Margo Timmins

Margo Timmins (born January 27, 1961 in Montreal, Quebec) ¹ is the lead vocalists of the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies. Margo’s ethereal vocals, paired with the band’s spare and quiet songs performed at a lethargic pace, gives the band its unique sound.²

Childhood

Margo was born and spent most of her childhood in Montreal, Quebec Canada as one of six children of Barbara and John Timmins.³ Margo describes her Mother Barbara as “a very honest person, and very confident in who she was and her emotions and her place in the world. And I think if she gave anything, that's what she gave us: the sense that you do what you do, and not to worry about it too much. A confidence. Not a confidence that we're necessarily right, but even if we're wrong, well, too bad”.⁴

Her Father John Timmins spent his professional live working in the sales and marketing divisions of several aviation companies. His passion in life, however, was music and his love of song was passed on to his children, especially his son Michael (Margo’s brother) who would eventually start the Cowboy Junkies.³

As a young girl, Margo remembers rifling through her brother Michael’s extensive record collection.⁵ Some of her early favorites that influence her to this day include: • Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde • Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska • Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited • Neil Young – Harvest • Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline • Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad • Townes Van Zandt - Flying Shoes ⁶

It never occurred to Margo that she could ever sing professionally.³ However, her youth was filled with song. She remembers singing while doing the dishes ⁶, singing in school plays and pageants ^7,8 and singing Carole King songs at camp.³

As a child, her ambition was to grow to be like her mother – get married, stay at home and have seven children.^{9, 10} If she could not do that, she wanted to be a go-go girl dancing in a cage!⁶

In 1977, the Timmins family had moved from Montreal to Toronto.³ They settled in the Etobicoke part of the city ⁸ and Margo attended Richview Collegiate Institute in her high school years.¹¹

Young Adult

After graduating from high school, Margo spent her evenings along with her brother Michael exploring the punk music scene in Toronto that was happening on Queen Street West. When Michael started his first band, the Hunger Project, Margo would hang out with the band, take the tickets, and carry the equipment.¹²

Margo supported herself by doing clerical work for her Father and performing chores around the house.⁸ This included the worst job she ever had - cutting grass for her father.¹³

But by her mid-20s, Margo had left the night life behind and was studying social work at university.⁵ It was also during this time that Margo developed her signature mane of long hair that so many men find so captivating. As she tells it, “As a kid I was always mistaken for a boy. I didn't get long hair until my early 20s. That's when I discovered hair was important."¹⁴

Cowboy Junkies

In 1985, her brother Michael recruited Margo as the vocalist for the Cowboy Junkies even though she had never sung publicly before.² Initially Margo would not sing in front of the other band members, she would only sing in front of Michael. Eventually, Michael convinced Margo to sing in front of the other band members and they liked what they heard.¹⁵

Michael knew that she had a pretty enough voice, but that she was she was shy and anxious.³ However, he also knew that Margo was really a show off at heart.⁶ “A little shaky” was how Michael remembers her first attempts behind the microphone.³

Margo has said about that time, “So when he asked me I was freaked out, but I said ‘Okay, so long as if I don’t do a good job you fire me’ I didn’t want to hurt his music, because his music is so important to him."⁶

It took a long time for Margo to get comfortable singing in front of an audience. If fact, many of the early shows had Margo singing with her back to the audience.¹⁶

Margo has stated, "In those early days, I wouldn’t turn around to face the audience. But nobody forced me and I slowly turned around and I slowly opened my eyes and I slowly began to say hello. And now they can’t shut me up! I see Mike looking at me as I tell a story that has no relevance whatsoever and I lose track.⁶ Now, the guys have to start playing songs because my on-stage monologues go on so long."¹⁶

While Margo has stated that it took her ten years to get comfortable singing in front of an audience to this day,¹⁶ Margo suffers from stage fright and has a ritual she performs prior to each show. Margo says, “I do two things. One is, I iron my dress and I post the set list on the wall and stare at it to get a sense of the flow of the songs. After that, I arrange my flowers. I always have flowers on stage. Once they’re arranged, I hand them to my crew guy to put on stage and that’s the cue that we’re about to start. Arranging my flowers is my meditation. I focus on the flowers and think about nothing. I have no problems being on the stage nowadays. But it’s still difficult for me to get from the side of the stage to the microphone. Just that initial walking out is hard. I have my tea. I always bring my tea out with me because I think it’s an anchor, it’s something to carry, something to do with my hands. I stand on the side of the stage drinking my tea before I go out. That’s my nervous time. I go out, I say hi, and we go into a song. Within that song, I calm down, catch my breath and relax. Then it’s like, Yeah, I like it up here. I forgot how much I like it up here.”¹⁷

As the lead singer of the Cowboy Junkies, Margo is more comfortable being the focal point of attention than she used to be. But she admits that if she is invited to party, and no one wants to talk with her, she is quite happy sitting quietly by herself. She claims that she is not an extrovert and does not have a lot of friends. She is close to one girlfriend, a sister and her mother. She likes being at home.¹⁰ This is exemplified by the three essential things she brings with her on the road while touring with the Cowboy Junkies - her toothbrush, needlepoint and hot water bottle.¹³

Margo believes that the best song she ever wrote is Misguided Angel.¹⁷ And when asked what was the best thing ever written about the Cowboy Junkies, Margo replied “I think it was about my hair”¹⁷

Present

Margo lives in Toronto with her husband Graham Henderson and their five year old son Ed.¹⁸ However, she likes to spend most of her time at their 100-year-old farmhouse in Grey County, Ontario.¹⁹

Margo married Graham Henderson in 1988.²⁰ She met her husband, an entertainment lawyer, in the mid-1980s after he heard the band's demo tapes and went to see them at Toronto's Rivoli club. Shortly thereafter he was not only working to get the Junkies their deal with BMG (U.S.), but he and Margo started dating.⁸ Graham Henderson has been a partner at the law firm of McCarthy Tetrault²¹ and served as vice-president of business affairs and e-commerce at Universal Music Canada until 2000 when he was named president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA).²²

While Margo recently celebrated her 20th year of marriage she admits to having a crush on Bruce Springsteen. Margo has said, “When I got married, I told my husband that if Bruce ever wanted me, that I would be his. And my husband said, OK”.23

Margo loves animals and she and Graham currently have two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Achilles and Drusilla, as well as Sparticus the cat.¹⁹ In 2002, Margo and Graham suffered a significant loss in the death of their dog Gaius. Graham described the loss this way, “On 20 August 2002 our dog Gaius was diagnosed with pneumonia. Margo and I had just finished a three week vacation. I left to come home for work on the Sunday evening. Margo noticed trouble almost right away. Though he was in hospital almost immediately, the disease ravaged him and his great, loving heart gave out in the early hours of 25 August 2002. For those of us without children, our animals often become our children”.²⁴

It was after the death of this beloved pet, that Margo and Graham started exploring the possibility of adopting a child. The adoption process took a year, during the recording of the Cowboy Junkies CD One Soul Now, but Margo and Graham were rewarded with a blond haired, cherubic cheeked son named Edward.¹⁹

When Margo is not on the road touring with Cowboy Junkies, she is home on the farm with her son Ed. Ed travels with the band on longer tours, but for shorter tours stays in Canada with his grandparents.²⁵ Margo has described being a rock and roll mom this way: “Ed comes out with me and the band for a long weekend during a 10-day stint, so I’m not away from him for an entire 10 days, Now it’s getting to the point where he’s got friends and a life of his own, so I don’t really think it’s fair to drag him around the country.”²⁶

Margo became involved in a bit of controversy in 2006 over campaign contributions when she supported and performed at a fund raiser for member of Canadian Parliament Ms. Sam Bulte. Ms. Bulte is a strong advocate for copyright protection and holds similar views to the Canadian Recording Industry Association, headed by Margo’s husband Graham Henderson.²⁷ Margo said of Ms. Bulte, "If there is a true friend of the artists, it is Sam Bulte. She has an unmatched appreciation for what it means to be an artist. Her advocacy for our cause is unrivaled"²⁰ Some felt that Margo’s strong support for copyright protection was in opposition to the file sharing policies permitted on the Cowboy Junkies website.²⁸

Some other fun facts about Margo:

• she loves to read, and two of her favorite books are Anna Karenina ¹³ and Mary, Called Magdalene by Margaret George.²⁹

• every square inch of her refrigerator door at her farm house is covered with a personal photo gallery of famous people she has met over the years, including Molly Ringwald, Sly Stallone, Meatloaf, The Boss, Jon Lovitz, and Sean Penn.¹⁹

Citations

1. Many sources list Margo’s birthday as June 27, 1961 rather than January 27, 1961. However, the definitive Cowboy Junkies website FAQs and this source are correct.

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003336/Cowboy-Junkies.html

2. Steve Huey, All Music Guide, http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Cowboy_Junkies/Biography/

3. David Macfarlane, Saturday Night, October 1991 http://www.junkiesfan.com/articles/satnight.html

4. Jordan Zivitz, Montreal Gazette, June 29, 2007 http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=b0f56113-6369-4303-beb8-7b9e724789cb

5. Tom Lanham, The Sunday Chronicle, San Francisco http://www.artistwd.com/joyzine/music/cowboy_junkies/cowboy.php

6. Paolo Car?, L ‘Ultimo Buscadero, No. 207, November 1999 http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/palms/7573/cjbusca2b.html

7. Jay Cocks, Time Magazine, “Ratting the Neighborhood, December 5, 1988

http://www.junkiesfan.com/articles/time1988.htm

8. Lenny Stoute, Network, “Sam the Record Man The Agony and the Ecstasy, Feb/Mar 1990 http://www.junkiesfan.com/articles/sams_network1990.htm

9. Christopher Reeles Eye for the Future: Self-Development for the Mind, Body & Spirit “Only Cowboys Sing the Blues” Volume 4 Number 8, July/August 1999 http://www.junkiesfan.com/articles/eftf_jul99.html

10.Mike Gee, 1996 http://www.cowboyjunkies.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=019350

11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richview_Collegiate_Institute

12. Kerry Doole, Impact, Vol. 1, No. 5, January 1994 http://www.junkiesfan.com/articles/impact_94.html

13.Interview of Margo Timmins, http://www.cowboyjunkies.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=013666

14.Margo Timmins, People Magazine, May 9, 1990 http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20063288,00.html

15. http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Cowboy-Junkies-Biography/A91327299F7FA23C48256A850010FA6A

16. Tony Engelhart, Hybrid Magazine, June 2004 http://www.hybridmagazine.com/music/0604/cowboyjunkies.shtml

17. Kevin Press, Venue, “Like a Rhinestone Cowboy”, Summer 1996 http://www.junkiesfan.com/articles/venue.htm

18. Graham Henderson Biography, September 21, 2004 http://www.cria.ca/news/210904gh_n.php

19. Jay Sweety, Paste Magazine, June 1, 2004 http://www.pastemagazine.com/tag/the_cowboy_junkies

20. Bill Kinnon Blog http://www.kinnon.tv/2006/01/how_to_win_frie.html

21. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Henderson

22. Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1SEC834505

23. Robert Greene, Hippo Press http://www.hippopress.com/music/cowboyjunkies05609.html

24. Graham Henderson Profile on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AAS99M08EBD1S

25 . Gene Armstrong, Tucson Weekly “Attached to Songs”, February 16, 2006 http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Music/Content?oid=oid%3A78676

26. Mark Earnest, GotoRenoTahoe.com, April 22, 2008 http://www.gotorenotahoe.com/news/stories/html/2008/04/22/8901.php?sps=&sch=&sp1=gotorenotahoe&sp2=goto+entertainment&sp3=goto+entertainment+main

27. Micheal Geist, P2PNet.net, “Sam Bulte’s Fundraiser”, December 23, 2005 http://p2pnet.net/story/7411

28. Michael Geist, Copyright Fundraising, Campaign Contributions, January 3, 2006. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/index.php?option=com_topics&task=view&id=10047&Itemid=69&startmonth=&startyear=&endmonth=&endyear=&intersect=0&topic%5B%5D=10047&limit=4&limitstart=40

29. Margo Timmins Profile on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A17G2FIHPUV30Q/ref=cm_pdp_profile_friend