Just how do you improve on perfection? This is a question that must surely haunt Canadian slowcore pioneers Cowboy Junkies, the band responsible for one of this generations most majestic and beautiful albums THE TRINITY SESSIONS.

Revisiting that record to celebrate its twenty fifth anniversary, the band instead of doing the usual rip off special edition scam has instead invited a bunch of like-minded musicians along and rerecorded the whole thing live in its entirety. Returning to Toronto's Trinity Church, the location that birthed the original TRINITY SESSIONS, TRINITY REVISITED finds the Cowboy Junkies teaming up with Ryan Adams, Vic Chestnut, Natalie Merchant and Jeff Bird for a new take on matters.

Of course, with songs as truly spellbinding and beautiful as this, it would be very hard to go wrong here and TRINITY REVISITED is as special an anniversary as you would expect. Margo and Michael Timmins are still the unmistakable stars of affairs here, the Cowboy Junkies core duo still managing to wring the most spine tingling and elegant moments from the songs; when Margo Timmins sings, there is still nothing quite as sad, beautiful and enchanting.

The star line up makes for a wonderful dynamic at times though, Vic Chestnutt's stoic take on POSTCARD BLUES in particular making for suitably inspiring listening. The Ryan Adams sung 200 MILES is a slightly more misguided affair though, this a song that in particular misses the tear stained intensity of Timmins vocals, a real shame when she's standing just feet away from the microphone.

Opener MINING FOR GOLD is still as devastatingly beautiful as ever, Margo Timmins singing solo, her voice echoing gloriously throughout the empty church, the song balanced perfectly between heartache and redemption. The equally superb MISGUIDED ANGEL, BLUE MOON REVISITED (SONG FOR ELVIS) and I'M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY are revisited with the same reverence and intensity, Cowboy Junkies still in possession of that glorious magic that made THE TRINITY SESSIONS so special back in 1989.

A wonderful revisiting of a truly classic record, TRINITY REVISITED is the sound of Cowboy Junkies not just rehashing past glories, but instilling them with a freshly inspired sense of majesty and awe. Whilst perhaps not quite matching the original for its stark melancholy and heartbroken perfection, TRINITY REVISITED is a wonderful companion piece that twenty five years on, still finds the songs sounding as timeless, awe inspiring and hypnotic as ever. A true timeless classic given a glorious retelling.

Maybe it's all men and all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit - the human sperit - the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul everbody's a part of.

- John Steinbeck, The Grapes Of Wrath

One Soul Now, the ninth studio release from Cowboy Junkies, draws together all the wisdom, passion, skill and insight collected during almost 20 years of playing, writing, touring, recording and living together as a band.

Following on the group's acclaimed 2001 release Open, the 10 songs that make up One Soul Now mark an ambitious departure for the group; it's the first time Cowboy Junkies have recorded entirely on their own, without the mediation of an outside producer or engineer. One Soul Now was created in the band's rehearsal space in their hometown Toronto, which doubled as a recording studio for the project.

This is our first time actually making a record in the studio, explains guitarist/songwriter/producer Michael Timmins. Usually, we start in the rehearsal space, figuring out a direction for the songs. This time, we had the luxury of recording everything as we worked through that process of discovery.

Adds singer Margo Timmins: With Open, the songs came together while we were on the road. In the studio, I could literally do it with my eyes closed. I knew them so well. For One Soul Now, my eyes were definitely wide open. It means you have to be alive and alert to where the song is going, and I think you can hear that vibe in the album.

Thematically, One Soul Now is the most challenging of the group's career. The songs don't flinch from addressing enduring questions about modern life. Michael says many were essentially recorded live off the floor of the rehearsal room, and that's reflected in the album's immediacy and intimacy. That feel perfectly compliments the deep blue musings of Notes Falling Slow and He Will Call You Baby and reinforces the revelations and resolutions presented in both the album's anthemic title track and the closing song, The Slide.

Since the multi-platinum success of their seminal 1988 release The Trinity Sessions - an album which helped set the stage for the burgeoning Americana roots music movement -- Cowboy Junkies have attracted an uncommonly dedicated international following which has remained loyal to the band. Although recent Cowboy Junkies albums have employed a coterie of support players to flesh out their sound, One Soul Now was conceived as a showcase for the core quartet of Michael (guitar), Margo (vocals), Peter Timmins (drums) and Alan Anton (bass). Yet One Soul Now is arguably the most outward-looking album of Cowboy Junkies' career.

Lyrically, it would be fair to say Open was a fairly introverted album, Margo agrees. I think this time we are confronting a lot of the same issues, but taking it out of the personal realm into something more universal. This time the songs deal with relationships over the long term and how they are affected and confused by inevitable but unforeseen forces which enter our lives -- death, children, divorce, financial worries, age, sickness and just general fatigue.

What's true of our personal relationships is also true of our relationship to the world around us: how we see ourselves fitting in to the grand-scheme-of-things becomes more confused and less stable as we grow older.

Adds Michael: The idea of One Soul Now is we are all interconnected. That could be a political statement for these times. But more importantly it is a statement of personal politics. I think that we all go through the same bouts of loss and confusion. There should be a way for us all to pool our energies, our souls, and conquer these interminable cycles. I suppose that is why the notion of a God was invented: a focal point for all of our inner energies...

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