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Cuddy solo sounds
bluer than Blue Rodeo
Expect new album from full band next year
- Jim Cuddy Band, Commodore Ballroom, Saturday, Nov. 11. Tickets $35.
Jocelyn Chan
Contributing Writer
It's been eight years since Jim Cuddy's first solo album, All in Time, not only endeared itself to country music fans but garnered Cuddy a Juno award.
It marked merely one more accolade in his name. After all, Cuddy has spent more than 20 years as a singer, guitarist and songwriter with one of Canada's most beloved country bands, Blue Rodeo.
The Light That Guides You Home marks Cuddy's second foray as a solo artist. He retains the formula that has earned him such a devoted following: he has his trademark love/loss themes, a pleasant blend of pop and country, poetic lyrics and honey-coated vocals.
The first single off Light is Pull Me Through, which is a slight departure for Cuddy. It contains a blatant sense of pain and grief that his past works lacked; given the context Cuddy has found himself in during the recording process, the pain in his vocals is no surprise.
"I saw long-term relationships, couples who've been together for a long time, die," he says. "I've been witness to a lot. My mother's generation, my uncle, long marriages; to see the change, it's an amazing thing. You see people who are strong vaporize a little bit. They don't know what to do or how to define themselves. They don't know how to get out of it.
"Their lives have been reflected off their mate and then it's gone; it's difficult. It was on my mind during the recording."
Despite being surrounded by the dissolution of familial relationships, Cuddy still kept in touch with the political world. He adopts a punk-rock attitude towards the United State's Republican government on One Fine Day, albeit with a pop-country twang, although the lyrical content could conceivably have been written by Propagandhi or Anti-Flag. One Fine Day is the most pointedly political song Cuddy has released.
"I don't know why I haven't written many songs like that; I don't often write them," Cuddy says, but adds that the resentment has been building for quite some time.
"I'm horrified at the Bush administration. As someone who's liberal, I think for someone who is left of centre, there's a feeling like it's not your time. I think it's devastating in the course of human history."
The Light That Guides You Home isn't all about devastating losses and politics, though. Cuddy opens up his road diaries in Countrywide Soul, taking a look at the sights of his cross-country travels. He pokes fun at drunken marriages in Married Again, a raucous, comedic honky tonk rocker about a divorced couple who get drunk in Las Vegas. The next morning, they wake up and realize they've gotten hitched. Cuddy laughs when it's mentioned that his song parallels a Simpsons episode and that the song's protagonists could contend for a Darwin award.
"The idea came from a sidebar from some paper in the States," he says. "It's an ode to human stupidity: this couple, they drink, drink, drink. They have a renewed ardor. Then they wake up to find they have to go back for another divorce. That's stupidity."
Married Again features renowned alt-country singer Kathleen Edwards on vocal duties. If the song draws comparison to Johnny Cash and June Carter, Cuddy won't be disappointed; he says Married was written with the intention of re-creating the feel of older Cash/Carter duets.
Cuddy's usual singing partner in Blue Rodeo, Greg Keelor, has also hit the road to promote his solo album, Aphrodite Rose. The band's bassist and backing vocalist, Bazil Donovan, will take on the same role as part of Cuddy's band.
"This fall is all about solo records," Cuddy says. "Next year, we'll work on a new Blue Rodeo record."
published on 11/10/2006
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