Here's another one from Sault Ste. Marie (there are a few photos as well):

http://www.soonews.ca/viewarticle.php?id=15770 

Blue in the Sault

Karen Johns for SooNews.ca
Thursday, January 31, 2008, 3:36PM



It's no small miracle that the country/rock band Blue rodeo is still writing music that their fans adore.
The band's first album came out in 1987, and has kept a strong following as witnessed by the enthusiasm at the concert at the Steelback last night.

The band played for around 2 hours, giving the 1,700 fans a good mix of new songs from their latest album Small Miracles and old favorites that brought cheers from the audience.

Blue Rodeo, a seven time Juno winner, consists of Jim Cuddy on guitar and vocals, Greg Keelor on guitar and vocals,Bazil Donovan on bass, Glenn Milchem on drums, and Bob Egan who plays a variety of instruments. Bob Packwood, the newest member of the band replaces former member keyboardist James Gray.

Blue Rodeo started out with Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor who had met in highschool and started a punk influenced band called the HiFis. In 1981they moved to New York in 1981, trying to get a record , and reorganized the band under a new name, Fly to France. They got nowhere and three years later in 1984 they returned to Toronto. The following year, they formed a new band and changed their name to Blue Rodeo.

Even though the band has been together for over 20 years, they have lost none of the magic that is Blue Rodeo. The vocals of Cuddy and Keelor are still sweet and clear and the music is still wonderfully melodic with the ability to touch the hearts of their many fans.

So far the band has put out 11 studio albums as well as three live recordings.

Blue Rodeo's Back
Graham Rockingham
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 11, 2008)

When you've been making records as long as Blue Rodeo has, it can get tough thinking up original ways to hype a new album release. Those elaborate CD release parties, where the press get free wine and canapes, get so stale.

So this time around, Blue Rodeo decided to take their new music literally to the streets. Last fall, the guys piled as much equipment as they good fit into the back of a van, jumped in and took off with 13 new songs from the CD, Small Miracles.

They'd busked all over the streets of Toronto, pulling up to a random street corner, setting up, playing, packing up and moving on to another.

The six members of the band found the experience invigorating. It forced them to listen to each other more closely, made vocal harmonies stronger and the guitar and piano interplay tighter.

They enjoyed themselves so much that they decided to incorporate their busking experience in the current concert tour.

So it was last night at Hamilton Place with Blue Rodeo coming out on stage under a stage-prop street lamp for a mostly unplugged opening set. Frontmen Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor sporting acoustic guitars, drummer Glenn Milchem standing behind a single snare and bassist Bazil Donovan relaxing on a chair. They opened with a leisurely version of the classic Five Days in May that featured a stunning Keelor acoustic solo. They dusted off a few nearly forgotten nuggets like Rebel, Know Where You Go and Tell Me Your Dream (sung a capella with the help of Hamilton's Melissa McClelland). They gave us a couple of new songs as well, Cuddy's gooey new ballad, Three Hours Away, and Keelor's remorseful Blue House.

If you are thinking Cuddy is singing better than he has in years, you'd be right. Two years ago, he underwent surgery to remove some polyps on his vocal cords and he's back to the Cuddy of old. He hit those high notes on Try like he was a kid again.

But the highlight of the evening was Keelor's new masterwork, the beautifully dark Black Ribbon and it's wondrous vision of "heaven descending." Each album adds a new classic to the Blue Rodeo repertoire and this one's it.

grockingham@thespec.com

905-526-3331

Thanks for posting these reviews and please, keep them coming!

I can hardly wait to hear Black Ribbon live! It's definitely going to be a goosebump moment! :D:D:D

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

A nice one from the Citizen. It was hiding in the sports section, so I didn't find it until just now.

Link to web page

It is a testament to the dedication of Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor and Bazil Donovan that the trio has kept Blue Rodeo operating at an artistically high level for 20 years now.

With more than three million records sold and dozens of sold-out tours to their credit, Blue Rodeo is a band that turned heads quickly when their roots-driven rock 'n' roll sound spilled out of central Ontario in 1987.

If there have been valleys in the group's impressive run, they were momentary and largely masked from public view. For all the successes the members have earned and enjoyed, this is a crew that has maintained a collective down-to-earth persona.

And they seem to genuinely enjoy prodding each other to new heights. The regimen of creating a new body of work and taking it to their faithful following, usually during the dead of winter, has been a longstanding Blue Rodeo tradition.

Winter 2008 finds Blue Rodeo embarking on a 40-date, coast-to-coast tour that brings the band to Ottawa Thursday, and pulls into Toronto's historic Massey Hall for a final three-day hurrah with family and friends on home turf. The engagement should be the perfect cap to the extensive run, which will bring much of the music heard on the new Small Miracles album to legions of Canadian fans.

Cuddy is positive about the state of the Blue Rodeo camp these days and how the latest project unfolded.

"I think this record had more input from all the members of the band than any other," says the guitarist, singer and tunesmith. "We spent a lot of time sitting around together with acoustic guitars, tearing songs apart, putting different pieces together, and changing tempos."

That "there seemed to be a whole new sense of trust created" within the band is not something to be taken lightly. Not everyone has been along for the entire ride. Steel guitarist Bob Egan, the American of the bunch, joined after his stint with Wilco in 2000, and keyboard player Bob Packman came on board just over a year ago.

"It can take a bit of getting used to how we can talk to each other in the heat of things after 20 years," says Cuddy, referring to a team that also includes co-producer Chris Shreenan-

Dyck, who can hold his own when it comes to being blunt. Shreenan-Dyck held the same chair during the 2005 Are You Ready sessions and was also the co-producer of Cuddy's 2006 solo effort The Light That Guides You Home. Cuddy raves about his ability to draw out and capture the best vocal tracks.

Lyrically, the new CD's tracks cover a broad expanse of territory. This Town was inspired by a tour of England that included a date in the community of Ashton-under-Lyne, which Cuddy describes as "one of the bleakest places you can imagine."

"There's an incredible sense of helplessness there and it was so depressing we didn't even stay overnight."

Taken from the brighter side of the palette, instrumentally speaking, is Keelor's Together, which spins a cool, alluring Latin groove across lyrics painting a desperate picture of a relationship coming apart at the seams.

"Greg brought Together to us pretty much that way, as a bossa nova (a style of Brazilian dance music). We got it down in one take."

Another highlight of the sessions was having Doug Riley write the string arrangement for Keelor's Beautiful. Sadly, the assignment would be one of Riley's last. The acclaimed keyboard player died of a heart attack "within a month of the session."

After the CD was finished, it was on to a promotional push with a new spin. The idea of Blue Rodeo busking all over Toronto still elicits a chuckle from Cuddy.

"We started one morning at Union Station and finished that night in front of the Air Canada Centre before a Leafs game, the day Small Miracles was released.

"Doing five or six songs at 10 locations is a lot of playing and singing. I was beat. What was funny were the few people who didn't get it. Some thought, 'Oh my God, they've been reduced to this.' "

Now all the prep work for the tour has been done, and Cuddy insists that "winter is a wonderful time to go out. And besides, it's when our loved ones need us the least."

Blue Rodeo plays Scotiabank Place Thursday. Tickets & times: capitaltickets.ca.

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"There's the shirt that I like!"

"It was nice singing with you this evening."

In the sports section? Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense! Anyone who's been to a concert knows about all the toe-tapping! Not to mention the squats, the sit-ups the push-ups, the lunges. LOL

Great article, rabbitprincess. I wonder about that last quote, though. Winter is "when our loved ones need us least"... Hmmm... It would seem to me that winter is exactly the season when you need someone to cuddle and keep you warm at night... Maybe that's just me? :/

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Well, the arts section was like four pages at the end of the sports section, so that's why I didn't notice. One of my friends told me about it and was somewhat surprised that I hadn't found it. There's also a HUGE picture of Jim at the piano. I'll see if I can upload it later.

And I agree with your wondering about that quote. Winter days, especially ones like Monday (minus 20-something with the windchill!), are MADE expressly for drinking hot chocolate and snuggling by a fire with a loved one.

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"There's the shirt that I like!"

"It was nice singing with you this evening."

Unless of course you don't have a fireplace. :p

Bring the article tonight - maybe you could get it signed! :D:D:D:D:D*

*is definitely switching to groupie mode - There are less than twelve hours left! *groupie shriek*

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Lynn Saxberg has a nice review of the show in the Citizen. Sorry about the "sponsor content" HTML garbage, folks. I can't get rid of it, because it doesn't show up in the edit window.

An extended version of the wedding-song fave was the opening tune on the veteran Canadian band's latest swing through town. It didn't take long until Jim Cuddy's sweet voice enticed everyone to sing along to the "You are the one" chorus, while Greg Keelor stretched the song out with a dramatic display of acoustic-guitar wizardry.

"It's sure is nice to be here on Valentine's Day, folks," Keelor remarked a few songs later, his silver hair resplendent against a bright red shirt. It was actually their second time booked in the hockey arena on Feb. 14. (The first was in 2003.) This time they're part-way through an extensive Canadian tour that started in Western Canada earlier in the month and heads to the Maritimes today.

The concert opened with a live vignette of an ordinary adult male listening to music in his living room. He selected an LP, put it on a record player and sat back to listen, until the band members sauntered out around him a few minutes later and took up acoustic instruments. The point, it seemed, was that music will live on, no matter what the format in which it's delivered.

While a back-to-basics band like Blue Rodeo never fits the right trend, there's always a place for songs that are well written and instruments that are well played. For the first half of the concert, the setup was spare, with acoustic guitars and no drum kit. The low-key, low-tech vibe lasted for nearly an hour, through an enjoyable selection of old-timey country songs and heart-aching Cuddy love songs.

The pace escalated abruptly as the stage curtain opened to reveal a full drum kit and pile of amps. The band members cranked it up, reaching all the way back to their 1987 debut album and pulling out a sizzling version of Joker is Wild. From the 1992 Lost Together disc came Cuddy's lovelorn Rain Down On Me, then it was back to the new album with the groovy psychedelia of Black Ribbon. By the end, Blue Rodeo members had once again proved themselves to be a diverse and talented band with a lot of great songs.

Opening the show was the electric, countryish rock of Cuff the Duke, the Oshawa quartet that usually plays a club like Barrymore's when it visits Ottawa. With close to 6,000 people in the hockey stadium, it was their biggest indoor show to date, and they rose to occasion admirably with songs from their excellent disc, Sidelines of the City.

 Lynn gets 10 awesome points for using the word "resplendent" to describe Greg.

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"There's the shirt that I like!"

"It was nice singing with you this evening."

Thanks for posting this, and I agree, resplendent surely merits ten points. :o)

My heart aches to know they are moving on to the Maritimes today. *sigh*

Great concert last night. Good article, but it doesn't quite do the show justice for those of us who were actually there, does it? ;)

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

An interview with Greg from the Halifx Chronicle Herald:

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Entertainment/1038943.html

Blue Rodeo riding high
Cuddy, Keelor and the boys return to Halifax with Small Miracles
By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter
Tue. Feb 19 - 7:02 AM

Jim Cuddy with Blue Rodeo are shown here at Oscar Peterson Place in Toronto in September 2007. The band returns to the Halifax Metro Centre on Saturday night. All tickets are $45.50 (includes tax and service charge). Call Ticket Atlantic box office at 451-1221. Cuff the Duke opens the show. This is Blue Rodeo’s third stop in Nova Scotia after performances in Antigonish and Glace Bay. (DAVID COOPER / CP)

CANADIAN ROOTS ROCK stalwarts Blue Rodeo celebrated two decades of recording with the release of its 11th studio album Small Miracles in 2007.

The title was no doubt inspired in part by the remarkable achievement of keeping a band going this long, through some of the biggest changes the music industry has seen, while the songwriting talents of founders Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor continue to flourish. Not only that, but the band’s fanbase remains strong enough to enable it to still play the large halls, like Halifax’s Metro Centre on Saturday night.

"It’s a peculiar thing," says Keelor during a snowy tour stop in Bonnyville, Alberta. "When you’re younger you can’t even imagine a band lasting this long. And once you’ve been in a band for 10 years, you start thinking that pretty soon people will stop coming to shows or stop buying the records, ’cause that just seems to be the general rule of pop music.

""Then you’re around the corner on 20, and people are still coming and buying the records, and it’s hard to figure out why that happens. I think a lot of it is just fate and luck, but there’s also a genuine friendship within the band; a shared experience that helps keep the comedy in the play.""

Blue Rodeo tested the luck of its fans when it took to the streets on the day of Small Miracles’ release, performing around Toronto in spots like Union Station and some carefully chosen corners. For those who got to see the impromptu performances, it was a welcome surprise, but the band got a lot out of the experience as well.

""We just sort of busked,"" says Keelor. ""We took our acoustic guitars, a snare drum, and the other guys had their instruments, and we went to about eight places around town, and just played on the street. It was a lot of fun.

"And it contributed to the current tour big time. The first half of the show is just us in that busking mode where we play acoustic for about a half-hour. And it’s still really fun."

That celebratory feeling carried over into another important anniversary in December, the 60th birthday of Toronto’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern, which was described more than once by co-owner Jeff Cohen as "the home of Blue Rodeo and Stompin’ Tom."

Keelor confesses it’s a bit weird to get placed on the same pedestal as that icon of Canadiana, Stompin’ Tom Connors, especially when Blue Rodeo continues to make vibrant recordings and tour the length of the country. But the honour is a palpable one.

"It’s sort of a strange place to find yourself, it didn’t even really register at the time, but when you think about it, it’s a pretty high compliment," he says.

"It’s also pretty specific to the Horseshoe; I’d like to find out who played there more. Tom did a whole month there once, which gives him almost 30 shows right off the bat, but if he played the most, we must be right behind him because we were playing there three nights a week every month for a long time."

The highlight of the Horseshoe’s anniversary was a six-night stand by Halifax’s own Joel Plaskett Emergency, plus appearances by the Skydiggers, Justin Rutledge, the Old ’97s’ Rhett Miller and Keelor’s good pals the Sadies, whom he joined on stage.

"It had a bit of that high school reunion vibe," he chuckles. "Saw so many familiar faces, people that were going to the bar when we played there.

""Of course, we played our own night, and we had the Sadies up with us. It’s such a great bar, and it has such a pleasant nostalgia for me."

There’s also a sense of nostalgia, and a hint of melancholy, around the songs Keelor contributes to Small Miracles, on contemplative songs like It Makes Me Wonder and the death ballad Black Ribbon.

The greying singer-guitarist says his recent songs came out of a concentrated burst of composing after his 2006 solo CD Aphrodite Rose used up many of the songs that had been building up over time. It required a little more discipline, but the result is some of his finest work.

""I had to get up in the morning and set myself to writing, but I kept putting it off, and when the time came when I absolutely had to start writing, I was looking after a dying dog,"" he recalls.

""It was actually a very pleasant time. It happened just before Christmas and I had to take myself out of the stream of things to look after this dog, who had cancer and needed constant care. His name’s Mojo, his picture’s in the CD booklet, and we just hung out and I wrote songs all day. So a song like Black Ribbon’s about coming from nowhere, being here for a brief time, and going back to nowhere again.""

( scooke@herald.ca)

Thanks for posting it...I find the Geg interviews so much more insightful...love this part...

""It was actually a very pleasant time. It happened just before Christmas and I had to take myself out of the stream of things to look after this dog, who had cancer and needed constant care. His name’s Mojo, his picture’s in the CD booklet, and we just hung out and I wrote songs all day. So a song like Black Ribbon’s about coming from nowhere, being here for a brief time, and going back to nowhere again.""

I agree with Joanne, and the Greg articles get me right here: <3

I had actually been wondering where that dog came from, on the cover.

I think I have dog issues. :p More on that later, in a more appropriate thread...

 

Thanks for the articles everyone! Keep 'em coming! :)

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Just came across this article and look who wrote it!!! Our very own GREATDARKWONDER!! He hasn't been around the site in quite awhile, so many of you may not be familiar with him, but still... WAY TO GO, Justin!!

 

Blue Rodeo to perform at Mile One Friday night
Music

JUSTIN BRAKE
Special to The Telegram

On a Monday afternoon, about an hour away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Greg Keelor enjoys the solitude of his farm.

In a few hours, though, he will be on stage with his band, Blue Rodeo, playing the second of two nights at a packed Hamilton Place Theatre. And after that, he will be home again to sleep in his own bed.

Following the September 2007 release of Blue Rodeo's 12th studio album, "Small Miracles," is yet another tour that will take the band to all the "corners" of Canada, as Keelor puts it, including a stop in St. John's at Mile One Centre Friday.

Though approaching middle age, Keelor, fellow front man Jim Cuddy and the rest of the band continue to uphold their reputation of relentless touring. The fact that they've criss-crossed the country too many times to count attests to their dedication to their fans and commitment to their careers. It's also just something they love to do, a calm and confident Keelor explains on the phone from his farm.

"When Jim and I finished high school we bought an old school bus and fixed it up - put in a propane stove and a furnace and built bunks in the back," explains Keelor, reminiscing of the early days of travelling. "With a couple of our buddies we drove out West to hang out in the mountains."

So many years later, the same sense of adventure still applies to the two songwriters. And the rest of the band seems to share the sentiment.

In fact, after a quarter-century, one might expect relationships which have endured good and bad times to hinder the very existence of a band. It's quite the opposite for Blue Rodeo though.

On "Small Miracles" Keelor and Cuddy, who share creative control of the band, decided to approach the record-making process differently than in the past.

"There was a lot of collaboration," says Keelor. "Everybody was itching to get their ideas out and stuff. There are some times when I sort of feel that the songs should just be the way they are, and I don't really want to collaborate too much. I would just rather let the songs speak to themselves. But this time people wanted to change arrangements and add different things and it all sort of contributed to a better feel for the record, so I think Jim and I were a little more open to it."

The result is 13 new tracks which fans and critics alike are hailing as brilliant, and a change in direction from other recent albums which didn't spawn the same kind of radio material as the 1990s releases.

In fact, everything surrounding the album and tour seems to have given them a shot in the arm. This could be in part the result of Keelor and Cuddy releasing solo records between Blue Rodeo projects; somewhat of a refresher for the pair, says Keelor.

"I think that's one reason why we felt more inclined to make a band record," he explains. "You know, doing a solo record, you sort of get your own way all the time. So when we came back to the band, we were quite willing to let everybody have their kick at the can."

Part of the changes are the duo's decision to present stripped-down versions of their songs in an acoustic set during the first half of the band's show on the tour.

"When we released this record we did a whole pile of busking around Toronto," Keelor explains. "We enjoyed that so much that we thought we should incorporate it into the show, so the first half of the show is just Jim and I on acoustic guitars and Glenn just plays the snare drum ... and we just sing a whole pile of songs. It's just bare bones and down to basics."

For the second half of the show, the band reverts to its old self and plays new and old favourites, like "Hasn't Hit Me Yet," "C'Mon," and "Lost Together."

"Sometimes it's just like a big campfire and the audience is singing as loud as we are," Keelor attests. "We're very lucky to be in that position."

Cuff The Duke, a band from Oshawa, Ont. who has been making a splash on the Canadian indie scene, will open for Blue Rodeo.

 

Jim Cuddy (left) and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo are caught on stage at a recent concert. — Photo by Justin Brake/Special to The Telegram

Thanks so much for posting this, Bluegirl!

An excellent article and a wonderful picture too, if I do say so myself! :D:D:D

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Nice to hear something from Justin, even if it is in a roundabout way! Thanx, Lori! I love the line "Though approaching middle age...." (Works for me! hehehe )

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I talk to you, you talk to me
And in my heart I've been set free ~ Shannon Lyon

...then curl up by the fire and sleep for awhile,
it's the grooviest thing, it's the perfect dream ~ The Cure

Keep it simple