Day 12: The Cowboy Junkies - Lay It Down

The Cowboy Junkies have a sound like a prairie winter at night, and incidentally, come from the Canadian Prairies. The Timmins siblings on vocals, drums and guitars, weave a magic spell of sound when they play together and Lay It Down is their finest hour.

"Something More Besides You" opens the album with the deeply searching words "One foot stands before the crib, the other beside the casket / a question is formed upon still lips and is passed on but never asked."

These words I think speak to the mystery deep inside us all about what we are here for. Many find this question pase' and try to drown it out their whole lives with chasing nonsense and noise, but the question will never really go away. It comes at you in your quiet moments driving or at night. What am I here for? What am I supposed to be doing. Is there some greater force out there trying to get a hold on my heart.

Many never end up asking the question to the right people and live their whole lives with a hole inside that is in need of filling.

You can hear this question again in "Lonely Sinking Feeling" where the protagonist can't seem to understand why he is not enough for his girl. She wants something more, something that she can't describe and he can't provide. Haven't we all looked to relationships down here as the answer from time to time?

But the truth I believe is that nothing down here, no person or thing or idea can fill the space that the divine is meant for. The girl says to her lover "just when I think I've uncovered the secret to peace and tranquility, that lonely sinking feeling creeps up on me." Nothing satisfies.

In "River Song" (my favorite on the album) the narrator notes that there is a place where the sky meets the sea (perhaps an allusion to heaven) and notes that the "river mud" down here is holding us down.

Lay It Down is a masterpiece of mood and questioning and is a great winter listening album.

5 Stars