Cowboy Junkies Release 'Hard to Build. Easy to Break' Video

04-30-2023

Video still

(PR) "Hard to Build. Easy to Break," the first radio emphasis track from Cowboy Junkies' latest recording Such Ferocious Beauty, reflects on appreciating what we have. "These days there seems to be this pull towards destruction," explains songwriter/guitarist Michael Timmins. "I'm more interested in the effort it takes to create something or the experience of seeing something evolve. On the flip-side of that is how easy it is to utterly smash and destroy whatever is at hand. The line "Tend the flame that lit your way / stop worshiping the ash", kind of sums it all up for me"

Written in the early days of 2021 with Covid still raging, democracy burning, and the Timmins' family dealing with their dad's increasing dementia, Michael says, "it was a time of great existential dread when many of the pillars that many of us had been leaning on, for our entire lives, seemed to be crumbling. I was struck by how easy and quickly things can fall apart, if not properly respected."

Such Ferocious Beauty has already received early praise. NPR's All Songs Considered will be featuring the track "What I lost" with Bob Boilen exclaiming "I have loved this band for so long." Kyle Meredith (NPR/Consequence of Sound/WFPK) agrees, "Cowboy Junkies have made some of the coolest music of all time and Such Ferocious Beauty stands as one of their greatest accomplishments yet. The mood, sense of adventure, playfulness, and poignant themes make for a piece of work that sticks with you long after you hear it." A World Café appearance with the band is coming soon - more details to follow.

Such Ferocious Beauty is the band's first release of new material in five years and follows their heralded 2022 collection of covers, Songs of the Recollection. Such Ferocious Beauty is vintage Cowboy Junkies and another dimension from the lo-fi Canadian band comprised of siblings Margo, Michael and Peter Timmins and lifelong friend Alan Anton. Beauty is a rumination on aging, losing parents, facing mortality and creating space for one's life in the midst of the ruin that comes from merely living. Wtch the video below: