Blue Rodeo

With their superb 16th studio album Many A Mile, legendary alt-country/rockers Blue Rodeo discovered that even nightmares like COVID-19 can have silver linings. After decades of non-stop performing, time off the road granted them (enforced, really) much-needed downtime during which creativity bloomed. The resulting 12 songs are remarkably coherent, energized, and buoyed by a constellation of surprising textures and touches. From the twinkly, delicate “Symmetry of Starlight” — which soars on luminous pedal steel and angelic harmonies — to the twangy, seriously rollicking singles “When You Were Wild” and “I Owe It to Myself,” Many A Mile is a snapshot of a peerless group at their peak.

The album is also a fitting addition to Blue Rodeo’s canon of achievements which include the Order of Canada, induction in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and more than 30 JUNO Award wins and nominations.

The band emerged in the early 80’s as a countrified rock band in the era of hair metal and glossy pop. Despite sticking out like a sore thumb (or maybe because of it), their single “Try” became omni-present on radio across Canada and set in motion a three decade long career of headlining every club, theatre and arena in Canada. In 1993, when grunge rock was squeezing commercial rock off the radio, they recorded their most acoustic album, Five Days In July, and scored their biggest hit selling over a half million copies of that one record alone.

Reflecting back on three decades of successes and those early Blue Rodeo days, both Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are able to fully appreciate where the band sits in the pantheon of music. “Success seemed really real when we were entertaining people at The Horseshoe. That was the top of the heap for us,” Cuddy says. “When you look back, you realize that it has just been this beautiful dream.”

Opening act: Jenn Grant

Born on Prince Edward Island, she’s an award winning songwriter and performer, a painter and a producer. The 3 time Juno nominee’s music has been described by Australia’s ‘The Age’ as that of ‘dreamy, harp-and woodwinds folk, and the work of a painter born in paradise’.

Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 8:00pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.placedesarts.com