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Cowboy Junkies

If you’d been in a band with your brother and a friend, recording your first release in a tiny Toronto garage in close proximity to your neighbors, you too might have forged a sound as quietly intense as that of Cowboy Junkies—but that would require you also have lots of talent and taste, and it would help if your sister had a mesmerizing, ethereal voice. Such were the forces that lined up in 1986 when the band spent one summer day with a single microphone and a digital two-track machine to record Whites Off Earth Now!! Still the same lineup after two decades, guitarist/songwriter Michael and drummer Peter Timmins will be joining sister Margo and bassist Alan Anton to create the dreamy, narcotic sound that has enthralled listeners since their haunting version of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” on their breakthrough release The Trinity Sessions in 1988. Having completed the circle from indie to major label act and back again, Cowboy Junkies are likely to feature some of the songs recorded for 2005’s Early 21st Century Blues—a return to their stripped-down sound covering themes of war, violence and loss. Buffalo is among a small handful of cities to host a Cowboy Junkies show before they travel to Europe in support of a retrospective book XX, a chronicle the band’s twenty-year history.

Thursday, january 18 at 8 pm. Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main Street (852-2860 ext. 1#). $27 presale. $30 Day of show.