Margo Timmins is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist of the alternative country and folk rock band Cowboy Junkies. Her brothers Michael Timmins and Peter Timmins are the band's lead guitarist and drummer.
Margo Timmins was born and spent most of her childhood in Montreal, one of six children of Barbara and John Timmins. Timmins' mother was "a very honest person, and very confident in who she was and her emotions and her place in the world. And I think if she gave anything, that's what she gave us: the sense that you do what you do, and not to worry about it too much. A confidence. Not a confidence that we're necessarily right, but even if we're wrong, well, too bad".[1]
Timmins' father, who worked in aviation sales and marketing, was a jazz lover[2] who passed this on to his daughter.
After graduating from high school, Timmins and her brother Michael explored the punk music scene in Toronto on Queen Street West. When Michael started his first band, the Hunger Project, she would hang out with the band, take the tickets, and carry the equipment.[5]
Timmins earned money by doing clerical work for her father and performing chores around the house.[4]
In her mid-20s, Timmins studied social work at university.[3] In an interview with People she said, "As a kid I was always mistaken for a boy. I didn't get long hair until my early 20s. That's when I discovered hair was important."[6]
Cowboy Junkies
Timmins in a 2013 concert at Barbican; visible are the flowers she arranged before the concert to mitigate her stage fright
Michael Timmins, Margo's brother, formed the band Cowboy Junkies, with Margo's voice as a distinctive feature.[7] Steve Leggett of AllMusic describes her voice as "ethereal" .[8] In 1985, her brother Michael recruited Margo as the lead vocalist for Cowboy Junkies even though she had never sung publicly before.[8] Initially Margo would not sing in front of the other band members, she would only sing in front of Michael. Eventually, Michael convinced Margo to sing in front of the other band members and they liked her performance.[9]
Margo Timmins has said about that time, "So when he asked me I was freaked out, but I said 'Okay, so long as if I don't do a good job, you fire me.' I didn't want to hurt his music, because his music is so important to him."[10] It took a long time for her to get comfortable singing in front of an audience. In fact, many of the early shows had Margo singing with her back to the audience.[11]
Timmins has stated that it took her ten years to get comfortable singing in front of an audience, and she suffers from stage fright.[11][12]
Personal life
Timmins performing with Cowboy Junkies in Philadelphia, 2012
She lives in Toronto with her husband Graham Henderson and their son.[13] However, she likes to spend most of her time at their 100-year-old farmhouse in Grey County, Ontario.[14] Henderson has represented Cowboy Junkies in legal matters.[4]
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