[Steve Carlton]

I know a few here are Junkies junkies.

The Cowboy Junkies return with their first new material in five years with ‘What I Lost’. This is a poignant and heartbreaking song about dementia. The imagery in the video centres on the father of four of the band members including singer Margo Timmins. The lyrics are about the father’s struggle with dementia. Home movies from his childhood are intercut with an image that implies memory slipping away.

Songwriter Michael Timmins reflects on the creation of the song based on conversations he had with his father in the final months of his life, “Memories of his flying days as a bush pilot in northern Quebec and his love of jazz and his experiences of seeing the great big-bands of the 50’s would often work their way into our conversations. I would often think about all of those memories and experiences that were slowly being eaten away by the dementia and would eventually completely disappear with his death. Lines like ‘This is what I lost’ and ‘I can sit here and wait’ from ‘What I Lost’ and ‘Shadows 2’ are not so much about him, but about me.”

I believe Michael was instrumental in the creation of this video.