Artist · chart history · #330 in indie & aaa artist polls
Cowboy Junkies
Band Toronto Canada Formed 1985
Cowboy Junkies formed in 1985 in Toronto, Canada. Cowboy Junkies has 112 chart appearances on 73 radio countdowns from 24 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Sweet Jane”, which appears on 57 lists with a best position of #4. The station that charted Cowboy Junkies most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 42 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1994.
Cowboy Junkies came out of Toronto with a sound so slow and hushed that it made the rest of the late '80s seem to be shouting. Three siblings, Margo Timmins on vocals, Michael Timmins on guitar and songwriting and Peter Timmins on drums, teamed up with bassist Alan Anton, Michael's partner from his earlier bands, and the lineup has never changed since. They blend blues and country with folk, jazz and rock, landing somewhere between alt-country and folk rock, and they have leaned on guest players over the years, notably multi-instrumentalist Jeff Bird.
Their first album, the bluesy Whites Off Earth Now!!, was produced by Peter Moore and recorded in the family garage with a single ambisonic microphone. They used the same trick, and the same producer, for the record that made their name, The Trinity Session, cut in 1987 at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto and released in 1988. The room is part of the band: every brush of the snare and every breath hangs in the air. Margo sings like she's confiding in you at 3 in the morning, and their slowed-down, spectral "Sweet Jane" drifts along like a lullaby. "Misguided Angel" and "Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis)" are just as haunting. The album won them critics and a devoted following, and the Los Angeles Times put it among the 10 best albums of 1988.
They kept the mood going into the '90s: Black Eyed Man, in 1992, carried "Murder Tonight In The Trailer Park", Pale Sun, Crescent Moon, in 1993, had "Anniversary Song", and Lay It Down, in 1996, brought "A Common Disaster". In all they have made 16 studio albums and 5 live albums, and they are still on the road, with shows booked into late 2026.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Cowboy Junkies on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sweet Jane | 57 | #4 | – | 1994 | |
| 2 | Misguided Angel | 18 | #457 | – | – | |
| 3 | Anniversary Song | 19 | #752 | – | – | |
| 4 | A Common Disaster | 6 | #75 | – | 1996 | |
| 5 | The Things We Do To Each Other | 1 | #17 | – | 2018 | |
| 6 | Horse In the Country | 1 | #663 | – | – | |
| 7 | Miles From Our Home | 1 | #382 | – | – | |
| 8 | Murder Tonight In The Trailer Park | 3 | #404 | – | – | |
| 9 | Blue Moon Revisited | 1 | #570 | – | – | |
| 10 | Small Swift Birds | 1 | #684 | – | – | |
| 11 | Blue Moon Revisited (Song For Elvis) | 1 | #797 | – | – | |
| 12 | 200 More Miles | 1 | #863 | – | – | |
| 13 | Crescent Moon | 1 | #894 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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