Pop : Timmins Emerges as a Forceful Cowboy

Step by gradual step, Cowboy Junkies continue to come out of the whispering dark of “The Trinity Session,” the hushed and intimate 1988 album that brought the Toronto band fame and acclaim.

If singer Margo Timmins stays on the tack she took on Saturday at the Coach House, brightening the band’s 90-minute early show with many a digression into engaging, low-keyed humor, Cowboy Junkies may yet end up doing an album called “The Comedy Session.”

Taking the capacity crowd into her confidence, Timmins introduced songs with gently beguiling stories based on family lore and the Junkies’ pre-”Trinity” scuffling days on the road. Back then, she recalled with a chuckle, they would play deserted bars where “the cash register and the pinball machine and any slightest little noise was way louder than we were.”

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That is hardly the case now. Besides turning into a shy-but-overcoming-it raconteur, Timmins has developed into a much more forceful and confident singer. At times she failed to bring characters to life (and character portrayal is crucial to the narrative writing of her brother Michael Timmins). But she regularly summoned enough heft to cut through a controlled but credible instrumental attack.

Drawing from all five Junkies albums, the show ranged from wistful country to furtive blues and alarmed rock-outs. Timmins smiled frequently and fetchingly, conveying a sincere pleasure in singing, and created some visual interest with her understated, languidly wafting movements. Many choruses brimmed and surged with hearty vitality. Surprising stuff from a singer we first heard murmuring in the shadows.

* Cowboy Junkies play on Tuesday at the Palace, 1735 N. Vine St., 8 p.m. $20. (213) 462-3000 .