Blue Rodeo looking forward to Halifax return

The band’s Canadian tour will make a stop at the Scotiabank Centre Saturday

CITYnews halifax \ Meghan Groff

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Blue Rodeo is returning to Halifax this weekend.

The band’s Canadian tour will make a stop at the Scotiabank Centre on Saturday, one of four East Coast dates.

One of the lead vocalists, Jim Cuddy, said his band has played in our city dozens of times over the decades, and they’re looking forward to returning.

“When we were first starting out, east was the first place we came,” he told CityNews Halifax. “Halifax had all those big bars, the Misty Moon and the Crazy Horse, so we’d come out every year, maybe sometimes twice a year.”

This latest visit will be in support of Blue Rodeo’s recently released 16th studio album, and first in five years, Many A Mile.

Cuddy said the band had no formal plans for a new record prior to the pandemic, with both he and co-writer/co-vocalist Greg Keelor focused on solo projects.

“It was a bit of a surprise because I thought we were done recording, but I think the time away got people really charged,” he stated.

“Just talking, we realized we should do another record. We had a lot of time, we had the space to do it, and we were both really motivated.”

COVID created unusual circumstances while making their latest offering, with Cuddy and Keelor recording in separate locations while sharing band members — bassist Bazil Donovan, drummer Glenn Milchem, keyboardist Michael Boguski, guitarist Colin Cripps and multi-instrumentalist Jim Bowskill — on a rotating basis.

But soon Blue Rodeo had a dozen new songs displaying their unique and distinctive rock/country mix.

“The great thing about Canada and Canadian music appreciation is it’s not faithful to original forms,” Cuddy explained. “We never had a problem in Canada playing a blended form of music with two distinctly different lead singers.”

“In other countries, like the United States, there’s a lot of pressure to choose one form or another.”

And with more than 35 years of performing  clubs, theatres and arenas across the country, the audience has evolved over time.

“I think some young people have discovered us just by wanting to have something different,” Cuddy said, “but more often than not they’ve been raised in a household where this kind of music was played.”

“We don’t see a lot of our own age category at the very front,” he laughed. “They’re more spread out in the seats.”

In all those decades, Blue Rodeo has had it’s share of squabbles, but Cuddy said they’ve so far been able to avoid the kind of full blown brawl that has ended many other bands.

“We’ve had little snarly messages being sung in songs, you know, sing a nasty line and look at someone you’re mad at, we’ve had people storm off stage, we’ve had it all,” Cuddy said.

“At your most riled up times, everybody’s watching you, so you find subtle ways of getting your point across to the person you’re angry with and having it relatively hidden.”

Cuddy said that’s unavoidable for any group of people who have to spend a lot of time together.

“But if you have the will to continue to make music together, you work those things out.”

Saturday’s show starts at 8 p.m. with Haligonian Jenn Grant opening.

Tickets are still available.