mic'd sound of most contemporary (of its time) pop recordings to me.


* Their first was the charmingly titled EP "Whites off Earth Now", I do believe.

heiney9

One of my favorite bands. Saw them a couple years ago (well the week Lou Reed died) in a small local opera house.

It was awesome because they all walked out in silence to take their places on the stage and opened with "Sweet Jane" (in honor of Lou Reed).

The best live recording I have come across is the DVD companion in the "Long Journey Home" release.

Some awe inspiring stuff there, recorded in the "I just had a religious experience" type of recording.

H9

P.s. The live CD in "Long Journey Home" is alright, the DVD is much better and I only listen in PCM 2.0.

msg

Doc, thanks for the additional info. how 'bout fixing this over on Wikipedia, eh?

weather's mildering, I'm makin' a pizza and cracked a beer and just put this DVD on. Cowboy Junkies in the house...

I think I know what you're saying about Natalie Merchant's voice. She seems to have different voices. I can't really characterize how she sounds in this, but I've heard her sing like this on other stuff too.

B - lucky you!
Pretty cool about Sweet Jane. shame about Lou Reed.
If you're a Lou Reed/Velvet Underground fan, you might enjoy some of Dean Wareham's stuff. Galaxie 500, Luna, Dean and Britta.

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Not exactly a single microphone per se; The Trinity Session (which wasn't quite, technically, their first album, either*) was recorded using the (Calrec) "Ambisonics" microphone 'system'. In other words, it is a stereo recording, using a crossed-mic (I think) technique to capture something like true (three-dimensional) stereo. Stereo, it will be recalled, means "solid" in the original Greek combining form, στερεός.

The Trinity Revisited recording is excellent, but the performances are a little wearier overall -- and the guests, to my taste, run hot and cold -- including Natalie Merchant, whose voice just sounds weird to me on Misguided Angel.

The "Revisited" album, though, sure sounds to me like a mixed down multitrack recording. I haven't ever watched the companion DVD, so I don't know fo' sho', but it just has that hyper-close mic'd sound of most contemporary (of its time) pop recordings to me.[/img]

mhardy6647

Did I ever tell youse guyses my one little Cowboy Junkies story? I am sure I did... but not, apparently, in the context of this thread.

We saw them live a few years ago at a small, delightfully funky venue in (equally funky) Plymouth, NH called The Flying Monkey. It was a very good show (I was surprised how engaged and engaging they were -- I expected, from their music, that they'd be very aloof).

When they came onstage, as Margo Timmins walked out, my wife said to me,

Oh. She was in the ladies room when I went in there before the show.

I said

You were in the ladies room with Margo Timmins?!

It really is a small place.