The album title emerged from a quote from
John Steinbeck's novel,
The Grapes of Wrath: "Maybe it's all men and all women we love; maybe that's the Holy Sperit – the human sperit – the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body’s a part of." The idea behind
One Soul Now is that everyone is interconnected. While the Cowboy Junkies was touring to support
Open, the band members started collecting second-hand recording equipment without a plan or purpose, just a need. When the band was back home, they looked at all the recording studios, and decided to set up the recording equipment in their rehearsal area, eventually turning their space into a recording studio, The Clubhouse.
One Soul Now is the first album the band made in their new studio. Having their rehearsal space become their recording studio changed the process of creating their tracks. Previously, they would start in the rehearsal space, determine how the songs would work, then go to a studio when ready. Now, the band recorded everything as they worked through the rehearsal process. Later, when they listened to the recordings, the Junkies could pick out the recording where the songs were most vibrant. One song, "Simon Keeper", was recorded much earlier, during the
Open sessions at Daryl Smith's recording studio, Chemical Sound. == Track listing ==