http://timestranscript.canadaeast.co...article/929284
Blue Rodeo back in town
Published Saturday January 23rd, 2010
Singer Greg Keelor says music reflects stories and events around them
BY ALAN COCHRANE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF
When Blue Rodeo slid into the spotlight of Canadian music in the second half of the 1980s, the sound was changing dramatically and venerable vinyl album was being pushed over the cliff into obscurity by the upstart Compact Disc.
file photo
Old school band Blue Rodeo is back with an updated sound.
Twenty-odd years later, many of the biggest Canadian bands of that era -- Loverboy, Platinum Blonde, Streetheart and Corey Hart -- have fallen into obscurity while Blue Rodeo keeps on touring, writing, recording and releasing new albums on both CD and vinyl format.
"There's lots of things we've accomplished over the years but one of my favourite things is having a double gatefold album," said Greg Keeler in a recent telephone interview from the Blue Rodeo tour bus, on the road somewhere between Banff and Red Deer. "The fact that we put this out on vinyl is one of the favourite things I've ever done for me, I love it."
The band has played in Moncton many times over its long and storied career, from small gigs at hockey rinks and bars to command performances at the Capitol Theatre and the Moncton Coliseum.
Blue Rodeo returns to Moncton this Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Over the years, Blue Rodeo has become known for its eclectic style of music that blends blues, country and folk. Some of its best-known songs include Diamond Mine, Try, Bad Timing, Till I Am Myself Again, Lost Together, Hasn't Hit Me Yet and Cynthia.
You could almost compare the Blue Rodeo music machine to a farming operation that consistently follows its own seasons of opening up the ground, planting the seed of music, waiting patiently for just the right time to harvest, wrapping up their product and then taking it to a market filled with loyal customers. Year after year they continue to deliver the goods, and this time the harvest is exceptional.
The new album, The Things We Left Behind, features 16 songs of poetry-driven music that have been described by fans as some of Blue Rodeo's best ever.
The music and poetic lyrics on this new album seem to flow effortlessly like a refreshing stream, the rhyme and melodies randomly flowing from side to side but somehow falling together just when they should. Lyrically, most of the songs are almost stream-of-consciousness poetry that pack an emotional punch.
In the title song, All The Things That Are Left Behind, Cuddy sings: "Yeah it hurts for a while, but then you find, some days it's just better to feel dead inside, until that day you want to love again."
In another song, Just One Night, he sings: "Leave me here, he said, stretched out on the lawn, I don't think anybody's gonna miss me when I'm gone."
But after all these years, the Blue Rodeo sound is still hard to define. Back when they started, Blue Rodeo was often passed off as simply a twangy country band, but Canadians learned to appreciate its music for its diversity.
Listen to the album and you can still hear bits of country influence, but you can also hear sounds that could be compared to Elvis Presley, the Beatles, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper and many more.
Keelor says the album was made quietly.
"It was a well-rehearsed record and it was written acoustically. My ears were pretty damaged for a while and I couldn't listen to loud music, loud drums or loud electric guitar, so we sat around in a very quiet environment with no microphones at all for anybody and just learned the songs on acoustic guitars and that made a nice little foundation for the record."
As always, the songwriting was shared by Keelor and long-time writing partner Jim Cuddy.
"A lot of the song lyrics do come from events in our lives. Songwriting has always been a way that we sort of reflect upon ourselves and life and the things that happen to us and around us and events and stories we hear, and I think we both enjoy whatever that process is: just taking the time to sit down and go through all that stuff in our head," Keelor says.
"For me it's like seasons. There are times when my notebook seems to fill up with stuff and then when I go to write some songs, I've got stuff to write about and lots of stuff starts occurring to me as I start writing other songs. It all sort of feeds each other.
When songwriting season comes around, Keelor and Cuddy come together and bring their latest ideas to the table.
"We tend to write separately and when it comes time to do a new record we get together and start learning each other's songs and working on the vocals. And when we have a good idea of what the songs are, we bring them to the band. And that changes from time to time. Sometimes the band gets really involved in the arrangements and sometimes its more of how the songs present themselves."
Besides the new album, Keelor was also involved in a new album with the band Cuff The Duke, which opened for them on the last tour.
The band also jumped onto the wagon to write and record the soundtrack for a new movie called Gunless, a Canadian western due for release this March.
The movie is a comedy starring Paul Gross (Due South, Passchendaele) as the Montana Kid, a fictional gunslinger who stumbles into a sleepy Canadian hamlet. The movie was shot on location in British Columbia. Keelor says producers saw Blue Rodeo performing in B.C. and asked them to provide the soundtrack.
The touring season usually begins in late fall or winter for Blue Rodeo and they will travel across the country by bus over the next few months.
"I Love it. It's great to be on the road but it excludes other activities," Keelor says.
After working the road over the years, Keelor says people haven't changed much but the bureaucracy of travelling certainly has.
He certainly prefers travelling by bus than going through tight airport security and shudders at the thought of the new body scanners at airports.
"It really is getting unbearable to travel by plane and it is getting worse.
"We were scheduled to play the weekend after 9/11 and it was a strange thing. We went down and played in New York, but we took a bus down. It's a pretty alienating world out there right now; it's not a carefree existence.
"When I travelled when I was younger, it was pretty carefree. You could go down to America on a whim. You can't do that now.
"Flying domestically was rather enjoyable with no security. But now I really prefer taking the train. The train is great. It reminds me of the way travel used to be."
Blue Rodeo sound still difficult to define
