Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session

The Trinity Session, "captured live at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto... using only a Calrec Ambisonic Mircophone," is the second album from the Cowboy Junkies. After the self-released album took off, it was re-released by BMG, becoming the band's first major label record.

The Trinity Session has been included in virtually every list of greatest Canadian albums:

• Chart magazine: #9 in 1996, #36 in 2000, #46 in 2005
• Bob Mersereau: #62 in 2007
• Mar*Star: #3 in 1992, #11 in 2011
• CBC: #41 in 2013

The album was a hit in both Canada (#28 Top Albums; #30 Country Albums) and the U.S. (#26 Top Albums), going double platinum in Canada and platinum in the U.S. It was also generally well received by the critics:

• AllMusic gave it 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "voluminous and rich, perhaps even eternal"
• Robert Christgau graded it only a C+, decrying tempo (it takes "many seconds to get from subject to predicate")
• Rolling Stone gave it 4 stars, placing it "in the great tradition of albums that establish a mood and sustain it so consistently that the entire record seems like one continuously unfolding song"
• Rolling Stone Album Guide gave it 4 stars out of 5, noting that "any band that gets the psychic connection of the Velvet Underground to Patsy Cline to Hank Williams is an extraordinarily knowing one"

There are very few albums that I have three copies of, but The Trinity Session is one. I have the original Latex version and the re-released and re-arranged BMG version on vinyl, and the CD version with the addition of "Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)" and "Working on a Building" to the ten tracks listed below.

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Track Listing

1. "Mining for Gold" (traditional, arranged by James Gordon) – 1:34
2. "Misguided Angel" (Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins) – 4:58
3. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" (Hank Williams) – 5:24
4. "I Don't Get It" (Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins) – 4:34
5. "To Love Is to Bury" (Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins) – 4:47
6. "200 More Miles" (Michael Timmins) – 5:29
7. "Dreaming My Dreams with You" (Allen Reynolds) – 4:28
8. "Sweet Jane" (Lou Reed) – 3:41
9. "Postcard Blues" (Margo Timmins, Michael Timmins) – 3:28
10. "Walking after Midnight" (Alan Block, Donn Hecht) – 5:54

Personnel

• Cowboy Junkies – The Caution Horses (album)
• Cowboy Junkies – Misguided Angel (song)
• Cowboy Junkies – Sweet Jane (song)