BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition July 2019

A
fter turning off the main
highway, about 90 minutes
outside Toronto, you
drive down a dirt road
followed by another dirt
road that leads to a dead
end to get to Canadian
music legend Jim Cuddy’s
family’s farm.
A modest A-frame
with a new addition attached and a weathered
barn dot a rolling landscape with a hilltop
view of a pond and woods below. Cuddy
offers a warm welcome and a seat at an
immense harvest table in a bright and sunny
kitchen that’s clearly been designed to be the
focal point of indoor activity in this beautiful
country place that he and his wife bought
with his sisters-in-law years ago.
Cuddy will be heading back down that
dirt road soon for another summer of touring,
including a bunch of Western Canada
gigs, both with his original band, Blue Rodeo,
as well as his decades old solo project,
The Jim Cuddy Band (JCB).
More than 30 years into a monumental
music career, Cuddy, clearly, still loves to
play.
After serving up drinks, Cuddy rubs his
hands together in glee discussing making
music with friends, whether it’s around a
campfire, in the barn just outside, or on stage
in front of tens of thousands of people.
“It’s easy to keep it fresh,” he
says with a smile. “JCB has been a
band for 21 years. Remarkable for
any band, let alone a second band.
Playing is fun for us. We don’t get
enough chance to do it.”
Playing live means, there’s always
something to figure out. The
musicianship and the adaptability
of the players allows Cuddy to constantly
reimagine his shows and
the nature of the performances.
“The lifeblood of a band is to
play together, we have so many
great times when we’re doing gigs.
We enjoy it, that’s what’s fun. It’s
enjoyable playing music and it’s
enjoyable playing with people
who are really really good.”
“If there comes
a time the Blue
Rodeo guys
say we should
record, I’ll be
ready.”
BLUE RODEO
Medicine Hat:
Thursday, July 6
Canalta Centre
Cuddy proudly beams, speaking of the
great musicians he gets to work with in Blue
Rodeo and JCB, and three artists — bedrock
bass player Bazil Donovan, guitarist Colin
Cripps and, occasionally, violinist Anne
Lindsay — play with both outfits.
Cuddy likes to stay busy, needs to, and he
formed his solo band, in part, to fill the down
time between Blue Rodeo projects.
A self-described “schemer,” Cuddy loves
making plans and hatching ideas. A recent
scheme saw Cuddy turn this farm into a recording
studio when he spied an opening
in his schedule last September. Itching to
make a new record, he spotted a three-day
gap in his touring and decided to record
a “live from the floor” album in his barn
with his solo band and his latest, the
excellent Countrywide Soul, is the
result.
He’s also a jammer. Regardless of
how busy he is each year at Canada’s
JUNO Awards, Cuddy and his
friends host an epic, late-night
jam suite that’s all about playing
and little about schmoozing.
And every summer, he and his
family host a massive weekend
long party at this farm, with
camping, that inevitably ends
up around the fire pit with
guitars picked and voices
blending around the flames.
Playing guitar one night
by himself in his barn,
Edmonton:
Saturday,August 10
Edmonton Folk Festival
Vancouver:
Saturday,August 17
Vancouver Folk Festival
Tix: $45-88
THE JIM
CUDDY BAND
Victoria:
Thursday, August 15
Butchart Garden’s
Summer Concert Series
Salmon Arm:
Friday, August 16
Salmon Arm Roots &
Blues Festival
Tix: $33.80-$85
trapped inside by a torrential
downpour, the acoustics and the
setting inspired him to call the
band in to record.
And while Cuddy usually has
a firm hand in his recording process,
he wanted the players and the
playing to define the new album. A
tractor trailer with a mobile studio
negotiated the tiny dirt road into
the farm and Cuddy became just
another player in the project.
“I wanted to do it like a kitchen
party; it’s part of the fun. We sat in
our seats and we played the songs
as if we were just playing them for
each other, just sharing the joy of
music, and it worked. You’re not
editing when you’re just playing,
you’re just enjoying how everybody plays. I
just wanted to sit in my chair and be a member
of the band.
“A lot of times I didn’t listen to playbacks;
typically I’d be listening to everything and
that would be how we build a record. It was
nice not to feel chained to every decision.”
With everything being recorded live, there
were no “do-overs,” no re-working of solos or
fine tuning with edits. And clearly that was
part of the fun for Cuddy. He loved giving his
players the space to play.
“It was fun in a three-ring circus, put-up
the-tent and bring-in-the-jugglers kind of
way. I like that, especially if it has a calm and
friendly centre. It’s about what Steve Earle
would say, “magnetize the fucker,” to put that
joy on record.”
He contrasts these sessions with Blue Rodeo’s
process.
“Blue Rodeo recording is very complicated
because there are two singers, two songwriters
and two methods and so it’s very different.
Whatever we have done in the past will not be
what we do in the future, if we record.
“There was a little talk about making another
record but there hasn’t been any talk
since last summer. Greg Keelor has a solo record
coming out so I don’t know when we’ll
get to that point. If there comes a time the
Blue Rodeo guys say we should record, I’ll be
ready, or I’ll just keep going on my own. It’s
fortunate for me to have these choices.”
The new album features reworkings of
some old Blue Rodeo and Cuddy tracks, two
new songs and a couple of cool covers.
Asked if we can expect a full album of covers
some day, Cuddy’s hardcore work ethic
comes out.
“I would do one or two covers on an album,
I wouldn’t do more than that. I feel like my
worth as a musician is about songwriting and
singing and if I’m not doing that, then I’m not
doing my job. If the balance was more towards
covers I just wouldn’t feel right. That is my job
and I’m supposed to do my job. It might be fun
but I wouldn’t be satisfied.” ,
JULY 2019 BEATROUTE 19