It could happen even to Jim Cuddy

Groove Innerviews

“I was 11 years-old when we moved from Montreal West”.

Ah, finally we got an explanation as to whenever I spoke about things “Montreal”, why the long-time Blue Rodeo front-man and solo star seem to expound expertly upon said subject like a real empty yeller.

This was the discovery I made during Cuddy’s recent stop in town for a show at MTelus as well as a song-writer’s presentation at the Indigo bookstore downtown.

The book store gig was his second after a similar event in Oshawa.

Cuddy plays selections from his songbook and answers questions from fans alike; including one from a 10 year-old in Oshawa. He asked me if I ever stuttered when I sang or forgot words onstage or had to burp or something.”

“That’s a very perceptive question because of course in a long career; all those sorts of things are going to happen. I told him we have to figure out ways of masking it and we’re pretty good at that. You get really good at faking words. They’re not coherent words but somehow have the right sound and the end with the right rhyme”, Cuddy smiled and winked at me.

Onstage con jobs aside we also had the opportunity to discuss his new solo album, his sixth recording, All The World Fades Away, alongside almost 20 Blue Rodeo sets.

A mature look at relationships and exactly what they mean to Cuddy are represented on this 12 track collection of new tunes.

When asked if I was barking up the wrong tree on my summation of the new record, he responded; “No I think you’re dead on. I think as you live a long time, you go through periods. First of all there’s the initial flash of having these relationships which are so beautiful.”

“Then you find things go wrong or they don’t go wrong. But then you go through a period of wondering, are your relationships permanent or impermanent. Gradually when you get to my age you start to see the evolution of the relationships and the arc of them and I have this desire to talk about them. My relationship with my father, my relationship with my wife, my relationship with old lovers which is not that happy with my wife”, Cuddy said with a smile.

On the subject of Cuddy’s wife and how she receives the songs on the new album written about her, he mused, “I can write a song that I believe is very tender about my wife and my feelings for my wife; but there might be something in there that she feels represents her poorly and that she has no voice. So I’m really conscious of that now. When I wrote the title track song All The World Fades Away, “when I’m with you”. As a title, I realize it sounds like a downer.”

“But my wife has put up a fire wall between the songs and herself. It’s hard to listen to someone talk about you in public. Sometimes she feels exposed. She’s an artist too. I’ve been represented in her plays and not in a way that I would have wanted. I said to her; “Wow, I seem insensitive in that scene. She’ll say, “That’s not you”. I’d say, “It’s clearly me.” Jim states with a chuckle.

All The World Fades Away is out now on Warner Bros. Records.

Duke Eatmon can be heard daily on CBC Radio with Sabrina Marandola on the Let’s Go! Drive show from 4 to 6pm.