CD Odyssey Disc 580: Blue Rodeo

As the sidebar notes, I can introduce newly purchased albums ahead of the random system of the Odyssey, but in practice I rarely do it.  I just like the random experience of not knowing what I’m getting next, and new albums get enough love from me as it is.

The one exception is when I go see a concert associated with a new album – that way I can review bot the album and the concert at the same time.  That’s the case with this next record.

And if you’re wondering, ‘isn’t Logan watching football right now?’ – I am taping the game until I’m done this review.  It is my New Year’s resolution to give my various writing projects a higher priority in my life.  Five days in, it feels great.

Disc 580 is…. In Our Nature

Artist: Blue Rodeo

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? Artistic depiction of steel girder construction spelling out the album title, with a house in front presumably to show how huge the steel girder construction is.  This cover had me wondering who would go to such trouble just to spell out “IN OUR NATURE” in steel girders, and then wait a few years for it to grow over with vines and flowers? They probably should have spent at least some of that time keeping up the house in front, which looks to be in a sad state of repair.

How I Came To Know It:  This was just me buying the new Blue Rodeo album when it came out.  Technically, my friend Chris alerted me to the fact that there was a new album, and arranged for the concert we saw on Saturday as well – thanks, Chris!

How It Stacks Up:  With this new addition, we now have 13 Blue Rodeo albums, which I believe is all of them.  Of the 13, “In Our Nature” comes in at around tenth, just behind “Tremolo” (reviewed way back at Disc 144).

Rating:  3 stars

“In Our Nature” is a return to Blue Rodeo’s atmospheric, rockabilly roots – a fitting decision for a band in the midst of celebrating their 25 years of music.

The album has the same combination of Jim Cuddy’s mournful ballads and Greg Keelor’s atmospheric mood pieces, but the stripped down production of their two previous albums (2007’s “Small Miracles” and 2009’s “The Things We Left Behind”) is replaced with a return to the more layered feeling of their early efforts.

For the most part, it works, I think because that despite the more layered approach the songs on “In Our Nature” are actually fairly simple melodically, and in many ways very traditional bluegrass or ‘old-timey’ music.  Showing your roots is definitely back in the world of alt-country, and I for one am very happy with the trend when it is handled right.

Cuddy and Keelor’s have such individual styles that you can tell who is responsible for a song within the first few notes. It isn’t just the song’s construction, it goes all the way to the production.  Keelor likes a big, echo-filled sound on his work, and Cuddy is more traditional country the way he puts things together.  I like both, but I tend to prefer Cuddy’s approach and on “In Our Nature” Keelor gets the bit in his mouth a bit too much, but not so badly as to harm the overall record.

The album starts out strong, with “New Morning Sun” as Cuddy starts the song off with these tentative and foreboding lines:

“Maybe now we could be lovers

Share all the darkness in our souls”

As the song progresses it really isn’t all that foreboding at all; sharing the darkness in your soul is just part of being with someone.  By the time the chorus hits the song is a full call to celebration, and the melody and rhythm make for a real ear-wormer.

Keelor’s offering on the second track, “Wondering” is his best on the record as well.  It is roomy and comfortable and not too drowned in production.  Michael Boguski’s work on the organ is excellent and makes the song dreamy and thoughtful. 

As I noted earlier, these songs are very much a return to traditional Blue Rodeo fare, and some sounded a bit too much like previous work.  However, since I like those early songs, that wasn’t too much of a draw back for me.  There are places where the vocals are given an odd phrasing and others where the piano takes a solo where I think the song calls for guitar, but mostly the boys get it right.

I was quite pleased with myself to have identified “Made Your Mind Up” as a waltz.  At least I think it has that rise and fall and 1-2-3 action that made me feel like waltzing.  This being Blue Rodeo, this particular dance would be filled with the unpleasant conversation of a collapsing relationship, but that’s part of what makes it a good song.

Overall, “In Our Nature” doesn’t tackle a lot of new ground, but it covers the old ground pretty well, and while it isn’t as consistently strong as some of their albums, it has enough gems strewn throughout to be yet another good record from a band with plenty of them.

Best tracks:   New Morning Sun, Wondering, Over Me, Made Your Mind Up

The Concert – January 4, 2014 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena

Sheila and I had seen Blue Rodeo twice before at this venue (for the “Palace of Gold” and “Are You Ready” tours respectively), and if it weren’t for the interest from our friends Chris and Allison we likely would’ve given it a pass this year.  I’m glad we didn’t.

The main reason I stopped going to Blue Rodeo concerts was the same reason I stopped going to Leonard Cohen concerts; the setlist didn’t get changed up enough.  “Five Days in July” is Blue Rodeo’s greatest record, but it is twenty years old and I don’t want to hear three-quarters of the songs off of it every time I go see them.

This time around the band totally addressed this concern, and gave me some of the deeper cuts I’ve been longing for.

The band played two sets, and the first featured all songs off of the new album, which I loved.  A band should be keen to play their new material and an audience willing to go to the trouble of seeing them live should hopefully be filled with people who are interested in hearing it.

Even if “In Our Nature” isn’t my favourite album, I really enjoyed it live, and because the songs were new to the band, there wasn’t much ad-libbing.  It sounded very much like it does on the record, only with a nice organic quality.

The second set was all older stuff, which was also great, and got the crowd rolling down to the front of the stage to dance about (not me though, I’m old and liked my padded seat).

I missed the first song as I had an ill-timed nature call of my own.  I only missed one song, “Diamond Mine” and it is not one of my favourites anyway, so all good.

There were still a few songs off of “Five Days in July” but a more tastefully restrained number.  I loved that they played “Dark Angel” which is a beautiful and sometimes overlooked track.  I’ve been learning “Five Days in May” on guitar so when it started my brain started going “Em, D, Am, C,” but in the end understanding the song’s construction just made me enjoy it more.

There was a bit more off of “Outskirts” than I would have liked, it not being my favourite album (yes, heresy, I know) but the crowd liked that, and at least they stuck with “Heart Like Mine” and “Try” rather than “Joker’s Wild” or “Piranha Pool.”

The band wasn’t as tight as I’ve heard at previous concerts, and I caught a couple of foul notes in the mix, but that just might be my ear being trained more of late. I didn’t mind, because the songs had a nice organic flow to them, and were played with feeling. The keyboard player, Michael Boguski, was a star of the show, and it was nice that the fans appreciated his excellence.

In the past, Blue Rodeo would tend to noodle just a bit too much, but at this show they hit the sweet spot; more than you’d hear on the record, but nothing self-indulgent or aimless.  They had a lead guitar guy as well who could really wail, and gave the show a bit more of a rock edge than it has had in the past.  I liked this and I didn’t.  On the plus side, he was an excellent player.  On the minus side, I enjoy hearing Cuddy and Keelor play, and they took more of a back seat as a result.

In addition to all the big hits, the guys seemed to put a real effort into picking some deep tracks from early records.  The highlight for me was “Disappear” off of “Tremolo” which was a song I specifically mentioned on the walk down – I can only assume Blue Rodeo were walking right behind me and overheard me.

Cuddy and Keelor still have good voices despite not being spring chickens.  Cuddy particularly was still able to nail high falsetto.  He had me thinking of how Johnny Horton would’ve sounded if he could have survived to middle-age.

The audience was pretty well behaved.  Those who wanted to stand and dance did it where it made sense (in front of the stage) and there wasn’t too much talking during the show.  There were a couple of idiots behind us (how is it that concert idiots always seem to be seated behind you, and never in front of you?  Cheaper seats?) but I was mostly able to tune them out with good success.

And of course, the tradition of making the audience sing “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” was upheld.  I’d say we did OK, but shouldn’t quit our collective day jobs.  This, and Steve Earle getting the audience singing “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” are two of my favourite live traditions – never stop doing this, guys.

Having taken almost a decade off from seeing Blue Rodeo this concert made me glad to be back.

A final note on the opening act, the Devin Cuddy band.  I was not terribly impressed when he opened for Lindi Ortega last November (reviewed here) but with a full band backing him, he was much better.  Fun songs that showed wit and insight, and without Devin having to do the entire mix on a single keyboard, a much better overall sound.