"Howdy folks and gather round 'cause we got a mighty fine treat for you right now. Here's Cowboy Sally and her twilight laments for lost buccaroos." From that friendly intro to its ending with Jill Sobule's lullabyish "Rock Me To Sleep," Twilight Laments is an unrivaled and incomparable novelty record - one featuring superb musicianship and one of the sweetest, most emotive voices of our day.

There is at the very least one thing that punk rock and real country music has in common: a constant devil-may-care attitude with a capital "A." Sally Timms, otherwise known as Cowboy Sally, knows and lives this fact, as illustrated in her musical endeavors, including this latest work.

Timms, a native Englander, moved to Chicago many years ago to team up with dark musical genius Jon Langford to form the legendary underground band The Mekons. In contrast to Timms' loud and aggressive Mekons performances, her alter ego, Cowboy Sally, quietly and simply sings songs of lost love and yearning under the stars.

The attitude here is more subtle and multi-faceted. Firstly, for a woman to call herself "Cowboy" and sing the songs of the open range is a bold move in and of itself. Undaunted by that, Timms' continues on, wonderfully covering the great Johnny Cash's "Cry, Cry, Cry," and including three original, modern cowboy songs she co-wrote with Langford ("Dark Sun," "Sweetheart Waltz," and "Cancion Para Mi Padre").

The recording features 10 songs and a host of Chicago's alt country elite. Robbie Fulks' "In Bristol Town One Bright Day," is a Celtic tinged dirge about a fair-haired girl and the trouble she gets into, while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy put music to the traditional "When the Roses Bloom Again." The imagery of the songs is vibrant and alive, and exactly what you'd expect- rodeos, the Rio Grande, rolling green hills and nature at its best and worst.

Fulks, Langford and members of The Handsome Family all play on Twilight Laments, including violins, mandolins, sleigh bells and pedal steel. But it is Timms' angelic, yet forceful voice that makes the record what it is - enjoyable listening for mellow evenings with the lights down low. From club to campfire, combat to cowboy (boots, that is), Sally Timms brings the sounds of the West to a new millenium, and quite possibly a new audience.

Down in the West Texas town of Chicago, there lives a fine maiden who sings great cowboy songs….and her name is Sally Timms.

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