On June 11, Jim Cuddy will co-host with Doug Gilmour the 6th Annual Dougy, Cuddy & Friends Celebrity Bowl for Special Olympics Canada Foundation.  This is always an inspiring afternoon of great fun and all for a very worthwhile cause. You can also be involved by submitting your own team, sponsoring a celebrity, or by contributing to Dougy’s or Cuddy’s pledge goals.  Visit the Dougy, Cuddy & Friends Celebrity Bowl website for all of the details.

This past weekend in Vancouver, BC, Blue Rodeo added another Juno to their list of accomplishments.  Blue Road was awarded Music DVD of the Year at the Juno Gala Evening presentations Saturday, March 29.

This win was just part of a big weekend for the guys.  Friday night saw the Rockers finally beat the NHLers in the Juno Cup.  “I don’t know how this happened,”, said team captain Jim Cuddy. “We’re certainly not supposed to win.” Other highlights included the Juno Songwriters’ Circle, featuring Jim Cuddy and many others.

It seems that the only crack in the armour was a Juno Cup half-time show sing-off that saw NHL legend Lanny McDonald beat our Jim Cuddy. All in good fun of course!

Congratulations Blue Rodeo!

This Sunday, March 29, the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts will host the Juno Songwriters’ Circle – Songs and Stories by Some of Canada’s Finest Songwriters. This event will be hosted by Hawksley Workman and will feature our own Jim Cuddy & Greg Keelor along with Buffy Sainte-Marie, members of Doc Walker, Jacob Hoggard (Hedley), Ndidi Onukwulu, and Sarah Slean.

Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster, or if you aren’t in the Vancouver area, listen live on CBC Radio 2 at 12 noon PST.

The Jim Cuddy Band performed at Massey Hall this past Saturday night (February 14), and the best way to capture the feeling at this Valentine’s Day show would be with three S’s: Smiling, Singing and Swooning!  Read reviews from the BlueRodeo.com community in the forums here and here, and check out this terrific article published in the Toronto Star just before the concert.

The Juno awards nominations (Canada’s Grammy’s) were announced this morning, February 3, during a media conference at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York Hotel.  Blue Rodeo have been nominated in the Music DVD of the Year award for Blue Road.

Many of the Blue Rodeo One Degree artists were also honoured with Juno nominations, including Great Big Sea, Ron Sexsmith, Matt Mays & El Torpedo, Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Slean, and Kathleen Edwards. The awards will be presented in Vancouver on March 29.  Congratulations everyone!

As you can see, we have a brand new look here at BlueRodeo.com.  We hope that you like the new changes.  We felt that it was time for the site to get a bit of a polish – spruce it up a bit!

We’ll have some nice new features for you in the coming weeks, and you’ll still find all of your old favourite things about the site.

Have a look around, and let us know what you think.  Use the poll on the side of the page here, and leave a comment in the forums.

If you have some personal comments, please feel free to email us at help@BlueRodeo.com.

Blue Rodeo are on their way to California for a handful of shows.  If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in San Francisco, Los Angeles or Santa Barbara near the end of February, head on over to the BlueRodeo.com Store to grab some tickets to these shows.  Full concert details can be found on the Tour page.

War Child Canada is excited to announce another exceptional night of music, An Evening with Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, which will take place at The Dakota Tavern in Toronto on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  This special night will be the third Dakota Nights for War Child benefit, a unique monthly concert series featuring very intimate performances by celebrated artists, hosted by The Dakota Tavern and War Child Canada.  All proceeds from these events will go to support War Child Canada, a registered charity that provides humanitarian assistance to war-affected children in some of the most devastated regions of the world. Tickets for An Evening with Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are $50 and can be purchased at the door on the night of the show.

Twenty some years after the formation of Blue Rodeo, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are widely respected as one of Canada’s best songwriting teams. Since the release of their debut album Outskirts in March 1987, Blue Rodeo has established themselves as one of the most successful and well known contemporary bands in Canadian music history. Over the course of their stellar career, Blue Rodeo has released eleven studio albums, two live albums, a Greatest Hits collection and an award winning DVD, selling in excess of 4 million copies around the world.  Blue Rodeo has won numerous Canadian music awards, including eleven Juno Awards.

War Child Canada is an award-winning charity which provides opportunities and long term solutions for war-affected children, focusing on education, strengthening children’s rights, reducing poverty and fostering self reliance.  War Child Canada works in partnership with local people and organizations to build sustainable programming that empowers children and their communities. War Child Canada currently provides active support to communities in Afghanistan, Sudan (Darfur), Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Georgia. For more information please visit www.warchild.ca.

The Dakota Tavern is one of Toronto’s newest live music venues, located just north of Dundas Street West on Ossington Avenue.  Set downstairs in a dimly-lit basement with character in every corner, The Dakota Tavern serves up live music, serious drinks, and simple, good food seven nights a week, plus a Bluegrass Brunch on Sundays. For more information please visit www.thedakotatavern.com.

We have another exciting concert announcement for you.  The Jim Cuddy Band will be performing Wednesday, February 11 at the Showplace Theatre in Peterborough, ON.  And once again, BlueRodeo.com is the only place you can buy your best seat tickets before the general public.  Make sure you are a BlueRodeo.com member today because this presale happens TODAY – Thursday, December 4 at 11am EST.  Buy your tickets through the BlueRodeo.com Store.

Blue Road CD/DVD Bonus Offer

We have added a nice little bonus for everyone that purchases Blue Road from BlueRodeo.com – an exclusive video!  After you have bought the live CD/DVD, you will receive an email with your instructions to download your very own copy of “Good Year For The Roses” – unedited and in its entirety.

Cheers!

In celebration of Mr. Cuddy’s birthday today is an exclusive to iTunes Canada release of “Arrenpentido”.  This is Alex Cuba‘s Spanish adaptation of “Bad Timing”.  The story of how this song came together is quite interesting – you can read about it here. Listen to CBC Radio 2 Drive this afternoon, Tuesday, December 2 as Alex Cuba is Rich Terfry’s special in-studio guest.

Meanwhile, here is the link to the iTunes Store where you can purchase your own copy of this song.  Happy Birthday Jim!

Arrepentido (Bad Timing)