Something I found on the banks of the Scioto River.
Such a haunting, melodic performance by Margo Timmins and the Cowboy Junkies. I just don't think the firefly-laden dusk would taste the same without it.
Released in 1995, 200 More Miles is not a new album. And yet, there's nothing else I can substitute for the way the strings take over the songs. Nothing I can say except to assure you there are songs you should hear alone, laying in the grass, somewhere between soil and stars.
And in the corner stands a guitar and
lonesome words scrawled in a drunken hand
I don't travel past, travel hard before
and I'm beginning to understand
["200 More Miles"]
["Me and the Devil Blues", Margo's version of Robert Johnson's original]
["State Trooper", a sultry version of Bruce Springsteen's highway tune]
There's something about an afternoon spent doing nothing
Just listening to records and watching the sun falling
Thinking of things that don't have to add up to something
and this spell won't be broken
by the sound of keys scraping in the lock
["Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning", one of my favorite songs of all time]
Then I catch us in the bar-room mirror
with his arm around my shoulder
this girl I see has grown so unfamiliar
and as she stands to leave with a stranger by her side
she can't help but laugh at a life grown so peculiar
["Where Are You Tonight?", a tribute to yearning for a particular shadow]
I think I'll find a pair of eyes tonight, to fall into
and maybe strike a deal
Your body for my soul, fair swap
`cause cheap is how I feel
["Cause Cheap Is How I Feel", a classic if such things can be said to exist]
I don't like his suggestive tone
The way his words drip from his mouth
As he asks, "Can I take you home?"
I don't care how many miles I got
I think I'd rather walk them alone
Than to sit in the back seat
As his eyes in the mirror
Reduce me to flesh and bone
["Floorboard Blues"]
["If You Were the Woman, and I Was The Man", a tears of joy sort of song]
["Pale Sun"]
Just one question I'm dying to ask, you said,
do you know what it's like to be hunted?
["Hunted", a song about what it's like to be a woman in American. A subtle critique of a culture that consumes women.]
["Lost My Driving Wheel", a Beach Boys song turned into a full-bodied love song]
["I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", because Hank Williams Senior can't hold a candle to this fire]
["Misguided Angel", a mind-blowing tribute to the love that shouldn't be.]
