Blue Rodeo rejuvenated
‘Many a Mile’ comes five years after Toronto collective’s last album, ‘1000 Arms’
Sometimes fate intervenes in mysterious ways.
For example, take Blue Rodeo: the creation of the Toronto collective’s new album “Many a Mile,” released Friday, was as much a surprise to the band’s co-founding songwriters Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor as anyone.
Though it’s been five years since their last studio effort, “1000 Arms,” it seemed it would be another little while before a new batch of songs was cooked up.
But apparently Keelor, 67, had other ideas, unbeknownst to Cuddy, 65.
“As far as I knew, there wasn’t an album planned,” Cuddy said during an interview earlier this week. “Maybe that’s not entirely true, because a couple of years ago when we played Vancouver, Greg said to me, ‘Let’s make another record.’ I was surprised, because I thought that the record before was kind of hard on him: hard on his ears, hard on his head and hard on his psyche.
“I said, ‘Well, let me think about it.’ And … our manager, said, ‘Greg’s waiting on you.’ And I thought I was waiting on him. I guess I got it wrong.”
It was well documented that Keelor had been suffering from a variety of aural ailments, including tinnitus, but the break from performing enforced by the pandemic had allowed him enough rest that he felt rejuvenated.
After finishing promotional duties for “Share the Love,” Keelor wrote “When You Were Wild” — eventually “Many a Mile’s” leadoff track — and set out to record it with sometime Blue Rodeo guitarist Jimmy Bowskill in Bowskill’s Cobourg studio, along with solo album compadres James McKenty and Ian McKeown.
“We built up the track and it sounded great,” Keelor recalled. “And I thought, ‘Maybe this could be a Blue Rodeo record.’ ” Keelor sent “When You Were Wild” and a number of other songs to Cuddy.
“It was a surprise to me to get Greg’s songs pretty much completed,” Cuddy remembered. “And I was overjoyed; these sounded great! They’re great songs and there’s a lot of them.”
The timing was a tad inconvenient because Cuddy was eight songs in for his own solo project, the Jim Cuddy Band, but it didn’t take him long to switch gears.
“I do try to not overlap, so I had to start songwriting again,” Cuddy said. “But I was on a good songwriting roll as well … So I could do an about-face, start writing for the Blue Rodeo record and that was a lot of fun.”
Here’s the intriguing part: Keelor and Cuddy were never in the same studio for the recording process.
“It was really quite inspiring how everyone accepted this different way to make a record,” Keelor said. “Everybody was willing to let go of how everything was before and it was really great.”
Cuddy and Keelor booked the remaining musicians in Blue Rodeo — drummer Glenn Milchem, bassist Bazil Donovan, guitarists Colin Cripps and Bowskill, and keyboardist Mike Boguski — a day at a time to either replace previously recorded parts or fill in new ones.
When they needed to sing on each other’s songs — Cuddy wrote five and Keelor penned seven for “Many a Mile” — they sent each other digital stems and recorded their harmonies in their respective studios.
“It happened the way it happened because of the COVID,” said Keelor. “It was an interesting way to make a record.”
And “Many a Mile” is a great record, straddling the familiar blend of rock, country and pop that the Toronto lads have perfected for the past 37 years on a dozen tunes that mingle Cuddy’s romanticism on tracks like “I Will Wait for You” and “I Think About You” with Keelor’s reflective and sometimes philosophical observations on “When You Were Wild,” “Deep Dark Well” and “Symmetry of Starlight.”
Looking back on the band’s humble Queen Street West beginnings, Blue Rodeo recently revisited its roots with a surprise set at the 40th anniversary of the Cameron House.
“It was a focal point for a lot of musicians and sculptors and artists and video makers back in the mid’80s: a cross-pollinating sort of scene,” Keelor said. “When we started hanging out on Queen Street West, it was Coney Island dogs and a bookstore and the Peter Pan and the Horseshoe and that was about it. So the Cameron is a remarkable spot in that it’s stayed committed to being a haven for the misplaced and the artistic.”
Cuddy said it was remarkable to play a venue where they often held court in the back room during their formative days.
The one thing that comes through in the interview is how much the partners still admire each other and appreciate Blue Rodeo as a vehicle for their muses. After starting out with Bobby Wiseman on keyboards and Cleave Anderson on drums for the albums “Outskirts” and “Diamond Mine,” the trio of Cuddy, Keelor and Donovan have leaned into country with pedal steel guitarists Kim Deschamps and Bob Egan as parts of their lineup at different points, and even gone psychedelic with their albums “Five Days in July,” “Nowhere But Here” and “Tremolo.”
“The funny thing — and Jim and I were talking about this the other day — is that we both love writing songs,” said Keelor. “Part of it is that we’ve been surrounded by great musicians our adult life. It’s inspiring as a songwriter to know that there’s an audience that will listen to it, and that there’s all these musicians we get together and put the song together. It’s a very satisfying endeavour.”
Added Cuddy: “It’s great to have a partner like Greg, who was willing to just keep going. Everything that has ensued since then has seemed like a gift. It occurs to me frequently that I’m just grateful that we’re able to make music, that I’m able to make music with such good musicians.”
Speaking of good musicians, tickets for Blue Rodeo’s 22-date crossCanada tour — including a pair of Jan. 28 and 29 Massey Hall shows — went on sale Friday and Cuddy says 2022 will be a busy year full of “postponed makeup dates” that were bumped due to the pandemic.
Keelor is well aware that his ears are going to be subject to discomforting volumes.
“I have to be prepared and accept that yes, it will put me in some sort of compromised hearing situation,” he said.
“And I’m going to look forward to doing the tour, even though my ears have a hard time with loud volumes. I love singing these songs and being in this band.”
‘‘ Everybody was willing to let go of how everything was before and it was really great.
GREG KEELOR BLUE RODEO