Cowboy Junkies at the Fitzgerald Theater (March 28, 2026)
- Hell is Real
- A Common Disaster
- Two Fierce Tigers
- What I Lost
- Hard to Build Easy to Break
- Shining Moon (Lightin’ Moon cover)
- Big Orange Horse
- The Moon
- Islands
— Set Two —
- Sweet Jane (The Velvet Underground cover)
- Continental Drift
- Where Are You Tonight?
- I’m Working on a Building (Traditional cover)
- Powderfinger (Neil Young & Crazy Horse cover)
- Lungs (Townes Van Zandt cover)
- Shadows
- Misguided Angel
- Murder Tonight in the Trailer Park
- Lost My Driving Wheel (David Wiffen cover)
- Islands
— Encore —
- (Unknown)
- Fuck, I Hate the Cold
It was surprisingly subdued in downtown St Paul as a smattering of people filtered to their cars, carrying their No Kings signs from the rally at the State Capitol and doggie bags from the local restaurants. In fact, the pizzeria next to the Palace Theatre had already closed, a sign on the door saying, “Sold Out!”
The box office at the Fitzgerald was far more crowded with people having trouble with their ticketing app. A guy standing next to me was sporting a baseball cap. It said: THE NAME IS DAVE AND I DO DAVE THINGS. He even told me that the vanity license plate on his car has his name which I found surprising, considering there are a lot of Daves I know.
Recently we’ve been revisiting our time at Toronto’s NXNE from 2011. Fortunately, the gathering crowd didn’t have to cross an international border to see a legendary band from the Canadian town as the Cowboy Junkies wrapped up their Midwest tour in St. Paul.
Celebrating 40 years with close to 30 albums, the Cowboy Junkies have quite a catalog to draw from. As principal songwriter and guitarist, Michael Timmins, told Americana UK about the tour:
Needing to keep the volume down, they found that it was more suitable to Margo’s range and delivery. From there they have created a musical landscape around her beautiful voice.
The original members were joined on stage by Jeff Bird who played the mandolin, harmonica and a couple tambourines. But it became apparent that most in the crowd came to see Margo. Throughout the evening there were hoots and hollers and many shouts of “We Love You!” even in the middle of the songs, which ran counter to the sotto voce vibe coming from the band. It must have been a long time since the Cowboy Junkies last visited and they didn’t disappoint.
As advertised, they did play songs from their latest album with “Hell is Real” and “Hard to Build. Easy to Break.” They even played songs from an upcoming album like “Two Fierce Tigers” and “Big Orange Horse” which Margo said tied in nicely to the No Kings rally early in the day.
What is always nice to see is how a seasoned band addresses the hit songs they have played +hundreds of times. With “Common Disaster” they picked up the pace and jazzed it a little as the crowd approved with clapping throughout. And when they started off the second set it was sans their singer. So the guys played an extended free-form jam with Michael taking an extended fuzzed guitar solo. And when Margo eventually entered stage right, they shifted into the minimal chord progressions of “Sweet Jane.”
As the two hours of music drew to the end, Margo took the time to address the crowd, thanking everyone for inviting them to St. Paul. She said that she hasn’t made a ton of money, but what she found more valuable were the memories that she and the band have accumulated over the years. And being part of the No Kings rally early in the day was just one more experience she will never forget.
Then Margo did something I’ve never seen a musician do before. For the encore she dedicated a song to herself for surviving another brutal Toronto winter. The song: “Fuck, I Hate the Cold.”
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