The Trinity Session

The Trinity Session
A grainy black-and-white photo of Cowboy Junkies sitting in a semicircle, with a rust-colored logo
Studio album by
Cowboy Junkies
ReleasedNovember 15, 1988 (1988-11-15)
RecordedNovember 27, 1987 (1987-11-27)
StudioChurch of the Holy Trinity (Toronto)
Genre
Length52:36
Label
ProducerPeter Moore
Cowboy Junkies chronology
Whites Off Earth Now!!
(1986) 		The Trinity Session
(1988) 		The Caution Horses
(1990)
Singles from The Trinity Session
  1. "Sweet Jane"
    Released: 1989
  2. "Misguided Angel"
    Released: 1989
  3. "Blue Moon Revisited"
    Released: 1989
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Chicago Sun-Times[2]
NME8/10[3]
Orlando Sentinel[4]
The Philadelphia Inquirer[5]
Record Mirror4/5[6]
Rolling Stone[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]
Spin Alternative Record Guide8/10[9]
The Village VoiceC+[10]

The Trinity Session is the second studio album by Canadian alternative country band Cowboy Junkies, released in early 1988 by Latent Recordings in Canada,[11] and re-released worldwide later in the year on RCA Records. "Working on a Building" and "Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)" did not appear on the Latent Records release. "Blue Moon Revisited" was originally released on It Came from Canada, Vol. 4 (1988), a compilation of Canadian independent bands.

The music was recorded inside Toronto's Church of the Holy Trinity on November 27, 1987 (1987-11-27), with the band circled around a single microphone. The album includes a mixture of original material by the band and covers of classic folk, rock and country songs. Notable among the songs is the band's most famous single, a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane", based on the version found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live (1974) rather than the later studio version from Loaded (1970).[12] Also included is "Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)", which is both a cover and an original, combining a new song by the band with the pop standard "Blue Moon".

In 2007, the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back series. Also that year, the band returned to the Church of the Holy Trinity to record a new version of the Trinity Session with guest musicians Natalie Merchant, Vic Chesnutt and Ryan Adams. This new set of recordings was released as Trinity Revisited to commemorate the 20th anniversary of The Trinity Session.

  1. ^ Jurek, Thom. "The Trinity Session – Cowboy Junkies". AllMusic. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  2. ^ McLeese, Don (November 28, 1988). "Cowboy Junkies, 'The Trinity Session' (RCA)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  3. ^ O'Hagan, Sean (March 11, 1989). "Shooting Up". NME. London. p. 35.
  4. ^ Henderson, Bill (December 11, 1988). "Cowboy Junkies". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  5. ^ Moon, Tom (November 27, 1988). "It's simple, it's sparse, it works". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  6. ^ Pebody, Roger (April 22, 1989). "The Cowboy Junkies: The Trinity Session". Record Mirror. London. p. 32.
  7. ^ DeCurtis, Anthony (February 9, 1989). "Cowboy Junkies: The Trinity Session". Rolling Stone. New York. Archived from the original on February 12, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2012.
  8. ^ Kot, Greg (2004). "Cowboy Junkies". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 196. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  9. ^ Hermes, Will (1995). "Cowboy Junkies". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 94–95. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  10. ^ Christgau, Robert (March 14, 1989). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  11. ^ MacInnis, Craig (March 4, 1988). "Toronto trio getting a Rush out of reality". The Toronto Star. p. D12. The proof of that is in the grooves of The Trinity Session, which is the reason for the Toronto group's record party tomorrow night at the Rivoli
  12. ^ Gracyk, Theodore (2001). "Like a Rolling Stone". I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music and the Politics of Identity. Temple University Press. pp. 27–28. ISBN 1-56639-903-3. Retrieved July 22, 2012.