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So rare, you probably haven't heard them Cowboy Junkies' sold-out show won't just be hits By BILL VARBLE Cowboy Junkies guitarist and songwriter Michael Timmins says on summer tour the band is playing songs most fans haven't heard. In a telephone interview from Canada three shows into the tour, Timmins says the Junkies -- himself, sister Margo on vocals, brother Peter on drums and friend Alan Anton on bass -- are performing as a seven-piece band complete with mandolin, keyboards and acoustic guitar. Cowboy Junkies perform tonight at Britt. Guitarist Leo Kottke opens at 7:30 p.m. The show is sold out. Erin Bonsi in Britt's ticket office says those still hoping for tickets can keep calling 773-6077 to check for returned tickets, or go out tonight to the Britt hillside in Jacksonville and look for people with extra tickets. "It's unpredictable but possible," she says. The band is touring in support of the new album, "Rarities, B-sides and Slow Sad Waltzes" (Geffen). Some of the songs may be new to fans, but not to the band. Timmins says the band collected a bunch of songs that just never found a home on a Cowboy Junkies album. He describes the CD as "just a fan thing, a small little project." It's available online now (go to www.geffen.com/cowboyjunkies) and will be in record stores this fall. "Some were recorded for films," Timmins says. "Others, it's hard to say. You sit down and start to edit them and figure what ones go together. Inevitably, some don't fit." An example is "Sad to See the Season Go," which failed to make the cut for last year's album, "Miles From Our Home." While they wouldn't be confused with a jam band, the Junkies will experiment onstage. "There are certain songs that are open-ended," Timmins says. "The solos are open. A few of the structures are jam-oriented. On a long tour you begin to experiment." Cowboy Junkies started in 1985 with the Timmins brothers and lifelong pal Anton jamming in a Toronto garage. Needing a singer, they asked Margo, who was then too shy to sing in front of other band members. The band independently released the debut album, "Whites Off Earth Now!" in 1986. But it was their next album, the 1988 indie, ``The Trinity Session," that began winning a cult following. Recorded live in one take for $250 with with one microphone in Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity, the album featured spare, haunting originals and covers of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings and the Velvet Underground. Timmins say one reason for the stripped-down style was simple: "We didn't have any money." Albums such as 1990's "The Caution Horses" and 1993's "The Crescent Moon" were well-received by critics, although the band never became a a commercial blockbuster. Since their early covers of blues and country classics, they've done tributes to Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, Neil Young and the Grateful Dead. Timmins says the band's name doesn't mean anything. "Just two words put together," he says. "We liked the ambiguity." He says working with siblings isn't all that strange. "We have squabbles, but nothing outside the ordinary, the same as with anybody. It's easier to blow up at your brother, but then you get over it. Tension between persons breaks up a lot of bands." Timmins says the lush sound of "Miles From Home" was just something the band wanted to achieve. "Halfway through the writing, we made the conscious decision to find a producer who could flesh the songs out," he says. That was 180 degrees from "Trinity." No major label had wanted to touch that until it started getting buzz. Then several called about re-releasing it. "They wanted us to re-record it," Timmins says. "They missed the point." He says "Miles from Home" isn't necessarily the Junkies' wave of the future, either. "Next time we might go the opposite direction," he says. "It depends on the head space." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA