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A pre-eminent 26-year career, 11 Juno Awards including 5 wins for Band of the Year, a coveted star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, the keys to the City of Toronto jangling in their pockets, 12 studio albums, two live albums, a greatest hits collection and an award-winning DVD selling in excess of four million copies worldwide, an air-tight case can be made that Blue Rodeo is not only Canada’s quintessential band but also one of its finest cultural ambassadors.
While their warm wrap-around sound, great songs courtesy of powerhouse composing duo Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor (Canada’s Lennon and McCartney), memorable melodies and first class musicianship are readily appreciated, Blue Rodeo owes much of its success to the non-conformist attitude of a band with the edgy air of sweat and risk and tension that makes convention squirm.
Witness, for example, their emergence in the late 1980s as a country rock band when steel-edged metal and polished pop were all the rage or the release of an acoustic album in the early 1990s when the grungiest rock ruled radio. Even, The Things We Left Behind, their latest foray into the counterintuitive will, in addition to all the expected formats, be released as a double vinyl album.
The genesis of Blue Rodeo lies with Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor who became life-long friends at North Toronto Collegiate High School. In 1977 they formed a punk-oriented band called the HiFis which Keelor describes as “garage Mersey beat”. Four years later, the pair moved to New York City where, as Fly To France, they tried unsuccessfully to break into The Big Apple’s club circuit. Back in Toronto in the fall of 1984, Cuddy and Keelor regrouped in the much more supportive Queen Street West music scene as Blue Rodeo, the name chosen to underscore the bluesy country vibe that has been at the heart of their signature sound ever since. They played their first gig at The Rivoli in Toronto on Valentines Day 1985. Outskirts, their debuted album, was released on Warner Music Canada in 1987.
Looking beyond their myriad successes and status as a Canadian musical institution, two salient points become obvious. The most satisfying rewards are found on a personal level and single-minded dedication to the music holds the band together. “Playing with Blues Rode has been one of the great experiences of my life,” says veteran drummer Glenn Milchum. “Not just because they are one of the few Canadian bands to sustain a respectable degree of success for several years, but because there is genuine honesty and integrity in the music, and in spite of hundreds of arguments, ego clashes and hissy fits, there is a lot of love in the band.” “There’s a certain point in a band’s evolution where you realize that your instincts are in sync,” says Cuddy echoing those sentiments. “That’s the lifeblood of this band.”
Blue Rodeo’s plans for the future remain simple and fundamentally unchanged. “Our main ambition is as it’s always been” says Cuddy, “writing new songs and playing them live.” As for those live performances, Cuddy continues, “We use the honest approach, warts and all. We like to go with our strengths and turn our weaknesses up real loud.” www.bluerodeo.com
Ken Wright
