which cowboy junkies cd?

Black Eyed Man (includes "Murder In The Trailor Park Tonight"), Trinity Sessions, Lay It Down, Miles From Our Home,Early 21st Century Blues. Do not buy "Open" as your first listening as it is a bit uninteresting compared to all of the other GREAT work the Junkies have done.

Trinity Sessions and Lay It Down would be my top two.

By the way, my wife and daughter were at a concert a couple of months ago (girl's night out). The Cowboy Junkies were the opening act. (Colin James was the headliner). The first thing they said when they got home was that they wouldn't go to see the Cowboy Junkies as an opening act unless you brought a pillow and wanted to take a nap. Apparently they're pretty laid back live.

My vote is for Trinity Sessions, then Early 21 Century Blues. My dog particularly likes the harmonica of Trinity Sessions and always howls. The recording of Trinity Sessions is done with a single microphone and is superb (IMHO). When I close my eyes while listening to it I often have the experience that I am in the church where it was recorded. Very intimate recording.

IMO the best Cowboy Junkies CD is "The Trinity Sessions" for both the music and the recording quality. The session was minimally miked in an old church with very little editing, I think. You can hear things get kicked by accident in the recording, people breathing, the ventilation system in the background, and a very low frequency noise that might be a train or underground subway rumble. The band seemed to have a synergy that I did not find in later recordings. After first hearing that CD, I rushed out to buy others, but never heard the magic I found in "The Trinity Sessions." But that's just my opinion.

All of em...