Cowboy Junkies revisited

Michael Timmins, who writes most of the CJs material, keeps a tour diary, some of which he posts online.

Here's his thoughts about Durham:

If I had to choose a city to have a day off in, Durham would not be very high on my list. It may be a nice place to live and I have no doubt that there is a lot to do in the area if you have a car or some means of transportation and I’m sure that the quality of life is just fine, but if you are staying in a downtown hotel and limited to wandering around the “downtown core” then ones options are a little limited and Durham leaves a lot to be desired. There is certainly a lot of construction going on. They are tearing up all of the streets and creating these beautiful inter-locked bricked pedestrian-ways, planting saplings and building parkettes. It is very ambitious and will be very attractive when it is finished, but the problem is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone around, there doesn’t seem to be any pedestrians to enjoy this ambitious urban renewal scheme. Perhaps it’s a case of “if we build it they will come”. In any case, there is an excellent used bookstore and a handful of good restaurants in the renewed “Tobacco District”…that’s really all that I need.

The gig tonight was at the Carolina Theater, which is a beautiful place. I’m surprised that we have never played it in the past. The bartender at the hotel declared it as a place where “up-and-coming” bands or where bands that have “been-there-and-done-that” play. I guess we fall in to one of those categories. We had a very good show tonight and we, once again, had an excellent audience. Shame on us for allowing six years to pass before returning to these parts.

Just thought his outsider's perspective was worth sharing with the Durham movers and shakers (both of them) who stop in and read this blog occasionally.

For what it's worth, i had sent CJs tour manager a pretty good list of things to do in town, most of which were in walking distance of the Marriot. Looking at Michael's Durham photos, it seems as though he got through most of downtown. (Blazer, i'm sure, wil love his Oprah building photo.)

At least Margo got up to the Life and Science Museum with her 4 year old and saw some dinosaurs.