Margo Timmins was preparing for a ten-day West Coast tour with her band, the Cowboy Junkies, when I caught up with her for a quick chat about the group's new CD—At the End of Paths Taken. This is the first time they've tried the 10-day tour, she says, and they'll see how it goes. This shortened run has become a necessity since she and her bandmates have children now, and "they get upset if you miss their ballet recital," she says. "You know, they're not teenagers yet, so they're not to the point where they don't care, but they're old enough to know you're away."
Kim Ruehl: So do they ever come with you on tour?
Margo Timmins: Sometimes my son does, but the others don't.

I mean, they'll come visit us here and there, but they can mostly stay home with their moms. But for me, you know, having mom away from home is a different thing, so sometimes he'll come along.

How about this CD—At the End of Paths Taken? What was this about for you, and what does the title mean to you?
Well I think it can mean a lot of different things to different people. I think all of our albums are like that—we've tried to go with titles that are more ambiguous, not [with] a specific meaning. But for me, I think it's a study of who we are right now as family members; as people whose parents are aging, people with young kids, and as people with relationships.

I'm a person with so many journeys—some I've chosen, and some that were forced upon me, like being born a woman, being born in Canada—thank God! And all these paths add up to how I am a mother, a daughter, a person in the global community ... but this record was just about some of those paths taken.

Do you have any favorite songs on this record?
Yes, I like "Brave New World," the first song on the album.

I just love performing it. There's this sort of silent scream at the end, at that crazy instrumental break, and I just love doing that scream. I love the sentiment [of that song], which is: this is our world. It's also about that time in the night, around 5 AM, when you wake up and everything just seems so impossible. You know, when the demons come in ...

I also love "My Only Garauntee." You know, as parents, every decision we make now, there's so much angst over—whether the kid is going to play soccer or baseball, etc.—and I think it's more than our parents did. We're all so f***ed up. I know no healthy 40-year-olds [laughs]. But especially for the parents of today, we [worry] so much about every little decision we make. I dont think our parents ever thought about our psyches.

I also love "Mountain," because I think it explains how a lot of people our age feel. You know, how did it get so high? Plus my dad's on that song in the background. We just knew we wanted to layer it, and we kept slapping on all these layers.

Like building a mountain.
Yeah, totally. There was just so much [going on in that song].

Are there any songs from this album that you just won't play live?
Well, you know, when you're putting together a show, you've got to be careful not to load it up with the new stuff. We have to play the songs that people want to hear, too. People may come thinking, "Oh, I've just got to hear this song." Or maybe they'll write me a letter saying a certain song is really meaningful to them, so we'll be sure to play those songs. But this time, I think we'll probably play most of the songs from the new album, but we’ll switch it up and play some on different nights.

We also have this Townes Van Zant medley that we’ve been working on, so there’s the new stuff, too. We’re always working on new stuff.

Do you ever look at your catalog and say, Oh God, I never want to sing that song again?
[laughs] Absolutely. And those are always the songs that everyone wants to hear. [laughs] No, but I actually got to meet Emmylou [Harris] years ago, and I remember I asked her, "How do you sing the same songs over and over?" She gave me a very good piece of advice, which didn’t make sense to me at the time, because I didn’t have any old songs; but now, 20 years later, I totally appreciate it.

She said those songs are only ever good to do as an encore. You can't put them in the middle of a set. Like "Misguided Angel," I could never put in the middle of a set. But she said you just look for that one person—maybe a couple that’s cuddling up to that song, or whatever—and you focus on making that person happy. Then you can't [dread singing that song], because it's like, well, of course I want to make these people happy. So, of course, if people ask for them because [those songs] are special to them, then I definitely will do it. Like "Sweet Jane," that's another one ...

Well, Margo, is there anything else you want the world to know?
Actually, yes. We just launched this site called latentrecordings.com, which is the name of our record label that we put our CDs out on. It's a downloading site for iPod users, you know. I’m an iPod user, and I think all that downloading music and stuff, that’s great, because it makes the songs so much more accessible. At the same time, though, it's so overwhelming, because you can go to iTunes and not know where to start. There's just so much music out there. So we thought we'd start a site that's kind of like, if you like our music, well here are some artists that we like. Obviously right now it’s just our new CD, but in the future, we'll also have musicians we've worked with, or we'll put up our unreleased songs ... we'll probably put that Townes Van Zant medley up there ... so it makes it more accessible.

For more information on Cowboy Junkies tour dates and other info, visit their Web site.