Last night we saw Blue Rodeo at the Metro Centre. We've seen them before in Halifax, and I've decided they are my favorite Canadian band of all time. For the Americans reading, Blue Rodeo is a mix of rock and country and blues and folk and everything in between. There are harmonicas, slide, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, organs, horns, mandolins and anything else they can get their hands on.
Jim Cuddy & Greg Keelor have been playing together since the early 80s, and it shows. The two play off each other so well that you can tell over 20 years of playing gigs and likely late night drunk jam sessions allow each of them to complement each other in a way that bands with a mere 5-10 years together couldn't accomplish.
I think I like the band so much because both guys sing lead vocals, and each have very different vocal styles. It makes for 20 years of songs that have a familiar Blue Rodeo sound but with very different voices - literally and figuratively. It makes for songs that feel like a new, fashionable style from your old stand-by favorite black pants.
So, I'm sitting at the concert watching the band and watching Jamie thinking, "This is awesome; I'd love to go for drinks after the show. Wait, we have a baby and a babysitter...can't do that. I hope Navarre can appreciate Blue Rodeo. Jim & Greg will probably be dead by the time she can go and really enjoy one of their shows."
Then I thought about how I hated my parents' music when I was a kid. It was mostly country, of which I still hate a lot. But there are some gems in there that I wish I could have appreciated earlier in my life. Sorry Dad it took me so long to hear what I was missing.
1 comment:
Blame your dad for most of that country stuff. Yes, I went through my Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Vince Gill period, early 90s. Some of the "old stuff" is still good. But, for the most part, for me it's like fingernails on a chalkboard!
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