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The Cowboy Junkies brought their 2004 tour to the Gibson Lounge in Memphis. It was a small, intimate venue and thankfully open only to those over 21, which made for a much more peaceful atmosphere. As the evening progressed, the place filled up pretty well.

The opener for the evening was Margo and Michael Timmons of the Cowboy Junkies performing acoustic versions of some of their songs. They were also accompanied with accordion and harmonica or mandolin, depending on the song. They opened with a beautiful, hopeful version of "Anniversary Song" after which Margo said it was their only hopeful song so we should just settle in for a long, depressing time for the rest of the evening. She started to correct herself that maybe there is a hopefulness in almost all of their songs if you dig down deep enough. She cited "A Horse in the Country" as one of those types of songs before they played an inspired bare version of the song. The opening set included a couple of new songs also, the highlight of which was "The Slide" which worked beautifully in its stripped down form.

20 minutes later they returned with a bass player and a drummer and launched into a convicted performance of "Lost My Driving Wheel" which convinced pretty much everyone of the brilliance this band possesses. The new songs "No Long Journey Home" and "Why This One" didn't hold up too well in comparison to the classics of the past that the Cowboy Junkies pulled out. We also got a couple of covers. A rendition of Robert Johnson's "32:20 Blues" brought a long, impressive chance for the band to jam while Margo left the stage. A cover of "To Lay Me Down" from the Grateful Dead was more of an opportunity to showcase the voice of Margo Timmons. Surprisingly the main set ended after only nine songs.

Everyone cheered for an encore and thankfully we received just that. Margo talked about how some of the new crew members had visited Graceland for the first time that day and as such it would only be appropriate to play a song for Elvis. Of course, "Blue Moon (Revisited)" was the song and the sound of excitement went over the crowd as the beginning bass lines were played. After the song was over everyone but Michael and Margo left the stage. Margo asked the people in the back (who tended to be much louder than necessary) to talk after the show was over instead because a lot of people had come specifically to hear this last song. With that Michael began playing an acoustic version of "Misguided Angel" which Margo's gorgeous vocals made the highlight of the evening.

I was a bit surprised that the set list didn't contain more songs, but I later found out that Margo was experiencing a migraine headache on this particular evening, so the fact that we heard what we did was quite impressive. The Cowboy Junkies have been around for almost twenty years, but their live show was proof positive that it has been a worthwhile career.