CD Odyssey Disc 534: Blue Rodeo

The last Blue Rodeo album I reviewed (“Nowhere To Here”) I ranked as their weakest.  Today, it is my pleasure to review not only their best, but one of the best albums in our collection.

Disc 534 is…. Five Days in July

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 1993

What’s up with the Cover?  A lakeside cabin, tragically engulfed in flames – no doubt from playing too many hot tunes on a summer day.  Fortunately, a lone guitar was able to find an air mattress to cruise to safety.

How I Came To Know It:  Sheila played this album for me shortly after we met.  It was a pretty amazing way to be properly introduced to Blue Rodeo.  It is one of her all-time favourite albums, and it is easy to see why.

How It Stacks Up:  We have twelve Blue Rodeo albums.  This is hands down, without argument, the best of the best – gold medal.

Rating:  5 stars

Recently my guitar teacher taught me the first part of “Five Days in May” and I practically tripped over myself with excitement.  “Five Days in May” is one of my favourite songs of all time.  Now, imagine an album full of songs this excellent – you just imagined “Five Days in July.”

I could never figure out why the song is “Five Days in May” but the album is “Five Days in July.”  Frankly, I don’t care.  Just give me more of this record more often.

The opening track, which I can still only play a portion of (and that poorly) is not a complicated song.  It is a pretty basic set of chords, but like most great songs it is elegant in that simplicity, shifting evenly from minor to major chords back and forth like the gentle rocking of the ocean.  The song seems like it will end after four minutes, but it gives you a three minute guitar noodle at the end that strangely makes it…better.

Lyrically, “Five Days in May” is a picture perfect love song, about how sometimes you just find that right someone and everything clicks.  It is loaded with exceptional lyrics, but my favourite stanza is one that succinctly sums up the strange alchemy of finding your split-apart:

“Looking back it’s hard to tell

Why they stood while others fell

Spend your life working it out.

All I know is one cloudy day

They both just ran away

Rain on the windshield heading south

Oh, she loved the lines around his mouth.”

For all the poignant break up songs Cuddy has given us, he owed us a happy ending, and “Five Days in May” pays that debt.

The next song is back to sad, with Greg Keelor taking his turn to tell of the death of a long love affair.  Again brilliantly expressed throughout but best here:

“I never thought this could happen

But somehow the feeling is gone

You got sick of the patterns

And I got lost in this song.”

Keelor is best when he resists his tendency to engage in stoner-noodle, and “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” has just the right touch of restraint.  It also has the brilliance of Kim Deschamps steel guitar making it all the more mournful.  Although rarely mentioned, the rest of Blue Rodeo are brilliant musicians in their own right.

Did I mention that this is just the first two songs?  I could go on like this about every one of them, but both time – and the recognition that the modern internet reader has a limited focus – prevent me.

So let me summarize:  there isn’t a sour note on this record.  The opening harmonica on “Bad Timing,” is great.  The way “Cynthia” manages to successfully blend a date song with a UFO encounter.  Trust me, it doesn’t just manage the blend, it nails it.

Even the atmospheric sounds Keelor sticks into “What Is This Love” are placed perfectly.  Overdone, this kind of production can ruin a record, but tastefully employed they “Five Days in July” a nice balance against its bluegrass and roots rock base.  Also, no one can convincingly sing “What’s Goin’ On?” quite like Keelor.  I swear the guy revels in singing about not knowing what’s going on.

“’Til I Gain Control Again” is so effortlessly heartfelt that for a good fifteen years I thought it was a Blue Rodeo original.  Turns out it is Rodney Crowell classic.  I found out when I heard the great Emmylou Harris sing it on her great 1975 album, “Elite Hotel.”  The Blue Rodeo version here is every bit as good as Emmylou’s, and that is saying something.

Different songs on the album have appealed to me over the years, but recently I look forward to the penultimate track; Keelor’s “Dark Angel.”  It is a subtle and haunting song about meeting your soul mate, but only in your dreams – waking to wonder how you can find her in this reality.

Dreams are powerful and important and as Keelor points out, sometimes you wake up wondering whether the people you met there were in your dream, or you were in there’s.  If you don’t wonder this, then you aren’t giving a pretty significant part of your life enough thought.

“Five Days in July” is an album that gives dreams the consideration they deserve, and the rest of life besides.  This is a thoughtful album that writes track after track with a timeless grace that makes you think all the songs have been around forever, just waiting to be discovered.  Even a classic five star remake like “’Til I Gain Control Again” just fits in as one of many equals.

Musically, it is everything that makes Blue Rodeo great; Cuddy’s evocative vocals, Keelor’s moody thoughtfulness, and a band that is as tight as they come.  It lays down Blue Rodeo’s alchemical mix of rockabilly, bluegrass and folk, each in perfect measure.

We’ve had this album on hundreds of times, and I’m sure I select it almost as much as Sheila at this point.  The last time I listened to it prior to rolling it randomly on Tuesday was…Saturday.  I’ll probably listen to it again this weekend.  I’ll say thanks to Sheila for introducing me to it, although ‘thanks’ seems woefully inadequate.

Best tracks:  all tracks