Angel's wings

"But there's a song like 'Speaking Confidentially,' where I have no idea what it's about." She laughs. "I keep asking Mike, and he won't tell me. Maybe I will figure it out one day when I'm on the road, which sometimes happens. I'll be singing it and all of a sudden it clicks: 'OK, now I know what it means.' When I don't understand the songs, usually I tend to focus in on the melody or the words themselves and play with the phrasing of them--just the rhythm of the words.

"I tend to look at it like I was reading a poem and playing with the words, but it's more than a poem because I also have the music as well. Those are sort of fun, but they're usually the hardest. I'm sort of in the dark. I don't know what I'm talking about, which is always a difficult thing."

Cowboy Junkies perform June 2 at Starplex with Jars of Clay, Jewel, Dada, and Deep Blue Something. The show is free, but tickets are required.