Canadian Alt-Country Pioneers Cowboy Junkies To Play Career-spanning NZ Tour
Presented by David Roy Williams, An Evening with Cowboy Junkies will see the alt-country pioneers performing four career-spanning shows from their 1988 multi-platinum album THE TRINITY SESSION to their most recent universally acclaimed record, 2023'S SUCH FEROCIOUS BEAUTY.
An Evening with Cowboy Junkies follows their triumphant 2023 NZ tour, which saw the band touch down in Aotearoa for the first time in more than 20 years.
The upcoming tour will kick off on Tuesday, November 4 at the Town Hall in Auckland, before heading to the Opera House in Wellington on Thursday, November 6 and the Regent Theatre in Palmerston North on Friday, November 7. The band will also perform their only South Island show at the Isaac Theatre in Christchurch on Sunday, November 9.
David Roy Williams promoter pre-sale is from 1pm, Wednesday April 30, and the general public on sale is from 1pm, Thursday May 1.
'You get great vocal work, terrific guitar playing, gorgeous lyrics and so much more at a Cowboy Junkies show' - The Mercury
In 1988, Cowboy Junkies proved that there was an audience waiting for something quiet, beautiful, and reflective. THE TRINITY SESSION was like a whisper that cut through the noise - and it was compelling. It stood out amid the flash and bombast that defined the late 80s.
The album featured the band's unforgettable cover of the Velvet Underground's 'Sweet Jane', and combined folk, country, blues, and rock in a way that had never been heard before and went on to sell more than a million copies.
Their ability to communicate volumes before the lyrics kick in defines an enduring career. Where most bands chase trends, the Junkies have stayed their course, maintaining a low-impact excavation of melody and evocative language delivered sotto voce in singer Margo Timmins' feathery alto.
Formed in Toronto in 1985, Margo was joined by siblings Michael Timmins on guitar, Peter Timmins on drums, and Michael's lifelong friend Alan Anton on bass to begin a journey that has evolved over 29 albums.
'I've known Alan longer than I've known Pete,' says Michael. 'We were friends before Pete was born.'
Unlike most long-lasting groups, Cowboy Junkies have never had a breakup or taken a sanity-saving hiatus. There's an appreciation of each other that keeps them constantly working.
'It's that intimacy and understanding of what each one of us brings to the table,' says Michael.
'The expectations and responsibilities of our roles are a big part of the band's ethos. We're still amazed that we're doing things our way and continuing to grow the band, but the longer we are at it, the more fun it's become. We don't take it for granted,' Michael offers.
'We do what we do,' Margo agrees, 'and it feels right for all of us. After 40 years of playing together, the band and its music are more important to us than ever. The music we make brings each of us a great sense of contentment, a knowledge of place, and a sense of doing what we were meant to do.'
An Evening with Cowboy Junkies promises to be a night not to be missed. With a career-spanning set-list, fans of the much-loved Canadian band will be treated to all their hits and much more!
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
14-07-2025
- NZ Herald
Book of the day: Endling by Maria Reva
Endling author Maria Reva: 'Life gives you an opening, even during the most horrible times'. Photos / Supplied What do you do when you're a Ukrainian-born Canadian fiction writer deep into the composition of your first novel, which is set in your homeland and written in the absurdist, dark comedic tradition of Kundera, Kafka and Hašek, when Russia suddenly invades your home country, your relatives start fleeing to safety while bombs explode all around them, and your beloved grandfather refuses to leave Kherson, which is being eviscerated in real time? How can you keep on writing imaginatively when atrocities are being perpetrated against innocents in your homeland? Can you keep on living as before, when your reality has dramatically split in two? Such was the dilemma facing Maria Reva while working on Endling. At first, she was seized by panic and debilitating self-questioning. She stopped writing the novel; fiction seemed a folly during times of existential crisis. The only way she could conceive of completing the novel was to fold all those questions into the trajectory of the plot. She did that by breaking the fourth wall: inserting herself as a character narrating her own experience of stopping writing the novel to travel through her war-torn homeland. What began as fiction ended in nonfiction, making Endling neither a work of magical realism nor auto-fiction or memoir, but an original piece encapsulating elements of all three forms. Though written in four parts, the book is riven in two by Russia's very real invasion of Ukraine. The first fictional story is the cinematic unfolding of a complex metaphorical plot, which suddenly concludes by something like the running of credits at the end of a movie. The second section is marked by Reva actually entering the novel to recount her experience of viewing the horrors of wartime and retracing her failed efforts to encourage her grandfather to leave Kherson. But somehow the fictional plot is not left behind, and is woven into the war narrative. What results is a braided tale of extinction, survival and love, concluding in the resurrection of hope. If this sounds like an unattainable ambition, it might just be, but what must be admired is Reva's determination to finish the novel as an act of both desperation and renewal. So what is the plot? And what exactly is an endling? The story revolves around three Ukrainian women, Yeva, Nastia and Solomiya, who meet working for a romance tour company, Romeo Meets Yulia, which brings eager bachelors to Ukraine in search of 'docile' Eastern European wives untainted by feminism. In truth, Yeva is a maverick scientist, a malacologist, who scours Ukraine's forests and valleys in her mobile RV laboratory, collecting, cultivating and nurturing snail endlings – the last existing specimens of a species – in the hope of keeping their lines alive. Why snails? Because 'gastropods have evolved to live anywhere on the planet … have gills to live on water, or have lungs to live on land … can survive extreme temperatures, unsuitable for human life … and possess both male and female parts and reproduce solo'. Yeva believes herself to be an endling; she has no desire to marry or reproduce, despite familial pressure to do so. In fact, she has procured a canister of hydrogen cyanide to see herself out when the time is right, as well as a bridal dress to be buried in. Working as an eligible 'docile' bride is lucrative, and her earnings are funding her scientific experimentation because government grants have run dry. The other two protagonists, beautiful Nastia and her sister Solomiya, who are also entangled in the booming marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother, who vanished after years of fierce activism against the romance tours. Their mother is renowned for organising guerrilla theatre protests, not unlike the members of Russian radical pop band Pussy Riot. The sisters are concocting a huge public political act, mimicking their mother's exploits, in the hope that global attention will bring her out of hiding. The sisters know about Yeva's RV, and are hoping she will allow them to use it, because their grand plan is to kidnap a group of bachelors under the ruse of taking them to a special event where they will finally meet the women of their dreams. That kidnapping, they believe, will expose the exploitation of Ukrainian girls and women and bring universal attention to their plight. The women plot and persevere. Luring the bachelors into their RV along with Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species, they are on their way. But on the road, they hear what they believe to be fireworks and soon learn Ukraine has been invaded by Russia. Rather than driving away from the fierce fighting, they move towards it in search of Lefty's last living mate. At this point in the fictional narrative, the curtain falls, the imagined tale is over, credits roll and the author offers her thanks to all those who have helped her publish this fiction. Then the second part begins and the reality of war sets in. Maria has entered Ukraine and is narrating her journey to save her grandfather, but the three women are still on the road, kidnapped bachelors in tow, in search of a snail. This non-fictional fiction I found gripping but confusing, and also a bit of a slog. Like the RV going off-road, the story veered into allusive and metaphorical tangents filled with elegant explanations of snail copulation and gruesome depictions of slaughter. But like the kidnapped bachelors, I often felt like I was being driven through a void in the dark, not knowing where I or the plot was going. In the end, I admired the novel's intelligence, dark humour and ambition, as well as the author's stated belief that 'life gives you an opening, even during the most horrible times'. For in our worst moments, stories, real or imagined, remain, so we never forget and never lose hope.
NZ Herald
12-07-2025
- NZ Herald
Justin Bieber drops new album Swag after three-year hiatus
Canadian superstar Justin Bieber released his seventh album, Swag, on Friday just hours after sharing a sneak peek of it on social media. Comprising 21 tracks totalling 54 minutes, the project marks the return of the 31-year-old singer more than three years after his last single, Honest, a duet with
NZ Herald
11-07-2025
- NZ Herald
Tami Neilson's Neon Cowgirl reviewed – her time to shine
Tami Neilson: In the driver's seat. Photo / Alexia King Stone. Graham Reid is an NZ journalist, author, broadcaster and arts educator. His website, Elsewhere, provides features and reports on music, film, travel and other cultural issues. Local hero makes a bid for international recognition. It appears 'world famous in New Zealand' Tami Neilson's time has come in that long-sought American market. She's touring with Willie Nelson following her duet with him on the poignant Beyond the Stars and her Neilson Sings Nelson tribute album. Neon Cowgirl – all Neilson originals or co-writes – punches home right from the orchestrated opener Foolish Heart with the cloud-piercing drama of Roy Orbison, an influence also discernible in One Less Heart. Salvation Mountain is the high-energy, boot-kickin' country-rock offspring of Chuck Berry's Too Much Monkey Business and Neilson's own breathless Big Boss Mama. Borrow My Boots is a rollicking banjo-fuelled country-rocker of female empowerment; Loneliness of Love is a piano ballad and You're Gonna Fall arrives out of the desert on twanging guitar as singer JD McPherson becomes the Lee Hazlewood to her Nancy Sinatra. Love Someone is stirring amped-up swamp-funk, Keep On is Southern Gothic storytelling with a soaring, soulful finale. The moving title track featuring co-writer Neil Finn plays to Neilson's reclaiming of women's contribution in country music and aspirations for herself and other women in the genre. It also refers to Nashville's neon cowboy near Ernest Tubb's record shop, her desire to also be up there in lights, and the cowboy that was above Kean's jean shop on Auckland's Queen Street. The latter appeared on the cover of the 1987 Neon Cowboy album by Al Hunter who – along with the Warratahs – made country popular before the 1990s stadium rock of Garth Brooks and 'hat acts', and Americana singer-songwriters before Taylor Swift. So Neon Cowgirl arrives as part of a personal and cultural continuum, and as Tami Neilson's impressive calling card to that American audience she deserves. This album is available digitally, on CD and on vinyl. Tour dates: Opera House, Wellington, October 3; Aotea Centre, Auckland, October 4; Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, October 11; Theatre Royal, Nelson, October 12; Arts Festival, Tauranga, October 24.
