Margo Timmins isn’t afraid of her emotions

Touring is hard, but for Cowboy Junkies and Margo Timmins, the effort is worth it.

“The music makes us all feel like we belong,” said Timmins, the lead singer.

The concerts have been great, she said, thanks to Cowboy Junkies’ nearly 40 years in music. They’ll bring their show to the Fox Tucson Theatre on Thursday, July 27.

“Playing together is probably more exciting than it ever was,” Timmins said.

“As musicians, we put in our 30,000 hours. We’d reached a level where we know where the other person’s going. There’s a lot more interplay than there ever was. It’s very rare that we do a ‘bad’ show. It might not be as good as last night, but it feels good.”

At the Fox Tucson Theatre, Cowboy Junkies will perform two sets. First, they’ll focus on the new album, “Such Ferocious Beauty,” with the hits following. The recent collection is a take on songwriter/guitarist Michael Timmins’ thoughts.

“Michael writes about what is going on in his life,” Timmins said about her brother. (Another brother, Peter, plays drums.) “Because we’re siblings, it’s going on in my life, too. I think it’s just a progression of life. He wrote about having kids when we were having kids. He wrote about aging. There was a period where he wrote about aging marriages and the addition of children and what happens. That’s a whole experience.

“This album is about us becoming older and us having to step up, becoming adults and taking care of our parents.”

“Such Ferocious Beauty” covers the death of the Timmins’ parents. She teased that the next one could be about aging.

“It’s just a continuation of what’s happening to us and also, of course, the world around us,” she added.

“This album has a lot of impact of the pandemic. It’s huge on all of us. It changed the way we view ourselves and the world. During that period of time, with the whole political scene, that just got really nutty. Whether you’re for it or against it, we lost a lot. Things got confusing and there’s a lot of that in there, too. The biggest most personal thing is the death of our parents and the impact of how we view our worlds and where we’re at.”

Singing the songs in concert is cathartic for Timmins.

“I’ve never been afraid of my emotions on stage,” she said. “If I start to cry, I start to cry, if I’m singing a sad song and I’m feeling extra sad tonight. I’ve never been afraid of my emotions.

“It’s like a prayer. I’m not a religious person. I think prayer is that moment of deep contemplation and thought. That’s, to me, what a song is. It’s a moment of really embracing something and not being afraid.”

She added with a laugh, “If it went on all night, I might have a nervous breakdown.”

Within four decades, the musicians have stuck to their guns, making music for themselves — even when they were signed to major labels.

“One of the things we fought hard to do is protect our music and do it the way we wanted to do it,” said Timmins, calling from her home two hours north of Toronto.

“I never ever wanted to listen to an album and say, ‘Ugh, why did I do that?’ I knew that was wrong. I think that’s why we still really enjoy playing music together. It’s an expression of the four of us playing and nothing else.”