Those shiny happy Canucks, the Cowboy Junkies, are following on the heels of every American act and going to the Net. Next month, the group plans to launch their Web site, www.cowboyjunkies.com, which will offer up their latest platter for sale. The appropriately titled Rarities, B-Sides and Slow, Sad Waltzes will consist of some previously unreleased Junkies material as well as stray songs from promotional CDs, compilations and other odds-and-ends, ranging from their 1991 cover of "To Lay Me Down" on the Deadicated album to the soon-to-be-released "Ooh Las Vegas" from an upcoming Gram Parsons tribute.

Rarities, B-Sides and Slow, Sad Waltzes will be available only via the Internet at Amazon.com and the new www.cowboyjunkies.com. The Junkies site, an extensive labor of love produced by the band, will be "the one reliable place for band news." "We're doing this album ourselves, and putting it out [on the Web] just made it simpler, really," says Michael Timmins, one-half of the Timmins members of the Junkies. "We used to run our own label, and the most difficult thing was always the distribution part of it -- keeping track of it and getting it out there. The Web sort of opened that up and made it all a lot easier. We're not trying to sell a zillion of these things, we just want to make it available to the fans." In addition to ordering the album off the Web, fans will eventually be able to download certain tracks in MP3.

The album marks the resurrection of the Junkies' own independent label, Latent Recordings, which was the former home to the group's first two releases, Whites Off Earth Now!! and The Trinity Session. This time around, even with the Web acting as sales agent, Latent Recordings won't be retired so easily. The band plans to use the label to release subsequent recording projects of their own, in addition to albums by other artists.

Cowboy Junkies plan to hit the road in support of the album with a 17-city tour, kicking off in Oregon on July 7th and running through the end of the month.

July 7, Jacksonville, Ore., Britt Festival Fairgrounds
July 9, Portland, Washington Park Zoo
July 10, Seattle, Pier 62-63
July 11, Kellogg, Ind., Silver Mountain Ampitheater
July 13, Reno, Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts
July 14 & 15, Saratoga, Cal., Mountain Winery
July 16, Cerritos, Cal., Cerritos Center for P.A.C.
July 18, San Diego, Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay
July 20, Santa Fe, Paolo Soleri Ampitheater
July 21, Denver, Ogden Theater
July 23, Interlochen, Mich., Interlochen Center for the Arts
July 24, Louisville, Kent., Kentucky Center for the Arts
July 26, Indianapolis, Vogue Theater
July 27, Highland Park, Ill., Ravinia Festival (Pavilion)
July 28, Rochester, Mich., Meadowbrook Music Festival
July 29, Kettering, Ohio, Fraze Pavilion
July 31, Vienna, Vir., Wolftrap Performing Arts Center

ANDREW DANSBY
(May 21, 1999)