debut album of 1987 was the Canadian success story of the past year. The quintessential "little band that grew," Blue Rodeo rode the wave of integrity out of their Toronto/Queen St. roots to Double Platinum Canadian sales, and onward to international acclaim while picking up almost every Canadian award available along the way.
After two years and hundreds of gigs Blue Rodeo have now emerged with a stunning second album.
in two major ways: the cohesiveness of the band is even more apparent after working together night after night, and the subsequently compatible, though unusual, recording environment left its mark as well.
"We're a much better live band after hundreds of shows together," explains singer/songwriter Jim Cuddy. "That better musicianship along with an un-intimidating recording atmosphere really shows on this record."
The "un-intimidating atmosphere" was an old movie theatre in the east end of Toronto which had been partially gutted in the process of renovation. Using the Comfort Sound Mobile studio facility, Blue Rodeo made this old theatre their home for three weeks of recording in December of '88. Chairs were brought in from home, sleeping bags draped over chairs were used as sound baffles and even a Christmas tree was brought in to complete the homey environment.
"The theatre sounded better - it had natural echo you don't get in a recording studio," Cuddy noted, "plus it allowed us to set up as a band instead of in separate booths. Since we operate best as a unit playing live, we wanted to try and duplicate that on the record."
Co-singer songwriter Greg Keelor continues, "We wanted to be in a place where we could set up and take all the time we wanted and feel relaxed. Most recording studios are built to absorb sound and we found it can have the same effect on the individual - it draws the energy out of you." The Blue Rodeo line up remains the same for
, with Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor playing guitar and trading lead and harmony vocals. They are complimented by an airtight rhythm section with Cleave Anderson on drums and Bazil Donovan on bass. Keyboard wildman Bobby Wiseman is featured on accordion as well as organ this time out.
was produced by the band along with engineer Malcolm Burn. As a recording artist himself, both solo and with The Boys Brigade, Burn was able to get the best from Blue Rodeo without overpowering them. Most recently Malcolm has worked as chief engineer with Canadian studio wiz Daniel Lanois, an apprenticeship noticeable in the warm sounds of
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is the title cut, an eerie tribute to love lost, written and sung by Greg Keelor. It's also the subject of this album's first video directed by Michael Buckley. This video was filmed at McWaters & Assoc. Studios in Toronto -- the same company responsible for previous Blue Rodeo clips.
, Blue Rodeo were called "Toronto's best kept secret" by the local press, then "Canada's best kept secret" as the single "Try' became a multi-format hit.
Jim Cuddy: "'Try' was a big surprise for us; it took us into the mainstream where we never expected to be. Obviously there is some pressure to follow up with another hit but we never record with that in mind. We'd like to keep the momentum going but not at the expense of our integrity as a band or as individuals."
The band have already gathered praise from international press both for their live show and for
. Rolling Stone enthused "the best new American band may very well be Canadian," while Billboard Magazine and the prestigious Guardian newspaper in the UK raved about Blue Rodeo's live performances on both sides of the Atlantic.
in April 1989 "Canada's best kept secret" will embark on national and international tours to tell the rest of the world what Canada already knows.
Casino
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Til I Am Myself Again |
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2.
What Am I Doing Here |
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3.
5 A.M. (A Love Song) |
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4.
Montreal |
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5.
Last Laugh |
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6.
Trust Yourself |
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7.
Two Tongues |
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8.
Time |
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9.
After The Rain |
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10.
You're Everywhere |
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About The Album
Singer/songwriter guitarist Jim Cuddy, who with Greg Keelor forms the backbone of the Toronto quintet Blue Rodeo, laughs as he recalls how the band's collaboration with producer Pete Anderson began. "When we first went into the studio, I asked him what he thought of our last album,
Diamond Mine. And he said, 'Man, I tried, but I just couldn't get through it!'"
The creative dialogue between two somewhat different approaches - Anderson's and that of a group who grew from being Queen Street's favorite bar band to one of the nation's best-selling acts - has proven to be a fruitful one indeed. Recorded in the spring of 1990,
Casino is the follow-up to two multi-award-winning, double-platinum successes - 1987's dark-horse favorite
Outskirts and 1988's
Diamond Mine.
Choosing Anderson, who is well known for his work with Dwight Yoakam, Michelle Shocked and others, was a simple process. Says Cuddy, "We wanted to make this record with somebody who really knew how to record guitars, and how to make a record that had the best qualities of the '60s and '70s. We listened to the records that we liked - Neil Young, the Beatles - and tried to pick out of them some kind of direction. There's an enormous effect that these songs have on you from the very first second you hear them. The singing is so 'in your face', the guitars are really loud - these were the production values we were after. The next step was putting a wish list of producers together, and we came up with Pete."
Casino was recorded at Los Angeles' Capitol Studios, the hallowed halls of the '60s where Frank Sinatra cut "My Way" and the Beach Boys recorded all their classic material. The studio was also the site for the remastering of all the Beatles records for America. "The room that we recorded in was about as high tech as the '50s spaceship in 'Lost in Space'", observes Cuddy, "but the boards have a very warm sound. In contrast, we mixed in a room with all the toys, so our studio work was a combination of really old stuff - old compressors, old mics - and the new. A composite of all the best things."
Whereas
Diamond Mine was an ambitious, lengthy effort recorded in an old Toronto theatre,
Casino is a deliberately focused album, bearing the hallmarks of classic pop in sound and scope. Says Cuddy, "On
Diamond Mine, what we were going for was vibe, directed toward spaciousness and mood, and the playing was all subservient to that. But with
Casino, we wanted to make a real pop record, condensed, distilled and intact."
"The first night we went down to Los Angeles," recalls Cuddy, "Greg and I took acoustic guitars over to Pete's, and we arranged all the songs. Some of his suggestions were pretty radical - taking choruses and switching them to verses, for example." Adds Keelor: "That night was a pretty drastic one. Pete had a really clear idea of what he wanted to do. As a songwriter, there's always a certain paranoid response to other people's suggestions, but it started to make sense on the drive home." Their work with Anderson, Keelor and Cuddy conclude, produced a fusion of the band's expansiveness and experimentation, and the producer's love of conciseness.
Given two singer-songwriters with distinct lyrical and vocal styles, each of whom have their champions amongst the legions of Blue Rodeo fans, previous producers have tended to favour one over the other. Anderson, on the other hand, did not. "For some reason there was no friction on this record," says Cuddy. "There was no sense of one person being favoured more over the other, which always sounds so childish to even mention, but it's so much a part of the creative process."
"In retrospect it's a bit embarrassing, the things you thought were so important. But we went into this record knowing that we were going to sing a lot together and work a lot together, and there was a greater merger of ideas. We wanted to get back into the principle of being a single unit, Greg and I." Adds Keelor: "The fact that the vocals on this album sound so great is partly that they were recorded beautifully, but also because we were singing together so much more. We worked hard at getting our two voices matched up well."
Blue Rodeo's musical trademarks are as much the result of the band's other three members as they are of its two principals. As Cuddy is quick to point out, "We are not great guitarists. Greg only began playing when he was twenty, so in terms of the music guitar world, he started when he was ancient. But Bobby is definitely a musician, and whenever we make a record, the producers say, 'Bazil's the best musician in the band'. Mark is somebody who has devoted his life to playing drums, and knows them inside out." Indeed, an integral part of the band's sound has always been the inventive keyboard abilities (some would say genius) of BOB WISEMAN, who is a producer and solo artist in his own right, and whose critically acclaimed debut album,
In Her Dream, was released in Canada and the United States in 1990. Bassist BAZIL DONOVAN's long experience in both rock and country dovetails neatly with Blue Rodeo's variety of musical influences, and drummer MARK FRENCH (who replaced original sticksman Cleave Anderson in 1989) rounds out the fivesome.
For a band who never sought to be musical perfectionists, Blue Rodeo has a strange reputation, particularly south of the border. As Jim Cuddy recounts, "In the US they say, 'Well, you're obviously players! And that always makes us laugh, because there were a lot of times Pete joked that he had to leave the room because he couldn't STAND the way we were playing guitar. To him, there's only one way to play the guitar, but to us, there's also an expressive way to play, and that's what we like. Players are guys that learn the techniques of playing and know how to do it exactly. Neil Young is not a player by those standards, but he plays guitar the way we'd like to ... I think what people mean when they talk about players is that there's an honesty to the music. It's not doctored in order to create an impression that's anything other than, 'This is what it will sound like when these five guys play live'. We use the honest approach, warts and all."
"Til I Am Myself Again", the first single to be taken from Casino, is supported with a video clip directed by Toronto's Marsha Herle, and was shot in the seedy, century-old Winchester Hotel in that city. A concise, guitar-driven pop song, it sets the tone for the album with its blend of despair and, eventually, resolve. "I've never lived in a hotel in a small town, but the despair in that song is real, even if the setting isn't," says Cuddy. "I don't think
Casino is as cynical as
Diamond Mine." Keelor is typically succinct, adding, "
Diamond Mine wasn't a party record, whereas
Casino could be."
A song which will be familiar to many of Blue Rodeo's live audiences is the wry "What Am I Doing Here"; the ferris wheel in the song even reappears as a ghostly presence on the album cover. Relates Keelor, "That song is about an infamous gig we did at the Erie County Fair just outside Buffalo. We'd been on the road far too long, and we were playing on a dirt racetrack, last on the bill after seven high school groups in a battle of the bands contest. By then there was hardly anyone left - maybe 200 high school students who were more interested in drinking and throwing up than they were in watching us. I'd look around at the rest of the band and every one of them was just playing away, staring at the ferris wheel going around and around, and it sure seemed like a good metaphor for us; a circle going nowhere!"
While there is little overt political commentary on
Casino, the band (particularly Keelor and Wiseman) has never shied away from social observation. Their work for many causes has included benefits for anti-nuclear and disarmament groups and, this year, a trip to the Stein Valley Festival in British Columbia where the country's biggest stars performed in aid of the endangered West Coast rainforest. The band has also spoken out in favour of native rights, with Keelor and Cuddy recently appeared at a native arts organization's arts festival near Oka, Quebec, site of recent land claims protests.
As Keelor told Music Express in a recent interview, "You have to feel inspired about something to write a song: you can't just manufacture one. We are concerned with native rights, the environment, disarmament, so we love playing benefits for those causes. It's good for us, because we don't have time to go out and throw tomatoes at political leaders!" However, Keelor cautioned in the same interview, "I don't understand rock stars coming on as role models in a moralistic way. My rock stars are those who encourage you to turn on, tune out and steal daddy's car. Those are still my heroes, and that's how I feel about rock n' roll. But now rock n' roll has become trivialized. It's on every commercial." R
Recent highlights of Blue Rodeo's career have been well documented in the press, both in Canada and abroad; a 1989 German tour with Edie Brickell and New Bohemians; an appearance that summer at the Montreux Jazz Festival; strong UK reviews for their recorded output and live London performances; two successive Juno Awards (1989 and 1990) as Canadian Band of the Year, and a nationally televised performance at those awards in 1989 with Robbie Robertson and the Band. This year, Blue Rodeo was seen briefly on the silver screen as Meryl Streep's backing band (in her guise as an actress-cum-country singer) in the film,
Postcards From The Edge. While group members are the first to crack jokes about the length of their movie debut, what is most significant about the appearance is that it was at Streep's request: she became a fan after her chauffeur played a Blue Rodeo tape during Streep's rides back and forth to the set from her Connecticut home. And, unlike most musical performances in film, which are mimed and lip-synched, both Streep and Blue Rodeo played live.
As awards and critical plaudits continue to come the band's way here in Canada, Blue Rodeo is set to take another swing at the world, and particularly the United States, where
Casino will be the first release on the new Atlantic affiliate label, East/West America. A national Canadian tour begins in January and is slated to cover all ten provinces and Labrador. Added to recent appearances in both northern territories, the band is now one of the country's best-traveled; having notched up well over 250 gigs a year since their debut February 14, 1985 at Toronto's legendary Horseshoe, they may be the best live draw in Canadian rock.
As Jim Cuddy told Music Express, success in other territories, while it appears ever closer, is not a holy grail. "I don't lie awake thinking, 'Oh God, I want a million-selling record' ... I see our music as more personal than top-of-the-charts music, so I see small advances as big advances." In the meantime, Casino looks like a determined new stop in the Blue Rodeo direction.
Album Number: 4
Release Date: July 7, 1992
Label: WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's
Lost Together
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Fools Like You |
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2.
Rain Down On Me |
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3.
Restless |
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4.
Western Skies |
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5.
The Big Push |
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6.
Willin' Fool |
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7.
Already Gone |
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8.
Flying |
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9.
Lost Together |
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10.
Where Are You Now |
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11.
Last To Know |
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12.
Is It You |
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13.
Angels |
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About The Album
Lost Together is the first album that Blue Rodeo has recorded that does indeed speak for itself. With three platinum-plus albums already under their belts, the group decided that the time had come to make a record exactly the way they wanted to - so they produced it themselves. The result is an album that freely exhibits all of the textures that Blue Rodeo have become known for.
"We were talking to producers about working on this album," says singer/guitarist Jim Cuddy. "But then we started thinking, why are we trying to make someone else understand what we want? The time had come for us to plow ahead."
Working with engineer Peter Doell (who worked with the band on their
Casino LP), the group recorded
Lost Together during the winter of '92 in Toronto and mixed in Los Angeles. The album's thirteen tracks run the gamut sonically from out and out rockers ("Restless" and "Where Are You Now") to beautiful ballads ("Already Gone" and the album's first single, "Lost Together") to extended "space jams" ("Angels" & "Willin' Fools"). The band's pure pop sensibilities shine through on songs such as "The Big Push" and "Flying", while the addition of pedal steel guitarist Kim Deschamps (formerly of The Cowboy Junkies) to the group's line-up adds an ethereal dimension to songs such as "Rain Down On Me" and "Last To Know". But, it is the unique harmonies of the group's main songwriters Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy that most define these diverse styles as the "Blue Rodeo sound".
After completing his parts on the album, longtime keyboardist Bobby Wiseman left the band to pursue his career as a producer and artist in his own right. With the addition of Kim Deschamps, keyboardist James Gray and powerhouse drummer Glenn Milchem, Blue Rodeo hasn't missed a step, becoming an even more awesome live act. Critics have noted that this new line-up offers a more raw and aggressive sound than ever before.
Album Number: 5
Release Date: October 26, 1993
Label: Discovery Records
Five Days In July
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
5 Days In May |
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2.
Hasn't Hit Me Yet |
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3.
Bad Timing |
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4.
Cynthia |
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5.
Photograph |
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6.
What Is This Love |
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7.
English Bay |
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8.
Head Over Heels |
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9.
Til I Gain Control Again |
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10.
Dark Angel |
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11.
Know Where You Go/ Tell Me Your Dreams |
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About The Album
"It's great. I get up in the morning. Walk downstairs. Have a coffee. Play my bass. Next thing you know it's midnight. I don't have to walk more than fifty feet a day if I don't want to." - Bazil Donovan
This record started out as a demo. Jim and I had been talking and thought it would be nice to hang out at the farm awhile, play, possibly even record an EP. The funny thing about this band and recording is that when we start rehearsing for a record we make these blaster tapes, and even though the sound quality is a little trashy, they have a great vibe. The songs are fresh, everyone is working on a part, learning the songs; there is a feel to those tapes, relaxed, almost tossed off but still intense.
The next stop for us is to do a demo to help us realize the arrangements, as well as send copies to the record company so they can hear what we're up to. We make these tapes live to DAT and, again, I love the energy on these tapes. I can feel us playing together and the songs are new enough that the spontaneity is still alive in them.
Finally, we get around to making "the record". We head into a studio, hire a producer and start recording in the conventional way by layering the drums, bass, etc., etc. I both enjoy and hate this method and have always liked our blaster rehearsal tapes the best. I've often wished we could release those tapes as they really capture the sound of the band (I've always liked those records that were made before multi-tracking changed the process). So when Jim called me in April '93 and suggested that we bring the Comfort Sound Truck out to the farm to demo our new stuff, I thought "Great!"; we'd be able to rehearse and record everything live on track and I'd get to stay at home. Great idea.
The farm is a comfortable place to hang out. It's about an hour's drive Northeast of Toronto, close enough to be accessible but it feels a world apart. It's a big old farmhouse with lots of bedrooms, a pond, fields, the moon, the trees and the stars with fireflies and Northern Lights. So in June of '93 we all moved out to the farm - the band, families and friends. We set up in the living room - Mimi and Mark cooked, people hung out and we played music. It was great to make music in this atmosphere, people always walking around and the sun coming in the windows.
Bazil was in charge of quality control and each day when we finished, we'd listen back to what we had recorded. It quickly became apparent that the quieter songs (the songs where Glenn was playing with brushes, James was pounding away on an upright piano built in 1906, Kim was in his corner on Dobro or Dreamsteel, Bazil on rock steady bass and Jim and I on acoustic guitar), those were the songs that captured the spirit of what it felt like to be sitting in that room playing music.
So we decided, forget the demo, forget the EP, this is a record! At first we thought we'd get real fancy and record an acoustic record, and then an electric record and release them a month apart. But we reconsidered and decided to concentrate on the record before you now. This album was recorded in 5 days, between July 5 and July 9, at the pace of two songs per day (except "Dark Angel" and "Tell Me Your Dream", which were recorded in Manta Eastern Sound's studio 3 with Sarah McLachlan on August 16).
Knowing that we had enough material to do an electric record allowed us the freedom to commit to an acoustic record (or should I say that Glenn agreed to do a whole record playing with brushes, knowing we'd soon make a record in a style he was more accustomed to). Everyone in the band had to commit to this idea, and everyone played and listened with their whole heart and being. I think this record captures, on 24 track, what I've always enjoyed best about our blaster rehearsal tapes, with the songs and playing remaining fresh and spontaneous. I'd like to stress that this is not another fucking unplugged record, not some lame reworking of our catalogue to make a quick buck. This record was made this way because we needed something to challenge us as musicians and satisfy us as songwriters.
And lastly, praise be to the strength of woman. Not only does she suffer the pain to bring us into this glorious mess, she also teaches us and inspires us to love. Love is the one thing that all life is a preparation for.
We were very fortunate to have some very musical friends join us and contribute their amazing energy on this record. Sarah McLachlan is an immense talent. Her voice and musicality are transcendent, her generosity overwhelming and it is a joy to be in her company. Anne Bourne is an inspiring and calming presence. Her confidence and musical sense of adventure would inspire any musician to play beyond themselves. I cannot thank either of them, along with all the musicians who performed on this record, enough for their gifted and generous souls.
- Greg Keelor
Album Number: 6
Release Date: August 29, 1995
Label: WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's
Nowhere To Here
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Save Myself |
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2.
Girl In Green |
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3.
What You Want |
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4.
Side Of The Road |
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5.
Better Off As We Are |
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6.
Sky |
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7.
Brown Eyed Dog |
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8.
Blew It Again |
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9.
Get Through To You |
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10.
Armour |
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11.
Train |
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12.
Flaming Bed |
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About The Album
A band that sustains a career spanning five albums learns about the nature of relationships, and the weight and stress those connections can bear. They understand that even more than friends and lovers, the band becomes your family. After countless nights spent both in front of cheering fans and down long sleepless highways, camaraderie becomes a bulwark against the world, a place of musical respite where the psyche can be free to roam and create.
On
Nowhere to Here, Blue Rodeo explores emotional landscapes in all their joy, wonder and disillusionment. Best known for their unique synthesis of country, rock and folk, the band actually transcends such easy categorizations. Their new batch of songs ranges from ethereal moodiness ("Save Myself") to R&B tinges country ("Better Off As We Are"), from
Abbey Road styles epics ("Brown Eyed Dog") to sparse hymnal sketches ("Flaming Bed"). Though their sunny songs still captivate, it's the darker songs, with their longing and space, that make a lasting impression.
"There are emotional seasons," says Greg Keelor, one half of the band's songwriting team. "The last album (
Five Days in July) was very bright. Then we spent two years on the road, and our relationships and our lives were changing. Music is always a catharsis for me and I've found that it takes a certain amount of strength to go into the valley of the shadow. The song becomes a ladder that allows you a descent in and a way out as well. Sometimes you've got to dig a tunnel."
The dark beauty that infuses
Nowhere to Here is part of what ties Blue Rodeo together as players and people. "It's a place that we always exist in as writers and musicians," says co-songwriter Jim Cuddy. "You get in touch with that well of pain. In everybody's psyche there's a certain reservoir of sad memories. The aural traditions of poetry have always created a landscape where there's a lot of isolation and anxiety, all contrasted against something that helps you survive."
Like all the great ensembles, from The Band to The Meters to the Stones, Blue Rodeo possesses that increasingly rare talent for making music that breathes with the passion of living. With Keelor and Cuddy handling the vocals and guitars, drummer Glenn Milchem, keyboardist James Gray, steel guitarist Kim Deschamps, and bassist Bazil Donovan make their music flow like surges in a river.
The band handles powerful, majestic passages with skill and tosses off driving grooves with ease. "In the past three years we"ve actually learned how to communicate," says Keelor. "When writing for this record, I realized how good the band is. We have a certain weight and gravity. We trust each other as players and that allows us to have space in the music. And it was good to write some songs that were more spacious and sculpted, rather than jingle, jangle, jingle."
The previous
Five Days in July was an all-acoustic bit of country-folk revelry, a time for the band to blow off steam after a long tour.
Nowhere To Here is an admittedly different animal. "We're conscious that our last record was the end of one conversation and this is the beginning of another," says Cuddy. "We're aware of that bridge. But we've always been into hard contrasts. We've borrowed arrangements and ideas from rock. It's pretty hard to get new ideas from country. It's a good way to express pain and sadness. Somehow the sounds of the music are soothing enough that it makes it okay to be screwed up."
Blue Rodeo began out of Keelor and Cuddy's high school friendship. After a brief New York stint in the mid-80's, the pair returned to Canada and eventually recorded their Blue Rodeo debut,
Outskirts. Diamond Mine, Casino, and
Lost Together followed to much acclaim, both at home and abroad. From Rolling Stone to Musician to Kentucky's Courier Journal, the reviews have been universally outstanding. Although the U.S. market has been slow to catch their fire, Blue Rodeo continues to make splendid music. And somehow that's all that matters.
"There's a certain point in a band's evolution where you realize your instincts are in sync," says Cuddy. "That's the lifeblood of this band. Our evolution is something that captivates us. It's interesting to contemplate how far a band can go. Playing together feels really good to us." - Ken Micallef
Release Date: February 4, 2007
Label: WEA Canada
Gone
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
When I See You |
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2.
Redemption |
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3.
All Our Heroes |
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4.
Gone |
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5.
Blue Star |
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6.
Home |
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7.
No Landing |
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8.
White Marble Ganesh |
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9.
Star of the Show |
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10.
Heaven |
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About The Album
Greg started working on this album, which was recorded in the fall of 1996, at a time in his life when he was going through a series of changes.
First he found out he was adopted. Then he discovered his birth name, and eventually, his birth mother. Around the same time, he suffered a fall from a ladder that triggered the onset of diabetes.
With all these experiences, Keelor found he had something to say. And that he had to say it alone.
"I was on the plane coming home from India in May of '96," Keelor recalls. "I realized that it was something I wanted to get out of my system. I had written some songs and they had a certain catharsis in them. After six weeks of sitting with the Guru, I felt that if I had died on that plane I'd have this desire to come back and do a solo album ... this lingering thing that would draw me back."
This is Keelor's first solo album, but certainly not his first triumph. In the last decade Keelor and his songwriting partner Jim Cuddy, along with their band Blue Rodeo, have recorded some of the most popular songs on radio. Blue Rodeo had sold more than two million records world-wide.
Album Number: 7
Release Date: July 9, 1997
Label: WEA/Sire/Discovery/Antone's
Tremolo
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Moon & Tree |
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2.
Shed My Skin |
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3.
No Miracle, No Dazzle |
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4.
Falling Down Blue |
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5.
I Could Never Be That Man |
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6.
Beautiful Blue |
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7.
Fallen From Grace |
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8.
Me & Baz |
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9.
Disappear |
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10.
It Could Happen To You |
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11.
Dragging On |
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12.
Brother Andre's Heart |
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13.
Frogs' Lullaby |
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14.
Graveyard |
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About The Album
Having clocked countless miles in their decade-long career, through enough endless highways and stuffy studio sessions to fill an epic documentary, the songs of multi-platinum-selling artist Blue Rodeo have cut a wide path in Canada. But after such hit albums as
Five Days In July and
Nowhere To Here, the band found a way (as well as a need) to reinvent themselves, and their music.
"For
Tremolo, the band had no knowledge of the songs before we entered the studio," says songwriter-vocalist Jim Cuddy. "We just went in without a lot of rehearsal and cut a song a day. We get too caught up in ideas and conceptualizing when we think too much. Our instincts are pretty good. If we go with that, it will be something we'll all like. We did very little talking this time. Otherwise, we're six individuals with very different ideas about music. So we trusted our intuition. First thought, best thought."
When we first started, we (Jim and I) were living in the same house and just sort of hanging out all the time. Neither of us really knew much about songwriting - we hadn't written too many - so we learned through imitation and putting the parts we had come up with together into songs. For the first few years we sat in certain bedrooms and basements just writing and putting these pieces of songs together.
As we got more comfortable with our abilities, we were able to write on our own and then bring songs to each other in rehearsal and start arranging and editing them there.
For some reason, the recorded version of a song is the definitive one, but as you play these songs over a period of time, they go through a lot of changes.
We recorded over 60 shows on our last tour plus two more we did at Stratford, Ont, which were really great because we'd been listening to all the tapes, so, of the 22 songs on this record, 9 are from Stratford and the rest from everywhere else.
You can really hear us playing together with the energy of the audience and really interacting with each other as musicians.... so yeah, I guess the old records might sound a little stiff in comparison... but the energy of a live concert... that's a whole other thing.
Listening to all these songs and looking back over our career, we realized that, despite it all, it's been just like a vacation... I mean, think about it, writing and singing songs... who wouldn't want to do that every day?
- Greg Keelor
Bob Egan
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Forgiveness |
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2.
You Could Barely Hold Your Life Together |
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3.
Comin' Down Hard |
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4.
I Could Be Wrong |
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5.
Someday |
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6.
Take Me Back Again |
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7.
Everytime |
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8.
I Don't Understand |
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9.
My Maker and Me |
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10.
Fall From The Sky |
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11.
Satellite |
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About The Album
Recorded at KingSize Sounds in Chicago and Private Studios in Urbana, Illinois.
In true rock and roll fashion I maxed out three credit cards and the generosity of many friendly musicians to make this record. They say the first one is the hardest.
Satellite was the last song to be recorded and I could not get comfortable singing it. I tried a lot of approaches but it just wouldn't sit in the track right. Finally I used a technique I heard that Lennon used - I laid flat on my back in a dark room with my eyes closed and the microphone less than an inch from my lips.
Release Date: February 15, 1999
Label: WEA
All In Time
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Second Son |
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2.
Whistler |
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3.
Disappointment |
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4.
Too Many Hands |
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5.
New Year's Eve |
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6.
All In Time |
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7.
Slide Through Your Hands |
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8.
I'll Make Believe It's You |
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9.
Trouble |
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10.
Making My Way To You |
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11.
Everybody Cries |
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About The Album
Even before it hits the street,
All In Time, the debut solo album from Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy has become one of 1998's most eagerly anticipated releases. The album gives fans a further glimpse inside a man who has become renowned as one-half of Canada's most popular songwriting team.
All In Time was recorded at Toronto's Chemical Sound studio with long-time Blue Rodeo engineer John Whynot helping Jim in the producer's seat. The album's eleven tracks were culled from close to twenty written specifically for the album.
"It was a very good writing year for me," recalls Cuddy. "I knew that I wanted to create songs with a specific sound in mind. I wanted my album to have fiddle driven songs. 'Second Son' is a good example of that."
Because of Blue Rodeo's demanding recording and touring schedules, Jim's album was recorded casually during breaks in the band's itinerary. As a result Jim had the luxury of distance to assess the progress his own record was making and how close it was to his initial vision of "a countrified album that rocks."
"After making
Tremolo, I went back to my album and realized that I needed to balance the softer songs I'd already recorded. That's when harder edged songs like 'All In Time' were written."
Joining Jim in the studio was a core band that included Gavin Brown on drums, Colin Cripps on guitars and vocals and Blue Rodeo's Bazil Donovan on bass.
"I've had the luck of becoming friends with some remarkably talented people over the years," says Jim. "With this album I wanted to indulge myself by working with as many as I could, and that included Sally Davies who designed the artwork."
Since there was no particular time schedule pushing them along, a comfortable atmosphere in the studio allowed for special guests to drop in from time to time. Noted Maritimes violinist Melanie Doane lends a hand as do Michelle McAdorey (Crash Vegas) and Sarah Harmer (Weeping Tile). When Jim needed keyboards he needed to look no further then stage left, recruiting James Gray from Blue Rodeo. And when Wilco's Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy came to Toronto to promote their own album,
Being There, they were more then happy to pop into the studio to offer guitar, banjo, piano and vocals where needed.
"
Being There was definitely one of the inspirations for this album and Jeff and Jay ending up on the album was just one of those perfect coincidences. Who would have thought that these two guys, tired from a full day of promoting their own album, would allow themselves to get dragged out to a studio to record with a stranger?"
In the end, the song they helped out on, "I'll Make Believe It's You," (sung as a duet by Jim and Jeff) is one of
All In Time's many highlights.
All In Time has given Jim the freedom to experiment with his creativity.
"I wanted to see if I could be the sole guide to a record. I developed into the songwriter that I am by being in this partnership. If anything, the solo experience has made just sitting down easier for Blue Rodeo."
In the end,
All In Time sounds like what it is, a collection of great songs recorded by a bunch of friends having a good time. Jim Cuddy couldn't have picked a more appropriate way to step out on his own.
Album Number: 8
Release Date: June 8, 1999
Label: WEA
Just Like A Vacation
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Til I Am Myself Again (live) |
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2.
What Am I Doing Here (live) |
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3.
Better Off As We Are (live) |
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4.
Floating (live) |
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5.
After The Rain (live) |
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6.
Fallen From Grace (live) |
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7.
The Ballad of The Dime Store Greaser and The Blonde Mona Lisa (live) |
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8.
It Could Happen To You (live) |
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9.
Girl In Green (live) |
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10.
Try (live) |
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11.
Trust Yourself (live) |
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12.
Dark Angel (live) |
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13.
Cynthia (live) |
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14.
Montreal (live) |
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15.
Piranha Pool (live) |
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16.
Bad Timing (live) |
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17.
5 Days In May (live) |
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18.
Hasn't Hit Me Yet (live) |
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19.
Diamond Mine (live) |
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20.
Falling Down Blue (live) |
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21.
Lost Together (live) |
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22.
Florida (live) |
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About The Album
When we first started, we (Jim and I) were living in the same house and just sort of hanging out all the time. Neither of us really knew much about songwriting - we hadn't written too many - so we learned through imitation and putting the parts we had come up with together into songs. For the first few years we sat in certain bedrooms and basements just writing and putting these pieces of songs together.
As we got more comfortable with our abilities, we were able to write on our own and then bring songs to each other in rehearsal and start arranging and editing them there.
For some reason, the recorded version of a song is the definitive one, but as you play these songs over a period of time, they go through a lot of changes.
We recorded over 60 shows on our last tour plus two more we did at Stratford, Ont, which were really great because we'd been listening to all the tapes, so, of the 22 songs on this record, 9 are from Stratford and the rest from everywhere else.
You can really hear us playing together with the energy of the audience and really interacting with each other as musicians.... so yeah, I guess the old records might sound a little stiff in comparison... but the energy of a live concert... that's a whole other thing.
Listening to all these songs and looking back over our career, we realized that, despite it all, it's been just like a vacation... I mean, think about it, writing and singing songs... who wouldn't want to do that every day?
-- Greg Keelor
Album Number: 9
Release Date: January 11, 2000
Label: Warner
The Days In Between
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Cinema Song |
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2.
The Seeker |
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3.
Begging You To Let Me In |
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4.
Bitter Fruit |
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5.
Somebody Waits |
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6.
Andrea |
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7.
Sad Nights |
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8.
This Road |
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9.
The Days In Between |
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10.
Always Getting Better |
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11.
Rage |
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12.
Truscott |
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About The Album
If the career of a band is looked upon as a journey, then Blue Rodeo has arrived somewhere truly special with the release of their ninth album
The Days in Between. "We didn't want anything to seem tossed off with this album. We'd done that before - and it's nice to know, as a band, that you're able to do that - but we realized we wanted something different this time," acknowledges front man Jim Cuddy. Blue Rodeo is one of those bands that is particular about where and how an album is recorded, with atmospheres and personalities always woven into the end result.
The Days In Between, is quite simply the group's most finely textured work yet. "We worked harder on this album than any in a long time," said Cuddy. "We really wanted to make a record that was a bit of statement for us." There is an undeniable writing chemistry between Jim Cuddy and co-frontman Greg Keelor, but it's also one that becomes alchemic and strained often, like any creative coupling that cares deeply about a singular end result.
The Days In Between showcases their talents with an astounding depth and beauty seen in brilliant flashes on previous releases.
The Days In Between was recorded at the fabled Kingsway Studio, a vast, ancient mansion that graces a hard part of New Orleans. It was producer Daniel Lanois' home studio before he went south to Teatro in Oxnard, Cal., and Lanois still owns it. Kingsway is a special place, to be sure. Emmylou Harris' haunting, gorgeous
Wrecking Ball album was built there, as was much of U2's more prominent work. Peter Gabriel's best solo work was recorded within those walls, as was Luscious Jackson's terrific
Fever In Fever Out. Neil Young is also very familiar with the sprawling, rustic haunt. "It's an amazing place," says Cuddy. "There's nothing but records made in that place. No soundtracks, no commercials, it's just a pure music place. The atmosphere you hear on Emmy's album is that house in New Orleans."
For the album's production work, the band was very fortunate to have lined up producer and recording engineer Trina Shoemaker. Shoemaker is one of a stable of engineers that benefited from working with Lanois. Blue Rodeo, it turns out, benefited from impeccable timing with Shoemaker. They had scheduled their first meeting with Shoemaker for a Tuesday. On the previous Monday evening, Shoemaker had copped a Grammy for her work on Sheryl Crow's outstanding
Globe Sessions album. Shoemaker, incidentally, also helped on Harris'
Wrecking Ball. The band's fears that Shoemaker would no longer be available due to her Grammy win were soon put to rest. "She assured us that she had the time set aside, " says Cuddy. "Trina is a spectacularly talented person who pays no attention to 'the business'."
With Shoemaker, a slight figure with a mighty work ethic, Cuddy, Keelor, bassist Bazil Donovan, drummer Glenn Milchem, keyboard player James Gray, and pedal steel guitarist Kim Deschamps were about to discover the true depth of her talent. Cuddy had some trepidation initially about going to Kingsway, where Blue Rodeo had recorded their second album,
Diamond Mine, in 1989. "We wanted this album to be the antithesis of Diamond Mine, and Trina put the right vibe in. She was a bit of a revelation to us."
Like Lanois, Shoemaker works from the slightest detail, with the seemingly insignificant taking on great importance. Cuddy points to the heavy maracas that set off Crow's "Favorite Mistake," and, to the little piece that opens "Begging You To Let Me In" on Blue Rodeo's new disc as creations of Shoemaker's ear. "Trina picked up things on our recordings we hadn't even noticed ourselves."
That attention to detail and focus on quality rippled through the band, Cuddy says, with drummer Milchem acting as the band's chief whip. Milchem leaned on the songwriting tandem, pushing the alliance beyond established parameters. "Glenn was very critical of this record. Greg would show up with these dark, sad songs and Glenn was like 'No! Write something upbeat!" That happened a few times, until finally Keelor arrived with the song "The Days In Between." All that cajoling had paid off, it seems. "It was the last song recorded, and it summed up the whole mood of the album," says Cuddy.
Blue Rodeo ended up recording the album basically as a four-piece with Keelor, Cuddy, Donovan, and Milchem. Keyboardist Gray and steel player Deschamps then wove in some atmospherics. Deschamps left the band soon after the album was recorded and was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Bob Egan who brings with him some impressive credentials, having played with roots rockers Wilco , Billy Bragg and The Tragically Hip. Even on early tour dates for
The Days In Between, Egan fit like a glove.
Adorning the front cover of
The Days In Between is a dark photograph of a long, lonely road, with an old VW Beetle approaching from the distance and heading into nowhere in particular. For this band, there is no dead-end in sight.
Album Number: 10
Release Date: October 2, 2001
Label: WEA
Greatest Hits Vol. 1
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
To Love Somebody |
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2.
Rose-Coloured Glasses |
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3.
Try |
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4.
Diamond Mine |
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5.
Til I Am Myself Again |
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6.
Trust Yourself |
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7.
Lost Together |
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8.
5 Days In May |
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9.
Hasn't Hit Me Yet |
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10.
Bad Timing |
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11.
Dark Angel |
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12.
Bulletproof |
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About The Album
Blue Rodeo was born out of the Toronto club scene in the mid-Eighties. Led by singer/songwriters Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, the band released their debut album, Outskirts, in March 1987. Since that time they have released a total of nine full-length albums which have sold over 3 million copies world-wide. Over the course of their career Cuddy and Keelor have become acknowledged as Canada’s premiere songwriting team. In addition to presenting a collection of established hits, Blue Rodeo Greatest Hits Vol. 1 includes two new tracks recorded in the band’s newly built studios in downtown Toronto. The band has produced a re-working of the their hit “After The Rain” while Greg Keelor delivers an emotional rendering of the Bee Gee’s classic “To Love Somebody.” With these recording, fans of Blue Rodeo will have their first chance to hear the band’s new Stax-influenced sound which features the Planet Soul Horns.
*The US version of the Greatest Hits Vol. 1 contains the super-hit "Bulletproof" from the Palace of Gold album.
The Promise
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Mr. Moonlight |
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2.
Mystery of Love |
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3.
Disconnected |
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4.
Cold Wind |
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5.
When I'm Gone |
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6.
Honest Night |
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7.
Country Girl |
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8.
Chosen One |
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9.
Starting Over |
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10.
Float Away |
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11.
Just A Dream |
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About The Album
While recording with the Tragically Hip at their Bathhouse studio (for
Phantom Power) I decided that this was how I wanted to make a solo record - in a country house, off the clock, good food and totally relaxed with my friends. I was very taken by the vibe of their studio. It was warm and comfortable. It was a fun and a creative place.
Funny enough, three years later Greg Keelor from Blue Rodeo offered up his country home recording studio to make my new release
The Promise. In the winter of 2001 a handful of musicians moved in and we lived and hung out and worked together. It was a blast.
We recorded mainly live in the same room to a big old 8-track 1-inch tape machine. The beauty of it was we all knew there were only eight things we could put to tape so everyone played in a connected ensemble way. You can hear the room breath and the warmth of the tape.
It was an all-star, all-Canadian band. My right hand men were Bazil (from Blue Rodeo) and Travis (from the Sadies). Baz co-wrote the songs with me and Travis played guitar and mandolin. Richard Bell (Janis Joplin and the Band) was a god on piano and Hammond organ. The rhythm sections were great too - Baz and Maury LaFoy (the Supers) on bass, Cam Giroux (Luther Wright and the Wrongs), Stephen McGrath and Glenn Milchem (Blue Rodeo) on drums. For special guests we had the Be Good Tanyas singing and Lisa MacIssac on fiddle.
The songs deal with a certain range of life's experiences from lost love ("Cold Wind", "Honest Night"), alienation ("Disconnected", "Chosen One") and death ("Mystery of Love", "When I'm Gone") to hope ("Float Away"), redemption ("Starting Over") and the promise of new love ("Mr. Moonlight", "Country Girl" and "Just a Dream").
The sounds are pretty rootsy and Stones-like with
Beggar's Banquet era acoustic guitars, slide guitars and mandolins and
Sticky Fingers era piano, organ and riffin electric guitars. There is even a "Baba O'Reilly" meets "Gallows Pole" moment where the whole record careens to the edge of out of control with fiddles and feedback.
Album Number: 11
Release Date: October 8, 2002
Label: Warner
Palace Of Gold
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Palace of Gold |
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2.
Holdin' On Too Tight |
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3.
Homeward Bound Angel |
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4.
Bulletproof |
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5.
Comet |
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6.
Walk Like You Don't Mind |
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7.
Love Never Lies |
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8.
Stage Door |
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9.
Cause For Sympathy |
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10.
What A Surprise |
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11.
Clearer View |
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12.
Glad To Be Alive |
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13.
Find A Way To Say Goodbye |
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14.
Tell Me Baby |
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About The Album
Jim Cuddy is leaning back on couch in the middle of the studio. He is explaining to the two sax players in front of him the kind of feel he'd like to hear them add to the song. The engineer pushes play on the huge recording console and a brand-new hard driving track comes blasting out of the speakers. While the horn players improvise over the playback, Greg Keelor walks around the room with a guitar slung over his shoulder trying out a few riffs of his own. Cuddy suggests that the horns play a simple phrase that will help push the rhythm of the song along while Keelor comes up with four notes that makes the song's chorus stand on its toes. The horn players move into the isolation booth (actually a walk-in storage closet with a fridge and another couch) and begin laying down their parts. Within an hour the whole process is done and "Walk Like You Don't Mind," soon to be a concert favourite of Blue Rodeo fans, is complete.
It's 2002 and clearly the creative team of Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor still has a fire burning inside of them. They have already been heralded as one of the finest songwriting duos to emerge from Canada and with
Palace Of Gold (their 9th studio recording) they have challenged even their own notion of what Blue Rodeo is.
"Wherever we were with the last studio record, we were done with that," Cuddy told Maclean's Magazine earlier this summer. "We needed to attempt something we weren't sure we could accomplish."
To understand
Palace Of Gold we must first take a step back. In 2001, Blue Rodeo was set to release their first greatest hits collection. While doing interviews for the album, Cuddy and Keelor hinted to the media that they had been listening to a lot of Stax recordings from the sixties and they were thinking of adding horns and strings to their music in the future. When Blue Rodeo went out on a mini-tour to promote the album, they took a four-piece horn section with them and introduced a few new songs to their fans. The critics agreed with the audience, if this is what Blue Rodeo is going to do, we like it.
Earlier in the year, the band had bought a building in downtown Toronto and began to convert it into a recording studio. They covered the walls in weathered wood from an old barn in the Ottawa Valley and fixed Indian scarves to the ceiling. Well-worn furniture was brought in to give it a homey feel and vintage recording gear was put in place for a warm, organic sound. Finally, the band moved in and began working their way through some new material that Jim and Greg had recently written as well as integrating the horns into the established hits of the band's past.
Early in 2002, buoyed by the success of the
Greatest Hits tour, Blue Rodeo began recording songs for their new album. Because they owned the studio, they weren't "on the clock" and could take their time in exploring the new sounds they had intended for their latest project. Songs would take on various incarnations before realizing the life they now lead. At one point, the same hard driving "Walk Like You Don't Mind" was actually a slow blues number.
One of the earliest songs the band recorded was an exquisite Jim Cuddy ballad called "Bulletproof." Fans had first heard the song in concert in the summer of 2001 but it was in the studio where it really came to life. A beautifully orchestrated string section takes the song to a place no other Blue Rodeo song had gone to before. The track became a natural choice as the album's first single as "Bulletproof" illustrates how far Jim's voice and songwriting have come in 15 years.
Greg Keelor came to the sessions with his own cache of amazing material. The ethereal "Comet," with its own soaring string arrangement, is reminiscent of a time when rock music was allowed to be more than just guitars and drums bashing away for three minutes. "Palace Of Gold," the album's ebullient title track, contains the refrain "Some men fly high in the Palace of Gold" which seems to sum up the spirits of the current incarnation of Blue Rodeo.
Although the talk will no doubt be about the addition of the Planet Soul Strings and the Bushwhacked Horns, one mustn't dismiss the awesome musical muscle at the core of the band. Glenn Milchem drives the songs, playing drums with both fierce power and the fragility of a butterfly. James Gray can happily take Jim and Greg's songs in a variety of directions thanks to his eclectic ear at the keyboards. Multi-instrumentalist Bob Egan (formerly of Wilco) adds a bit of beauty to everything he touches whether it be a slide guitar, mandolin or acoustic guitar solo. And finally there's Bazil Donovan, doing what he's been doing since day one of Blue Rodeo, laying down a foundation with a bass playing style that is instantly recognizable.
* * *
Since the release of their debut album,
Outskirts, in March 1987, Blue Rodeo have established themselves as one of the premiere bands in Canadian music history. Prior to
Palace Of Gold, they had released 8 studio albums, one live album and a greatest hits collection, which have sold in excess of 3 million copies around the world. They have won pretty much every award a band can win in Canada and in the fall of 2001, they were presented with the key to the city of Toronto (their home town) as an acknowledgment of their success around the world and their work as Ambassadors of Canadian culture.
The Beauty of Our Surroundings
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Waiting For Never |
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2.
Losing The Revolution |
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3.
Not to Be In Love |
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4.
The Beauty of My Surroundings |
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5.
Zero G |
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6.
Have You Ceased to be Amazed? |
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7.
Collapsing Beauty |
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8.
Waking Up (Is Hard To Do) |
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9.
Fire Engine Red |
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10.
Convince Me |
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About The Album
Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (USA)
About The Album
Release Date: November 26, 2004
Label: WEA International
Format: DVD (NTSC)
In Stereovision
About The Album
This Juno Award winning (2005 Music DVD of the Year), triple-platinum selling DVD celebrates Blue Rodeo's 20th anniversay as a band. Directed by renowned Canadian filmmaker Ron Mann, it features a reunion concert with the original five members of the band, i.e. Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor, Bazil Donovan, Bob Wiseman and Cleave Anderson! Also included are twelve historic performances; an appreciation by Paul Quarrington, two new songs, and even burning Snowmen!
Special Features & Tracklistings
Sweet Soul Music
- Sweet Soul Music
- Footnotes
The Original Five
- Heart Like Mine
- Try
- Diamond Mine
- Love and Understanding
- Til I Am Myself Again
Rarities
- House of Dreams: Canadaian Country Music Awards - 1989
- Heart Like Mine: It's Only Rock & roll - 1987
- Crying Over You: The Diamond Club - 1989
- Dark Angel: Ear to the Ground - 1993
- Sky: Ear to the Ground - 1993
- Moon & Tree: Ear to the Ground
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- Bad Timing: Canada AM - 2004
- Cynthia: Ear to the Ground - 1993
- Hasn't Hit Me Yet: Late Night With Conan O'Brien - 1994
- Bulletprood: The 2003 Juno Awards - 2003
- Walk Like You Don't Mind: Live from the Molson Amphitheatre - 2004
- Lost Together: Toronto Rocks - The SARS Relief Concert DVD - 2003
Jukebox
- Play With Fire
- Rena
- Up on That Cloud
- Heart Like Mine
- Try
- Diamond Mine
- Love and Understanding
- Till I Am Myself Again
- House of Dreams
- Crying Over You
- Dark Angel
- Sky
- Moon & Tree
- Bad Timing
- Hasn't Hit Me Yet
- Bulletproof
- Walk Like You Don't Mind
Burning Snowman
- Burning Snowman
- Rena
- Up on That Cloud
Album Number: 12
Release Date: April 5, 2005
Label: Warner
Are You Ready
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Can't Help Wondering Why |
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2.
Are You Ready |
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3.
Rena |
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4.
Up On That Cloud |
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5.
I Will |
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6.
Phaedra's Meadow |
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7.
Runaway Train |
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8.
Stuck On You |
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9.
Beverley Street |
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10.
Finger Lakes |
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11.
Tired of Pretending |
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12.
Don't Get Angry |
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About The Album
On February 7, 2005, Blue Rodeo celebrated the twentieth anniversary of their first gig by returning to the scene of the crime (The Rivoli in Toronto) and gathered together the original five band members for one unforgettable night of nostalgia. In the twenty years since their first gig at The Rivoli, Blue Rodeo have sold millions of records, won countless awards and traveled the world time and time again while Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor have gained notoriety as two of Canada’s greatest songwriters (their names fit comfortably alongside those of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot). That night in February was a celebration of a band that has not only endured but flourished. Blue Rodeo are a band never afraid to embrace their past as they continue to forge a path towards their future.
Twenty years on and Blue Rodeo release their tenth studio album,
Are You Ready. The album title says it all and asks it all. If you take too much time to ask yourself “am I ready for what,” then the record might just hit you squarely between the eyes.
Are You Ready delivers fans just what they are looking for, great songs with memorable melodies and remarkable musicianship.
The album’s twelve songs range from Cuddy’s beautiful ode to his wife, “Rena” to Keelor’s rocking title cut. Keelor also contributes the song “Phaedra’s Meadow” which features a guest appearance from The Chieftain’s Paddy Moloney.
Are You Ready was produced by Blue Rodeo and Chris Shreenan-Dyck at The Woodshed, the recording studio the band built for themselves in downtown Toronto. The first record recorded at The Woodshed was 2002’s
Palace Of Gold. The songs on
Palace of Gold were driven by the Bushwhack Horns and included a ten-piece string section. In contrast, the newest album is much sparser in songwriting and execution.
“We had performed at a Gordon Lightfoot tribute and from that remembered how much we liked the sound of voices and acoustic guitars,” recalls Jim Cuddy. “We decided to go back and do more of an acoustic record. It didn’t turn out that way but our direction was set out.”
Greg Keelor picks up the thought and continues “We have our own studio and can take our time. The last record we indulged ourselves with horns and strings. We pulled way back this time.”
They may have pulled back on their indulgences but the 60’s soul that inspired the horns on
Palace Of Gold can still be heard on the album’s opening cut, “Can’t Help Wondering Why.” In fact, Blue Rodeo is always ready to let all of their influences inspire them and they will not turn their back on what drives them forward - or what has brought them here.
With the sound of Bob Egan’s pedal steel guitar floating through many of the tracks, fans might think that the band has returned to its original country-rock roots. Indeed, the song “Beverley Street” was originally written for the band’s second album,
Diamond Mine, and then forgotten until a local Toronto band played their own version (learned from a long-forgotten live bootleg) for Blue Rodeo’s Bazil Donovan who then reminded Jim and Greg about the song. The track fits in beautifully with the newly written material on the album.
Release Date: May 10,2005
Label: Warner Music Canada
Seven Songs For Jim
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1.
Silver Sun |
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2.
I Will Follow |
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3.
Morning Dove |
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4.
Deep Bay Road |
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5.
Are You Ready |
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6.
Just This Love |
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7.
Ocean Of Sorrow |
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About The Album
Dirge-like and funereal,
Seven Songs for Jim is Greg Keelor's meditative ode to the loss of his father, Jim, who died in 2003 at the age of 80. From the haunting opening strains of "Silver Sun", it is clear that this is a work of pure catharisis - and be forewarned: it is a depressing listen. Over the scope of seven songs and 41 minutes, Keelor single-handedly reminisces about his father ("Deep Bay Road"), questions his mortality ("Are You Ready"), and mourns his loss (the closing "Ocean of Sorrow", which verges on sounding like Leonard Cohen). The entire album is Keelor, a guitar, and his multi-tracked vocals, lending the entire affair an intimate sorrowful feel. Most interesting is the original version of "Are You Ready" (which is played over plucked strings as opposed to the rocking version that would become the title track of the next Blue Rodeo album) -- "No more whiskey/No more cigarettes/Your last breath just like a sunset" before dropping out everything except the vocals on the line, "Are you ready -- ready to die?/Is there anything I can do/Cause say'n goodbye to you will be the hardest thing that I ever do." The result is a heartbreaking eulogy of a record -- and one of the most powerful tributes to a father one can imagine. But prepare yourself for one heavy listening experience before sitting down with
Seven Songs for Jim. It fulfills its purpose with masterful precision -- and is every bit as affecting as you'd expect it would be. Not for those who depress easily.
Release Date: January 13, 2006
Live In Stratford - January 13, 2006
About The Album
BlueRodeo.com partnered with
Instant Live to bring fans a very special souvenir for the 2006 Stratford shows!
Instant Live recorded, mixed and immediately pressed each Stratford 2006 show into an exclusive live CD! Copies of this live CD were available for pick up at the venue, hot off the presses, 15 minutes after the show!
A big thank you to those who pre-ordered their live CD through BlueRodeo.com and to our community for their tremendous support in this new endeavour.
| Select Tracks |
Audio |
| 1. The Railroad |
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| 2. Lost Together |
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| 3. Hasn't Hit Me Yet |
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Release Date: January 14, 2006
Live In Stratford - January 14, 2006
About The Album
BlueRodeo.com partnered with
Instant Live to bring fans a very special souvenir for the 2006 Stratford shows!
Instant Live
recorded, mixed and immediately pressed each Stratford 2006 show into
an exclusive live CD! Copies of this live CD were available for pick up
at the venue, hot off the presses, 15 minutes after the show!
A big thank you to those who pre-ordered their live CD through
BlueRodeo.com and to our community for their tremendous support in this
new endeavour.
| Select Tracks |
Audio |
| 1. Til I Gain Control Again |
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| 2. Til I Am Myself Again |
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| 3. Hasn't Hit Me Yet |
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| 4. Heart Like Mine |
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The Glorious Decline
| Track Listing |
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Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
An Airport Bar On Christmas Day |
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2.
Montreal |
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3.
Spalding's Lament |
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4.
The Forgotten Waltz |
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5.
Learn To Love Again |
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6.
Pleasantville Bar |
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7.
Virginia |
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8.
Drifting Too Far From The Shore |
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9.
Crawling Back To You |
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About The Album
The great thing about being an independent artist is that in a creative sense you can do whatever you want. In making my new record,
The Glorious Decline, I had several new things I wanted to try.
First - I wanted to live with the songs and get to know them before recording them. So, while writing the songs I booked several tours over a year and a half and played the new songs every night. This allowed me to get comfortable with them and to see what the audience responded to every night. When it came time to record, these songs were my old friends. I knew them inside out and I knew how I wanted to present them on record.
Second - I wanted the songs to be different than my previous songs. I wanted them to be linear and sad and have a very flowing soundscape vibe to them. Linear because I had been listening to a lot of classical music on vinyl and I love the way a song would fill the whole 20 minutes of a record side with all these variations on the theme and all the orchestral colorations and support. I like the fact that they weren't a strict formula of verse/chorus. verse/chorus, b-section/solo, final chorus and that's how I approached many of the
Glorious Decline songs. Sad because I've always written sad songs and been drawn to sad songs. Sadness would allow me a mood to work within and set a theme for the record. I wanted the soundscape vibe because I had been recording instrumental music for the past several years with Jason Tait (Weakerthans, Fembots) and was in that headspace of texture and orchestral washes of sound. Jason really opened my mind to this way of making music.
Third - I wanted to record with just one set of musicians. On each of my previous records I had several drummers and bassists and guitarists as well as a lot of guest musicians. This was great but I wanted to try something different. On the
Glorious Decline there is one drummer (Jason), one pianist (Vanessa Yundt), one bassist (Adam Blinick) and one guitarist (me). The guests are kept to a minimum - horns on one song (Bryden Baird and Steve Donald), organ on another (Bob Packwood) and vocals on a third (Oh Susanna).
Fourth - I wanted to take my time with the record and not have to watch the studio clock. So, I bought a Mac G-4 powerbook and a Pro-tools rig and rented a great high-end microphone (Nuemann U-87) and made this record on my own schedule. The portability allowed me to record wherever (and whenever) the inspiration struck. I lot of work was done in backstage dressing rooms, hotel rooms, tour buses, basements and cottages. Then we were able to bring it all to a proper studio (the Woodshed) to mix it to tape on a fantastic old Neve console for the best of both worlds.
The beautiful thing about making records is that you are always learning something new and a lot of what I picked up during this process will serve me well in new ventures, primarily the pedal steel instrumental records I plan to release in the second half of 2006.
Release Date: October 10, 2006
Label: Warner Bros.
Aphrodite Rose
| Track Listing |
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Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
No Man's Land |
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2.
Steal Your Mind |
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3.
Dragonfly |
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4.
Prisoner |
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5.
Colour and Rhyme |
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6.
Miss You |
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7.
Glory Oh |
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8.
Aphrodite Rose |
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9.
High Meadow |
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10.
If You Go |
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11.
Alaska |
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12.
In The Reflections |
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About The Album
By far the best record of Greg Keelor's solo career outside of Blue Rodeo,
Aphrodite Rose takes a trip back to the heady days of the mid-1960's when one could hear the jangling guitars and soaring harmonies of The Byrds, the country rock of The Buffalo Springfield, blues, psychedelia and garage rock, sometimes all brewed up into one song on the radio.
Departing from the more laid back country rock of Blue Rodeo, Keelor probes the darker recesses of the mind, the oil rich wilderness of Alaska, lost love and free spirited hippie earth ladies in 12 melodic and daring tunes. With both melodic and lyrical echoes of The Byrds' "Wild Mountain Thyme", Keelor sets the stage with the opener, "No Man's Land", initially a dismal observation on the current insane state of the world filtered through television that is tempered by the affirmative resolve to "go together hand in hand...through the no man's land." Along the journey, one witnesses not only political deceit, military madness, and ecological destruction but also scenes of idyllic and pastoral peace and tranquility ("High Meadow") rendered transcendent by Sarah McLachlan's ethereal vocals.
Overriding all of the physical and mental wasteland is the need to be set free. Musically, Keelor does cut loose with help from Travis Good and Mike Belitsky of The Sadies, who rev things up with their unique brand of cow-punk and 60's psychedelic, surf and garage rock. The dramatic tempo changes in "Prisoner" are a tad awkward and choppy but the song works on a visceral level showing that Keelor is willing to take musical risks by venturing into edgy hard blues rock. "Glory Oh" comes closest to replicating the classic Blue Rodeo country rock sound, while "Alaska" shows Keelor paying musical homage to Canadian folk legend, Gordon Lightfoot.
Several nice instrumental interludes round out the album with piano fills by Blue Rodeo's Bob Packwood. What makes this album ultimately his best is that Keelor has finally found a way to convey his mystical, romantic and poltical ruminations with a more melodic and harder rocking approach than his previous muted and sparse solo efforts.
Aphrodite Rose is a very tuneful record by this gifted Canadian rocker that is well worth checking out.
- Amazon.com
Release Date: September 12, 2006
Label: Warner Music Canada
The Light That Guides You Home
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Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
The Light That Guides You Home |
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2.
Maybe Sometime |
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3.
All I Need |
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4.
Married Again |
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5.
Pull Me Through |
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6.
She Gets Down |
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7.
Countrywide Soul |
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8.
Will I Be Waiting |
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9.
One Fine Day |
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10.
Falling |
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11.
What She Said |
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12.
Stagger In |
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About The Album
The Light That Guides You Home, the second solo album from Blue Rodeo co-leader Jim Cuddy, doesn't deviate much from his band's roots rock, jangle pop sound. Which is good news for followers of the veteran Canadian band, or just admirers of their smart rock craftsmanship. The winning title track immediately alerts listeners that Cuddy's at the top of his game. The tune, an apologia for a hopeful reconciliation, is a chimey mid-tempo rocker that brings to mind the old Del Amitri hit, "Always the Last to Know".
The record is rife with tales of damaged or broken relationships. The bittersweet "Maybe Sometimes" finds Cuddy lamenting "there's never the chance to say goodbye" amidst picturesque imagery of the sun rising over Lake Louise and fond memories of "quiet smiles and silent walking". On the spare "Pull Me Through", he admits, "There's messages I should return/And people I should call/I'm still tripping over echoes/Left lying in the hall". The reflective "She Gets Down" holds the telling insight: "Sometimes the world we want is different than the one we find".
While literate lyrics, long a Cuddy hallmark, are in fine evidence here, this album isn't a starch dry effort in songcraft. One of the most memoroable tracks is the rollicking "Married Again". A twangy duet featuring Kathleen Edwards, it contains the great couplet "Sixteen bottles and a wedding trunk/Oughta be a law about marrying drunk".
Cuddy, who co-produced the CD with guitarist Colin Cripps, does a fine job of shifting moods and tempos throughout the disc. Strings and keyboards broaden Cuddy's guitar-based musical core. There's even a muted trumpet solo that punctuates "Pull Me Through". A good example of this variety comes with the stellar trio of tunes that conclude the album. The folk-poppy "Falling" flows into the quietly strirring "What She Said", which is followd by the rousing set-closer "Stagger In". While this disc might just seem like a busman's holiday from Blue Rodeo, Cuddy nonetheless has fashioned a thoroughly absorbing solo outing populated with memorable roots rock that resonates in the heart and the mind.
Awkward Situation
| Track Listing |
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Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Glorious |
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2.
Priviledged Tears |
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3.
Out of The Way |
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4.
Shadow |
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5.
Wrong Turn |
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6.
Vicariously |
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7.
Pointafinger |
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8.
Penny |
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9.
Darkly Bright |
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10.
Soft Bomb |
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11.
Human Shield |
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About The Album
You're having a bad week, and that's Glenn Milchem at the end of the bar with a light. "Might as well keep shining on," sings Milchem, the Blue Rodeo drummer who heads the side-project Swallows. "Might as well be glorious." Jerry Garcia couldn't have put it better. Lead track "Glorious" is jammy, but the rest of the splendid, light-and-dark themed record is marked by power pop and blade-sharp lyrics, with some new wave and Police thrown in. Hear "Vicariously", which imagines a chance meeting between Luke Doucet and Coldplay. Hear the Crazy Horse of "Soft Bomb", in which Milchem flickers as things continue to crash down. Hear it all. ~ Brad Wheeler, The Globe & Mail ★★★½
Release Date: February 27, 2007
Label: Magnetic Angels
Turning Blue
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
Turning Blue |
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2.
Get This Right |
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3.
Fountain |
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4.
Knock It Down |
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5.
Agenda |
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6.
Empty |
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7.
Volcanic |
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8.
Exist |
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9.
Blamed |
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10.
Example |
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11.
Water |
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12.
Misplaced |
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13.
Innocent & Blind |
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About The Album
Album Number: 13
Release Date: September 25, 2007
Label: Warner
Small Miracles
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
So Far Away |
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2.
This Town |
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3.
Blue House |
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4.
3 Hours Away |
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5.
It Makes Me Wonder |
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6.
Summer Girls |
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7.
Together |
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8.
Mystic River |
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9.
Black Ribbon |
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10.
C'mon |
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11.
Small Miracles |
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12.
Beautiful |
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13.
Where I Was Before |
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About The Album
By today’s standards, it can be called a miracle if a band stays together for five years and records two albums, but what would you call it when a band has been recording best selling albums for twenty years? Warner Music Canada artist Blue Rodeo spent much time in the band’s Woodshed studio putting the final touches on
Small Miracles, the band’s 11th studio recording. The thirteen track album, once again features the storied songwriting talents of Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor.
Small Miracles was released in Canada on Tuesday, September 25, 2007.
Recorded throughout the Spring of 2007,
Small Miracles was produced by Blue Rodeo and Chris Shreenan-Dyck. The albums first single is the rollicking “C’mon”, which was accompanied by a video directed by collaborator Chris Mills (Modest Mouse, The Tragically Hip, Broken Social Scene). Inspired by “Paddle To The Sea,” the video chronicles the journey of a song from its creation to recording to the public and, ultimately, to the concert stage.
Blue Rodeo launched
Small Miracles with a series of events that gave fans a unique opportunity to experience the band up close and personal.
Blue Rodeo has an enduring history that has seen them become one of Canada’s most influential bands. Formed in 1984 by longtime friends and songwriting collaborators Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, the group’s first album, 1987’s
Outskirts, established them as hit makers with the omnipresent single “Try.” Over the next two decades the band’s studio albums have sold over 3 million copies and they have won a wealth of awards (including 4 Juno awards as Best Group) and earned critical acclaim. Blue Rodeo is now acknowledged as one of Canada’s greatest musical exports.
Release Date: May 31, 2008
Label: TeleSoul Records
Matinee
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
We Never Touch At All |
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2.
Streets of Baltimore |
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3.
A Couple More Years |
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4.
Little Ole Wine Drinker Me |
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5.
She Thinks I Still Care |
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6.
Am I That Easy to Forget? |
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7.
So Good To So Bad |
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8.
Just Someone I Used To Know |
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9.
Fifteen Years Ago |
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10.
Apartment #9 |
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11.
I Got Stoned And I Missed It |
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12.
Stage Door |
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About The Album
Album Number: 14
Release Date: October 28, 2008
Label: Warner
Blue Road
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
5 Days In May |
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2.
Crying Over You |
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3.
Rebel |
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4.
Blue House |
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5.
3 Hours Away |
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6.
Try |
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7.
To Love Somebody |
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8.
Know Where You Go |
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9.
Tell Me Your Dream |
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10.
Bad Timing |
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11.
Losing You |
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About The Album
On Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Blue Rodeo gave their fans a rare look behind the curtain of Canada's favourite musical exports. With the release of the DVD/CD
Blue Road, the band lets us take a look at them at their most unguarded as they rehearse and jam on a number of unexpected cover songs at Greg Keelor's farm. The
Blue Road documentary, directed by renowned Toronto filmographer Chris Mills, also includes footage of the band on the road and backstage on their
Small Miracles Tour.
Chapter 2 of
Blue Road DVD gives us a unique fan's perspective of Blue Rodeo's 10 song acoustic set recorded live at Massey Hall earlier this year. Using footage from a number of "bootlegged" sources the video documents a performance at Toronto's most venerable venue that had its roots during the launch of the album
Small Miracles.
It began on the morning of Monday, September 24, 2007 when the members of Blue Rodeo took to the streets of Toronto for a series of unannounced live performances to launch their latest studio album,
Small Miracles. This marked the first time Blue Rodeo had actually hit the street, bringing their music to the fans as opposed to the fans coming to them. The day ended up having a profound effect on the band. Playing unplugged versions of some of their most popular material invigorated them and they eventually took the concept with them on their subsequent national tour, opening their shows with a half-hour stripped down set.
"After all these years, Blue Rodeo can still surprise. For the first of two nights at the Jubilee Auditorium, the band appeared to have morphed into a down-home, country jug band - complete with acoustic guitars and a stand-up drummer who played nothing but a snare - jamming out stripped down, salt-o'-the-earth arrangements that wouldn't have been out of place at the Grand Ole Opry - 50 years ago."
-Edmonton Sun
By the end of the tour,
Small Miracles had been certified gold in Canada, Blue Rodeo had one of North America's highest grossing tours and the band had won three Juno Awards (Group of the Year, Adult Alternative Album of the Year and Video of the Year - "C'mon"). All in all, it was quite a year.
The CD that accompanies the package includes the audio portion of Blue Rodeo's live Massey Hall acoustic set. The DVD also makes use of the multi-angle button available on most DVD controllers. This feature allows the viewer to choose whatever camera they want to watch the program from, ostensibly making them the editor.
DVD TRACKLISTINGS
Live at Massey Hall: Bootleg
- 5 Days In May
- Crying Over You
- Rebel
- Blue House
- 3 Hours Away
- Try
- To Love Somebody
- Know Where You Go
- Tell Me Your Dream
- Bad Timing
Blue Road - A Documentary by Chris Mills
- Are You Ready For The Country
- Losing You
- Good Year For The Roses
- Diggin' Up Bones
- Venus Rising
- Four Strong Winds
- Almost Persuaded
- Don't Let The Darkness In Your Head
Buy Album
Album Number: 15
Release Dates
Canada - Nov 10, 2009
US - Jan 26, 2010
Label: Warner
NOTE: Tracks 9 - 16 appear on Disc 2
The Things We Left Behind
| Track Listing |
Audio |
Lyrics |
iTunes |
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1.
All The Things That Are Left Behind |
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2.
One More Night |
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3.
Waiting For The World |
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4.
Never Look Back |
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5.
Sheba |
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6.
One Light Left In Heaven |
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7.
Million Miles |
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8.
Gossip |
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9.
Don't Let The Darkness In Your Head |
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10.
Arizona Dust |
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11.
In My Bones |
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12.
Candice |
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13.
Wasted |
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14.
You Said |
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15.
And When You Wake Up |
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16.
Venus Rising |
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About The Album
The definition of a rebel is someone who goes against the grain. Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! For close to thirty years now, Blue Rodeo has taken the road less traveled - and succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations. The band emerged in the early 80’s as a countrified rock band in the era of hair metal and glossy pop. Despite sticking out like a sore thumb (or maybe because of it), their single “Try” became omni-present on radio across Canada and set in motion a three decade long career of headlining every club, theatre and arena in Canada. In 1993, when grunge rock was squeezing commercial rock off the radio, they recorded their quietest album,
Five Days In July, and scored their biggest hit selling over a half million copies of that one record alone. And now, in the digital age, while everyone else is think of ways to sell single songs through the internet or snippets of songs on cell phones, Blue Rodeo has recorded a double album designed specifically to be enjoyed on vinyl.
The Things We Left Behind is the real deal. Double gate-fold sleeve, 12 x 12 cover and two albums, four distinct sides programmed to take the listener on a trip.
“I’m becoming more of a vinyl-phile and more and more is becoming available all of the time, which is great,” enthuses singer-guitarist Jim Cuddy. “How to split it up – is a B-side heavier, or more sleepy, or whatever – is a very enjoyable little conundrum for us to try to figure out.”
Indeed it is a vast landscape of sixteen new songs written by Cuddy and his songwriting partner Greg Keelor that needs to be arranged and yet it wasn’t as difficult to put together as one might think.
“With something of this size there aren’t as many options, maybe because there is so much of it,” says Keelor. “You know, there are some obvious connections between songs that work together. It sort of panned out a little easier.”
“We had a sequence done in about a day and a half which for us, honestly, is miraculous,” continues Cuddy. “We could make a record, and spend 6 months making it and not have one single argument and then we could fight about the sequence for the rest of our lives. I think we had a sequence that was almost right and we were prepared to go with it. Initially we had put the most dramatic song, the title track, on the record second. Once we switched it and made it the first song, then everything worked.”
With dramatic tympanis leading the melody, the title track certainly opens the door to the trip that lays ahead for the listener. “All The Things That Are Left Behind” was a very difficult song,” remembers Cuddy. “When Greg brought it in he played piano, which he does not play and he was plucking out this melody and singing it, it was in such a rough form.”
“It was the first song I’d ever written on piano,” say Keelor. “We knew that we wanted to fill it out so we sampled some tympanis, tuned them to the track, did a lot of eqing and made them nice and muffled and put those on. Jim added a piano part just hitting the chord on the down beat. We got a mellotron and added cello. Then we used the mellotron flute and built it up from there. So it was a pretty bare bones track when it started and those are often my faves – the ones that sound ‘well, that’ll be lucky if it gets on the record’ – and then it blooms into this orchestrated little number.”
So, if that once rough but now rich dramatic song opens the album, what else does the band have up its collective sleeve? “It’s not like we’re going for a skate and just singing a whole pile of Blue Rodeo songs,” boasts Keelor wryly. “There’re a few curve balls on this record.”
There isn’t a longtime fan of Blue Rodeo that would be surprised by Keelor’s statement. After all, the band’s longevity didn’t come from repeating itself over and over. It makes one wonder though, twelve albums on, how deep is the well and how dare they record a double album at this point in their career.
When Jim and Greg sat down in April of 2009 and started playing the music they had each written, it became evident pretty quickly that they’d be making more than a single album. Blue Rodeo had made longish albums before but the band had grown bored of the format and wanted to use this as an opportunity to do something that was a throwback to the record listening experience they had in their formative years.
“We wanted to make a CD that represented the flip of a record,” says Greg.
“Whatever that esthetic was imprinted itself in our minds in the 60s and 70s and is still there,” agrees Cuddy,
Whatever that esthetic is also runs through the music. Whether it’s a tip of the hat to Jackson Browne on “Candice,” the Beggars Banquet-like romp in “Sheba” or a nod and a wink to Fairport Convention and The Who on the epic “Million Miles,” Blue Rodeo has never been afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves. Greg readily admits that his rocker “Never Look Back” sounds like it could be an Everly Brothers song when played slower on acoustic guitar. “I think I even stole a line – ‘Oh baby, I wanted you so bad,’” sings Keelor. “I think that’s an Everly Brothers line somewhere so start the lawsuits.”
To hear one of Canada’s most influential bands talk about their own influences is certainly a revelation of sorts. Cuddy and Keelor are renowned as a formidable songwriting team though each approaches the craft differently. Cuddy is the classic story-teller allowing the experiences in his life to take form in a series of characters inhabiting his songs. Keelor, on the other hand is the tortured artist who uses music to explore the depths of love and pain and then paint pastoral pictures.
The dichotomy of their styles is most evident in comparing the tone of Cuddy’s “One Light Left In Heaven” and Keelor’s “Venus Is Rising.” Unbeknownst to one another, both men wrote songs about the relationship of a couple they both know.
“Mine was from the left behind,” says Jim about “One Night Left In Heaven,” “It was specifically about being in a plane having left this world (that situation) and not wanting to arrive because the situation is going to rear its ugly head again.”
“I guess it’s a little bit about how hard it is to be in relationships when you’re on the road,” says Greg simply when talking about “Venus Is Rising.”
Of course what the record would be, how it would flow and what moods it would convey were all taken into consideration during the recording process. One thought was to make a daytime record that you listen to in the car and a night time record of the longer jammier songs. Ultimately, the record turned into one cohesive double album winding its way through plaintive ballads, full out honky-tonk stompers and psychedelic jams. And having two records and four sides on which to program the music, gave the band even more freedom to distinguish each song as a unique entity either through instrumentation or style or recording process.
In their twenty-five year career, Blue Rodeo has sold over 4 million records, won an unprecedented 5 Juno awards as Group of the Year, been handed keys to the City of Toronto and been inducted onto Canada’s Walk of Fame. But for them, the accolades and awards are nothing compared to the good fortune of being musicians.
“I think that’s the testament – to really do it for a living,” says Cuddy reflecting on all that has happened to the band. “Not just live the life of a popular band but to actually do music for a living.”
Twelve albums on, the rebels live.
Gunless (The Official Motion Picture Soundtrack)
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1.
Gunless |
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2.
Montana Kid- The Stand Off |
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3.
Posse I |
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4.
To Jane's |
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5.
Wanted Man |
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6.
The Kid |
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7.
Through Town |
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8.
When You Believed |
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9.
You Are What You Are |
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10.
First Kiss |
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11.
Beautiful Brown Eyes |
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12.
Barclay's Brush I |
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13.
Barclay's Brush II |
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14.
Posse II- Work Camp- Glue |
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15.
Jane's Story |
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16.
Dinner With Alice- Showdown |
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17.
Should I Stay or Should I Go |
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18.
Shoot Out |
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19.
Don't Let The Darkness In Your Head (feat. Blue Rodeo) |
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20.
R.I.P. |
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About The Album
Greg Keelor provides a fittingly rip-roaring yet thoughtful soundtrack to the Western comedic commentary
Gunless. The new Canadian comedy pokes fun at the American Wild West, the Hollywood Western genre, and most importantly, the Canadian stereotype of a people who are passive, polite, and affable to an annoying fault.
Greg naturally felt an attraction to the project saying "at last a Western that reflects the Canadian experience with its unique migrations, its hinterland law and order and its rugged civility; all told with an underlying sense of humour that reminds us why Canada still rejects the culture of handguns." For this project, Keelor had some specific inspiration in mind, continuing in the vein of Leonard Cohen's melancholy songs that accompanied Robert Altman's revisionist western
McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Bob Dylan's work for
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
The score has been predominently composed by Greg Keelor, who sat with guitar in hand watching the film for three days straight, however Blue Rodeo has come together to contribute the closing ballad "Don't Let the Darkness in Your Head".
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Label: Warner Music Canada
Reviews
Skyscraper Soul
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1.
Skyscraper Soul |
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2.
Regular Days |
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3.
Everyone Watched The Wedding |
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4.
Still Want You |
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5.
Wash Me Down |
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6.
Watch Yourself Go Down |
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7.
Don't Know That Much |
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8.
Banks Of The 49 |
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9.
What Is So Wrong |
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10.
Ready To Fall |
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11.
Water's Running High |
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12.
How In The World |
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13.
City Birds |
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14.
With You |
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About The Album
In the spring of 2010, following extensive Blue Rodeo touring, Jim Cuddy began to write music to accompany his wife Rena’s comedic short film Four Sisters. It turned out that some of what he’d written didn’t fit the film but on a creative roll he continued writing. Before long he had the kind of material he felt could make up his third solo album.
"When I write songs for my solo material, the songs tend to be a lot more personal than what I write for Blue Rodeo," says Jim. "I come in here and sit down with all of these instruments and work at building the ideas until a song emerges. Once I’ve demoed the track and played it for the band, we work on fleshing it out."
Production on Skyscraper Soul was handled by Cuddy, guitarist Colin Cripps and Chris Shreenan-Dyck. Jim was joined in the studio by his touring solo band, The Jim Cuddy Band (Colin Cripps, Bazil Donovan, Joel Anderson, Steve O’Connor and Anne Lindsay) and a number of Toronto's top horn players and string players. Many of the album’s songs benefit from the spontaneity of having the musicians set up together in the studio and play live off the floor.
One of the album highlights is "Everyone Watched The Wedding," the record's first single, scheduled for release on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.
"I've never been much of a royalist but this song is about the royal wedding," says Cuddy. " Something about this last wedding got me. When I started reading more about it I realized that there is something about it that is very inspiring. And this was truly a gift. This song just came out. I had come in to the studio to do something completely different and within half an hour I had this song completely sketched out and that doesn't happen, usually there's more work involved."
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