Cuddy takes newest album on countrywide tour
Cuddy revisits classics and breaks new ground on album that’s a ‘great workout’ for his voice
It’s no secret that Jim Cuddy can croon. As the sweet-voiced side of Blue Rodeo, his signature vocals are stamped on Canadian classics from Try to Five Days in July. On his fifth studio outing, Countrywide Soul, Cuddy revisits earlier solo and Blue Rodeo work, as well as introduces new original material.
The title track originally appeared on 2006’s The Light That Guides You Home.
On the new album, the tune is reworked in a live-off-the-floor session recorded in Cuddy’s barn. It turns into a honky-tonk two-step that swings like mad, courtesy of Anne Lindsay’s fiddle.
On the phone during a break from pre-tour rehearsals, Cuddy says that his solo work was always intended to be an alternative to Blue Rodeo, right down to revisiting older material.
“I don’t have a burning desire to do things drastically different, but if the opportunity presents itself, I like to try it,” said Cuddy. “Half the band is Blue Rodeo anyways, so it’s working out in pretty familiar space. But now that Blue Rodeo has put a cap on how many gigs we do each year, it’s not quite enough for me to keep my voice in shape.”
The 63-year-old musician says that the sweet spot seems to be when he is singing four nights a week, and he aims for that as much as possible. When most singers might start showing signs of wear and tear, Cuddy’s pipes still pack a punch after four-plus decades. And the fact that The Jim Cuddy Band favours the country side of his sound is just practical.
“It’s no secret that I like singing country music, and it’s just a great general workout for my voice,” he said.
“I did a jazz gig at the Kensington (Market) Jazz Festival this year to try out other songs, a few standards, that work your voice out in different ways with the breathing and more sliding of blue notes. That’s just as good for you, in general, to try to keep trying new things to keep it flexible.”
Backed by The Jim Cuddy Band, which features Blue Rodeo’s Bazil Donovan (bass) and Colin Cripps (guitar), as well as drummer Joel Anderson, keyboardist Steve O’connor and violinist Lindsay, Cuddy sounds like he’s having a blast. The remake of the title track from his 1998 solo debut All In Time is a perfect example of Countrywide Soul’s appeal.
All In Time opens the new album with a slower tempo and a slow groove build reminiscent of the airy, romantic moments of Five Days in July. Backing mandolins and acoustic guitar ride over the constant, sparse shuffle beat while an organ rounds out the background.
It’s deliciously unforced and sets the tone for the rest of the record. The singer says that recording on his small farm proved the perfect place to get into the groove.
“I knew I wanted to make a record, but I also knew that I wanted
I think if there are downsides to aging, the upside is that you play with people that are so experienced and good at what they do that it’s easy.
to recreate the band,” he said. “So we’d go play in the upper level of the barn, which was a perfect place to play, until around seven at night and then all gather around for a picnic, go swimming, what have you. We did the whole thing like that in just four days, mind you, I had done a great deal of work on it in advance.”
Cuddy spent time picking through older material to determine what would suit the album, writing some new songs and coming up with the eventual track list for Countrywide Soul. For the two covers on the dozen-tune record, he chose songs he loved.
Writer Glenn Sutton’s 1966 song Almost Persuaded was a megahit for David Houston that spent almost three months in the top spot on the Billboard Hot Country charts.
The tune has been revisited by everyone from George Jones and Merle Haggard, to a beloved Icelandic language version by the Nordic nation’s Ragnar Bjarnason and is a de facto classic.
The second cover on Countrywide
Soul is Larry Weiss’s legendary 1975 tune Rhinestone Cowboy. Cuddy doesn’t mess with the familiar Glen Campbell arrangement, preferring to just deliver the song with his voice and “let a perfect song be.”
For the material from his back catalogue, a number of factors were considered.
“Sometimes, like with All In Time, the changes were big ones, and other times, you just go on and celebrate the song and change very little,” he said.
“In the case of the Blue Rodeo songs such as Clearer View (from 2002’s Palace of Gold), it never sat well with me because I felt it was unfinished and needed a third verse, and Dragging On (from 1997’s Tremolo) was intended to be a conversation between two people and that wasn’t going to be Greg (Keelor), and I thought it would be better with a female vocal.”
Ultimately, Cuddy feels that Countrywide Soul came out how he wanted. He’s really looking forward to taking The Jim Cuddy Band back on the road and playing the new record live.
Owing to the nature of the liveoff-the-floor recording sessions, he thinks the band is going to discover new things about the songs in concert, and then probably play around with them.
“The record is supposed to be a testament to just how good those musicians involved in the project are,” he said.
“I think if there are downsides to aging, the upside is that you play with people that are so experienced and good at what they do that it’s easy. I’m just nodding at people, everyone knows when to step up or back for solos and that’s how they play, night in and night out.”
The Jim Cuddy Band is on tour across Canada through January. Visit jimcuddy.com for info.