At the close of the Cowboy Junkies' new album there's a song called My Only Guarantee. Unusually, for a band who have carved out a 20-year career as a cornerstone of the Americana movement, it takes its inspiration from the great English poet Philip Larkin.

"It's addressed to my children," says the band's songwriter Michael Timmins, "and it's basically saying: I'm going to try my darndest to raise you as best as I possibly can but, really, the only thing I can promise you is, no matter how hard I try, I will in some way manage to f*** you up".

Released on April 9, At the End of Paths Taken is the tenth studio album by the Cowboy Junkies and it finds this quartet of Canadian siblings in a reflective mood.

Having formed the band in Toronto in 1985, Michael, Margo and Peter Timmins are now all in their late 40s - that point in your life, Michael observes, when you're both "parents of young children and children of ageing parents. There's that pleasure and excitement of being a new parent, and at the same time you're starting to think about mortality and the end of things."

In the country-tinged sound of the Cowboy Junkies, sweetly morose melodies are often counterbalanced by a foot-tapping rustic groove.

Another album of smart, insightful, richly-textured songs, At the End of Paths Taken is being promoted in Europe by a reduced line-up of Michael and singer Margo, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Jeff Bird.

"It makes us rethink a lot of songs and reinterpret stuff," says Michael of these acoustic shows, "and it makes us work a little harder."

The group have also made a DVD, due for release later this year, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their 1988 breakthrough album, The Trinity Sessions. Recorded live in a single day on a single microphone in a church in Toronto, and produced for just $250, the album has become a cult classic.

In November, the Junkies invited long-term fans Natalie Merchant, Ryan Adams and Vic Chesnutt to rerecord the tracks - this time with a few more mics.

"When I initially contacted Ryan Adams about the project he said, Oh man, you don't need to tell me this, I know all of these songs off by heart", laughs Michael.

"I understand intellectually why Trinity Sessions took off, because it was the sound of musicians getting together and playing as a live unit as opposed to all the crappy bombastic studio production which was going on around that time. But I still find it hard to believe that so many people bought that record."

As for the longevity of the band, Michael is sure that's down to three of the full line-up being siblings.

"We know how to communicate, we know how to work through arguments," he explains. "And because Margo and I have shared very similar experiences, when I give her a song to sing she knows where it's coming from. I've just been lucky to have this extremely unique, expressive voice to sing my lyrics. Writing for my sister has never felt strange."

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