The Jim Cuddy Band just can’t stay away.
Known as the guitarist and vocalist for Blue Rodeo, Cuddy also has a highly successful 14-year solo career under his belt, and will perform music from his latest album – Skyscraper Soul – to The Banff Centre on Sunday (Jan. 15).
The Outlook spoke with Cuddy about his music last week.
“Originally I did it for self preservation,” he said, explaining why he decided to embark on a solo career. “Greg (Keelor) was the first one in the band to do a solo record, and he did it at a time when we were at a particularly low point in band relations – everyone was pretty sick of each other – so I realized that Greg might not come back and I thought I better figure out if I could do a solo record or not.”
It was under those circumstances that Cuddy decided to make his first solo record, he said, in 1998.
“It wasn’t difficult to do, it was really enjoyable, and it was a good thing for all of us – a whole maturing of our relationship as a band, not to feel like every single thing we did musically had to be done with each other,” he said.
Then, when Blue Rodeo’s internal relations returned to normal, Cuddy decided to keep the solo project going.
“I just kept the band together because I liked it, I liked the style,” he said. “I wanted to have a fiddler in the band and that was not particularly conducive to Blue Rodeo, so from that point of ‘98 on, I kept this band together and every year tried to work on some things.
“It’s always been a good pressure reliever. I really enjoy writing songs and being productive, and it’s just been a very good thing.”
At first, the music was very similar to what he did with Blue Rodeo, he said, but it has changed with the progression of time.
“When it started, it was pretty similar, and when I went out on tour I’d have to do half of my songs from Blue Rodeo because I didn’t have enough material,” said Cuddy. “Gradually, it has become different, and this record is the most removed from my work with Blue Rodeo.
“It follows different themes and with the trumpet, it’s got a different sound. It took me a long time to get here. I’m not a particularly experimental writer or artist, I just gradually get there. It took me 14 years, but I think I got here.”
While Blue Rodeo is defined as being country rock, the Jim Cuddy Band is better described as roots, he said.
“It’s roots music, that’s more accurate,” said Cuddy. “Country rock is the traditional music that we based Blue Rodeo on, but country rock was rock musicians discovering country and the beauties of country music and doing it in their own style.
“We’re not rock musicians anymore, I think we’re roots musicians now. The songs are now based less around sound and more around the content of a song. Roots is a very comfortable term because it encompasses so much. My son is a roots musician and he’s kinda blues with his band, but to a certain degree we’re coming from a redone version of something that’s been done in the past.”
Skyscraper Soul is an album which focuses on urban experiences, something which Cuddy hasn’t greatly explored musically in the past, he said.
“One of the first songs I wrote was “Skyscraper Soul”, and that was in the city,” said Cuddy. “One of the things I’ve been known for as a songwriter is projecting my imagination into the country and natural settings.
“We lived in Banff and Lake Louise for a couple of years, and that landscape was very important and worked its way into our songs. We were formed in and have existed in the city for the whole 30 years that we’ve been a band, but never really written about the city and its inspiration.”
Wandering around a city after a gig has given him some of his greatest moments, said Cuddy.
“So I started to write about that, about the inspiration one finds in the city if you look hard enough,” he said. “There are a few songs on the record from the city looking out. I think the sound of the record was affected by that. I used the trumpet instead of the violin because it was not going to be a particularly countrified record, and the trumpet says more about the cityscape.
“And there’s the normal meandering through my past, songs about my wife and I, a song about the royal wedding and somebody watching the elation and then depression they got from it, song about miracles, and a few others.”
The return to Banff is an experience Cuddy is looking forward to.
“Banff’s a great music place, we love playing there, and The Banff Centre is often where we’ve started tours,” he said. “We all have friends there and love being there, and it’s a very nice sounding room and is very informal – and there’s always a couple of skiers in my band, so we try to work it so we have a day off to go skiing.”
Cuddy’s last performance at The Banff Centre was with Blue Rodeo in September, when they played the new outdoor amphitheatre.
“I thought it was fantastic, it was a great place,” he said. “The wind at the end was serious – like blow-the-stage-down serious – so maybe there needs to be some other engineering to protect it from the weather, but it was a beautiful place to play.”
Playing with Cuddy are Colin Cripps on guitar, Anne Lindsay on violin, Joel Anderson on drums, Basel Donovan on bass, Steve O’Connor on keyboards and Bryden Baird on trumpet. Doug Paisley is opening the show.
