25 years of Blue Rodeo, album by album

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Blue Rodeo's current lineup. Left to right: Michael Boguski (keyboards), Bazil Donovan (bass), Greg Keelor (guitar, vocals), Jim Cuddy (guitar, vocals), Bob Egan (pedal steel, guitar, etc.), Glenn Milchem (drums).

Photograph by: Heather Pollock , Warner Music Canada

MONTREAL - Few things in life can be counted on for a quarter-century, but Blue Rodeo has been a reliable part of Canadian music?s bedrock since its first album appeared in 1987, with no extended periods of inactivity or creative droughts. The band?s 25th-anniversary celebrations have spilled over into the new year with a comprehensive cross-country tour, which stops at Place des Arts on Friday, Feb. 8. This follows the remastering of their first five albums, which are gathered in the box set 1987-1993 along with demos, outtakes and a remixed version of Outskirts. The collection documents Blue Rodeo?s evolution from the spiky country-rock bar band of that debut to the acoustic bliss of 1993?s Five Days in July, but the story obviously didn?t end there. In separate interviews with The Gazette, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor ? the group?s co-founders, singers and songwriters ? took a look back through their discography.

Read the complete transcript of our interview with Jim Cuddy here.

Read the complete transcript of our interview with Greg Keelor here.

Outskirts (1987)

A mind-expanding fusion of country, rock, jazz and punk influences that entered the mainstream thanks to the yearning ballad Try, Blue Rodeo?s debut sounded like nothing else at the time. Band members have suggested that producer Terry Brown?s command of the studio didn?t leave much room for their input, and there are some concessions to ?80s convention. Keelor?s remix smoothes out the dated flourishes and remodels some songs with alternative vocal or instrumental takes. Of the Outskirts lineup, only Keelor, Cuddy and bassist Bazil Donovan remain in the band.

Top tracks: Rose-Coloured Glasses, Try

Jim Cuddy: I always felt that (the original mix) was of the era, but we weren?t really of the era. So I would listen to these big cannon-like drums and think, ?Well, I don?t know.? It?s not how we ever envisioned ourselves sounding. ? But maybe that helped us at the time ? that we had a contemporary sound but a very different style.

Greg Keelor: I think the songs have held up really well. It was very pleasant to go back and listen to those songs. It was funny to go back and listen to my singing, though, and realize that I would start a song in an American accent and finish it in a British accent. It was just a little too close to my influences at the time. But there?s a few lines here and there that I sing in my true voice, and when I went back to remix, on a few tracks ? I used the vocals off the floor rather than the overdub vocals. They were a little more true to my own voice.

Diamond Mine (1989)

Seeking a more hospitable recording environment, Blue Rodeo holed up in a vintage Toronto theatre with co-producer Malcolm Burn, a proteg? of Daniel Lanois. The resulting album is gloriously insular, with the band sounding beholden to nothing but its own muse.

Top tracks: How Long, Diamond Mine

Keelor: When I was in Crash Vegas (in the early days of Blue Rodeo), we would practise in Hamilton, and Jocelyne Lanois (Daniel?s sister) was the bass player. And there was one night after a practice when I was driving Daniel Lanois to the train station in Toronto from Hamilton, and I picked his brain and told him we didn?t like the recording process and we wanted to figure out a new way to make albums. And he said, ?Well, you don?t have to go into a studio, you know.? ? That was a eureka moment.

Cuddy: Malcolm was not into any hit-making manipulation sonically. Not at all. Don?t sweeten the drum sound, don?t do this, don?t do that. And we were all into that.

Keelor: And then we went down to New Orleans to mix that record ? and that was great. That was more how we thought records should be made: It should be everybody around, drunk and arguing about how loud this and that should be.

Cuddy: It initiated this idea that we were going to participate in the recording process ? that whatever our artistry was in the studio, for better or worse, we were going to participate in it.

Casino (1990)

Not for the last time, a Blue Rodeo disc offered a stark contrast to its predecessor. Where Diamond Mine was sprawling and exploratory, Casino was lean and focused. The recent reissue includes demos that sound fully realized on their own.

Top tracks: Til I Am Myself Again, Trust Yourself

Keelor: I always loved those demos for Casino. And I thought the record was sort of a disappointment compared to the demos.

Cuddy: We had done a record where everything was wide open, played as long and as fully as we thought was necessary, and what we wanted to do was to see what we sounded like distilled. ? We realized after both those records that, OK, the truth for us lies somewhere in between.

Keelor: The label in the States was really involved: they wanted us to go down to Los Angeles, they wanted us to use an American producer. They were putting in the investment and they were going to promote the record big-time. So because of all of that, we went down to Los Angeles and did it with Pete Anderson. ? He was pretty hardcore on things being tight and poppy. He said, ?What?s the point of recording a song if you can?t get it on the radio?? ... It?s a lot of people?s favourite Blue Rodeo record. They like that it?s so bright and poppy and all that. But ultimately, I think we felt a little let down. We loved it at the time. We really did. But for the next record, we thought, ?We?re going to do this one on our own again, because that didn?t entirely work out.?

Lost Together (1992)

The communal title track would become one of Blue Rodeo?s signatures, but was hardly representative of an album whose songs ranged from furious rockers (Where Are You Now) to stoned epiphanies (Angels). The introduction of longtime drummer Glenn Milchem and the swan song for keyboardist Bob Wiseman, whose stream of consciousness was integral to Blue Rodeo?s early shows.

Top tracks: Rain Down on Me, Lost Together

Keelor: In those days, the band would be drastically different from record to record, and I think that as songwriters, we felt like anything goes. I still feel like that as a songwriter. But I think (Lost Together) was us trying to do many different things on one record. Everything from acoustic fingerpicking to loud electric rock ?n? roll.

Cuddy: Bobby?s leaving was potentially very devastating, because he was such an enormous part of the band. But if you listen to Lost Together, you realize that we?d moved beyond the band that played a style that required an eccentric keyboard solo, and we were starting to lay down songs that were just ? songs! And then we would decide on what kind of instrumentation it needed. We?d put a little pedal steel in, we started to play a little violin, so the concept of the band was broadening at that point.

Keelor: Just on a personal thing, for Jim and me, I think that was our hardest time, when we were seeing things differently. I don?t really know why. But yeah, I think that was the hardest point of our artistic visions of the band. It was all little details and things you get hung up on: how the band is seen in videos and all that sort of stuff.

Five Days in July (1993)

The discography?s creative and commercial crown jewel had modest beginnings, conceived as a stopgap release. But then, modesty is an undeniable part of the enduring appeal of Five Days, recorded at Keelor?s farm with the band?s extended family present. Few albums possess such a warm atmosphere and exquisite sense of place.

Top tracks: 5 Days in May, Hasn?t Hit Me Yet

Cuddy: We told the record company we were just going to do a sideline record. Our version of an EP ? something that was acoustic, just to buy a little time, and we?d go back and do an electric record next. And then it turned into something different. ? We were doing all the playback outside, because it was beautiful weather and we had the (recording) truck. So we?d stand outside the door and listen to it. I just remember being smitten by how beautiful it sounded ? the acoustic guitars sounded so big and full, and they had such an effect on you. And I think that we became pretty mesmerized with what we could do with this record ? not having any idea how we would sell it, which didn?t matter.

Keelor: It was the exact opposite of a closed session. While we were in the living room recording, in the kitchen right beside us there were people drinking and smoking and just having a party, and there were people out on the deck. We?d be recording and people would be walking through. It was super casual. And I think the location did have an effect. It sort of put a breath in the music. You can feel the night air in it sometimes.

Cuddy: (The album?s success) was such a nice surprise. Maybe audiences were in the same mood as us at the time. Maybe they were tired of the blunt sword of rock ?n? roll and wanted something that had a little bit more sweetness to it.

Nowhere to Here (1995)

A fractured album in sound and spirit. While the recording sessions were problematic, the result broadened Blue Rodeo?s palette nearly as much as Lost Together, featuring some of the most outr? compositions in the catalogue.

Top tracks: Girl in Green, Side of the Road

Cuddy: Nowhere to Here is definitely the one that is the most psychologically scarring for me. That was sort of the evil twin of Five Days. We made it at Greg?s, but it was winter, and we were trying to retrieve whatever had been magic about that previous one, and everything was wrong. Everything. Greg hurt himself, the band was not getting along at all, the songs were pretty dark ? although I listen back, and I think some of them are interesting. But they?re also all over the place; they have no coherence. And Greg was experimenting, which was not sitting well with me or ? well, with me, anyway. And it was just a nightmare. Where I felt so inspired a year earlier, I felt completely trapped and just wanted to get the f--- out of there.

Keelor: OK, that would have been a hard time for me and Jim, too. But I love Nowhere to Here. I think it?s a great record. I had a hard time in it, but that was because I fell and I broke ribs, so I was pretty f---ed up. ? I wanted it to be really extreme on both sides: I wanted it to be really extreme rock weirdness, and a really extreme folky country thing. But also, I wanted it to be very different from Five Days.

Cuddy: I think in the end I protested everything: I don?t think I went to the mastering ? I think I didn?t even want it to come out. ? I guess in the long life of a band, everybody has a point where they bottom out, and that was mine.

Tremolo (1997)

Back on an even keel, after the implicit threat of a breakup carried by the stress of the previous sessions and the release of Keelor?s first solo album, Gone. A much gentler effort than Nowhere to Here, but with a similar willingness to wander: the moonlit Falling Down Blue was a far cry from Graveyard?s fuzz-tone ecstasy.

Top tracks: Disappear, It Could Happen to You

Keelor: I didn?t really think I would leave. I always make the joke that after Gone, I had a warehouse full of T-shirts that said ?Greg Keelor, formerly of Blue Rodeo? that never sold, because Gone bombed so drastically.

Cuddy: We had all bartered a piece and agreed that we did not want to break up, and we did want to figure out how to start the next phase of the band. Because obviously, one phase was over. At the end of Nowhere to Here, whatever that innocent phase was was over. So we had to figure out, well, what are we going to do? And the only problem with Tremolo is that it?s a bit of a tremulous record. It?s just a little bit safe. We were so cautious around each other that we just didn?t put our heart and soul into that record ? because we were worried about getting our heart and soul stomped on. I think it?s got lots of lovely stuff on it, but it?s very carefully played, and I think those songs had a better life when they were played live, because by that point we were gaining our mutual confidence again.

The Days in Between (2000)

The most concise album since Casino and the most focused since Five Days, although Blue Rodeo?s principals remain split over the calibre of the songwriting.

Top tracks: Cinema Song, Rage

Cuddy: We were trying to be as direct as we could, and to strengthen everything. Where Tremolo had been a little anemic ? not lyrically anemic, but instrumentally anemic ? I think we were trying to be a little more forceful on that.

Keelor: Gee, I haven?t heard that record in a long time, so I don?t even know what it sounds like.

Cuddy: I think that had good songs and it was creatively arranged, but for some reason those are songs Greg doesn?t like and we never play them.

Keelor: Did I have any good songs on that one? (Pauses) Oh, Rage. I like Rage off that record. That?s a good song. And Disappear. Is that on there?

Gazette: No, that?s on Tremolo.

Keelor: Oh. So yeah, that might be the runt of my litter, then, that record.

Cuddy: Maybe there?s not enough vibe in it for Greg. I don?t know. It?s sort of when he grew tired of himself writing rock songs.

Palace of Gold (2002)

The boldest rejuvenation in the catalogue, featuring strings and a prominent brass section that transformed Blue Rodeo into a swinging soul band. Recorded in the group?s new studio.

Top tracks: Homeward Bound Angel, Walk Like You Don?t Mind

Cuddy: That was huge. First of all, having our own studio, and being able to work at our own pace in a place that we were very comfortable. The merger of everybody?s love of certain aspects of soul music ? and it was great to work with horns. I?d always wanted to be a bit of a blue-eyed soul singer, and Greg had his own version of that.

Keelor: It?s funny ? you look at all these bands in history, and when they bring in outside members they get on their best behaviour. And that sort of happened to us. The Days in Between, yeah, I don?t think that?s our greatest record. And I don?t really know where we were heading. So the idea of bringing in horns: Yeah, OK, we?ll see what happens. But then you get these four really incredible musicians, and they?re hanging around all the time and they?re really upbeat and positive ? it has an effect on you. It really does. You can?t be sniping at each other the same way, because you have these four really nice guys ? four cousins that come over for dinner. ? And I know that personally, I was writing better songs again. I was writing songs I could get behind.

Are You Ready (2005) and Small Miracles (2007)

Somewhat of a package deal in retrospect, neither disc sporting an overarching concept or marking a dramatic evolution, but both spotlighting the comforting, intuitive interplay of a band that, after several albums of searching, sounds at peace with itself.

Top tracks: Phaedra?s Meadow, Don?t Get Angry (Are You Ready); So Far Away, C?mon (Small Miracles)

Cuddy: Are You Ready was definitely reflective of Greg losing his dad, and the long process of his dad passing. And with Small Miracles, yes, I think those are kind of a double album. Lyrically they?re a little different from what came before; I think we were starting to reflect ourselves as older people, and that was comfortable for us, dealing with different subjects ? dealing with loss, certainly not dealing with youthful subjects anymore. And they were both made in our studio, and using bits and pieces of what we had done with Palace of Gold, like the strings, and so I guess there?s a bit of a through line between those two.

The Things We Left Behind (2009)

Blue Rodeo?s discs have rarely conformed to the outdated 45-minute regulation time, so the decision to release a double album had less to do with quantity and more to do with structure and presentation. The music itself plays like an encyclopedia of strengths, from soul nuggets to epic jams, while continuing to incorporate new touches, like the halo of orchestration that illuminates the sort-of title track.

Top tracks: All the Things That Are Left Behind, Never Look Back

Cuddy: Radiohead had said, ?The album is dead. We?ll never make albums anymore.? And I thought, ?Well, then I?m just so glad that we?re making a double album.? I think that rumours of its death were grossly overrated. It was wonderful to try to create something in four sections, and try to arrange the songs so that they worked in little movements. And there was kind of something grand about that record. I think we were ready for a bit of a statement record. Small Miracles had been a quiet album, and The Things We Left Behind is a bit of a broader statement.

The future

Blue Rodeo?s 13th studio album is expected in the fall. Recorded at Keelor?s farm, with guitar contributions from longtime associate Colin Cripps, the disc will be the band?s first since Keelor began experiencing serious hearing problems.

Cuddy: I don?t think (Keelor?s hearing) has affected the tone of the songs, but the direct effect is that it?s brought Colin Cripps into the band to help out with some of that electric guitar playing that Greg doesn?t want to do anymore, because he?s worried about hurting his ears ? and I can understand that. Where Greg and myself used to try to be three or four people doing guitars and then overdubs, now we have Colin, and the three parts are all we need.

Keelor: I think there?s some cohesiveness to this one, and I don?t know why that is. Sometimes Jim?s songs and mine match up, and sometimes they don?t. And on this one, they?re matching up. ? And I think, funnily enough, listening to the box set has reminded everyone of certain things. Maybe I?d say people are playing with a certain purpose, rather than just playing along.

Gazette (to Cuddy): I read a recent interview with Greg where he was theorizing that the band might stop after this next album and you might go full time with your solo career.

Cuddy: (Laughs) That?s the first I?ve heard of that. I didn?t know that. I?ll have to ask Greg about it. But I don?t think so. It?s what we do for a living, and I?m not interested in going solo full time. I like it as a sideline, but I like my main act the most.

Keelor: Oh, that was probably just me being funny. We?ll do this record, and then there will be another tour. But that?s as far as we?ve ever thought as a band. We?re sort of amazed that we get to keep on thinking that way ? that we?ve never really had a plan. We just do what we?ve always done, and it continues.

? Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

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Source: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/years+Blue+Rodeo+album+album/7906858/story.html

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