Take the high road and follow me
I want to preface this post by stating how much I respect Blue Rodeo. I like them very much. If I had to pick a band to accurately represent Canadian Music, I’d pick them over the Tragically Hip any day of the week.
First, and perhaps most important, they are grace and humility personified. They are truly nice, talented, genuine people. In short, they are the total polar opposite of Nickelback, which I think you will agree is a good thing. Then there are all the other reasons to love them:
They’re technically solid musicians. Their albums stand up to repeated listens years later. They have a wide, wide audience appeal (country fans, jaded hipsters, those with more mainstream tastes and my mom can all agree on Blue Rodeo) but they’ve never sold out, either. They seem like mellow, down-to-Earth kind of guys. Jim Cuddy has a great voice. They support younger acts and use their HUGE following to showcase talented musicians by having up-and-comers open for them on tours. They are solid and dependable. And Cuff the Duke could certainly pick a worse band to try and emulate.
Oshawa’s Cuff the Duke are going out on tour with Blue Rodeo in January. They recently (like, last night) played a show at the eBar in Guelph. I wish I could tell you more about it, but I had to take a miss to catch up on some beauty sleep.
Their latest album, Way Down Here, released this past September, reminds me STRONGLY of Blue Rodeo. That’s probably owing to how it was produced by Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor. I missed this album when it first came out. It didn’t exactly blow people away and I can understand why.
The group’s sound on Way Down Here is more lush, but it probably sounds the least like a Cuff the Duke album. It plays out like part of their musical progression, but for me, part of their charm was their spare sound and stripped-down approach to Canadian folk rock.
I think back to “Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker,” “Surging Revival” and ”If I Live or If I Die” as great examples of their talents. They were poppy without being precious. Jaded, but not disaffected. This a completely different sound, more of a fuzzed out, ’60s vibe — kind of like Blue Rodeo meets The Hollies. It’s accessible and I like it, but I’m not sure I like it as much as I loved Life Stories For Minimum Wage or Sidelines of the City. They always sounded like a band that knew exactly who they were, but now… there’s not much there, there, you know?
If the Interwebs can be believed (and when have they led me astray before?) this is Keelor’s first major effort as a producer. I like the sound he gets from Cuff the Duke, but then, I like Blue Rodeo. And they sound an awful lot like Blue Rodeo here. In fact, Petti sounds so much like Cuddy on “Follow Me,” the whole thing sounds like such a Blue Rodeo effort, that I thought I better check to make sure it wasn’t a cover. I suppose if they’re borrowing a little, they could’ve done far worse.
The album waivers between sweet, jangly, rootsy pop like “Follow Me” and “Listen to Your Heart” and the shaggy, bombastic Dylan-gone-electric chimes of “Another Day In Purgatory.” There are other classic rock nods. The short instrumental, “Farley the Dog,” with its twangy, Ennio Morricone guitar, sounds like a slower, sadder reprise to Led Zeppelin’s “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.”
Frontman Wayne Petti’s voice is almost unrecognizable on some tracks. I don’t know how I feel about that, but his guitar solos are flat-out better. My favourite song “Promises” features a truly fantastic, fuzzy solo that pours out of your speakers. It’s a standout moment. Together, with the relentless drumming, “Promises” evokes the best of classic rock. They switch back to the familiar haunted folk/country sound that put them on the map with songs like “Rocking Chair” and “Need You.” I think Petti’s been better as a songwriter. He’s walking a tightrope over cliche valley. He teeters sometimes, but doesn’t quite fall in. Maybe by the next album we’ll see what he was trying to get to on the other side.
This album could have been a mess. Actually, it might even be a mess, but it’s a mess that works. In the future, when we look back on Cuff the Duke and their recorded history, Way Down Here will probably be the overlooked classic you wish you’d paid closer attention to. I like my country with a tinge of psychedelia. I think the disparate sounds clash just right. It’s a formula The Sadies have perfected and Keelor knows his way around those boys, too, since he plays with them in The Unintended. I’ve followed Cuff the Duke for quite awhile. I’ve seen them live more than a few times. They’ve earned the right to take a chance or two, so I don’t begrudge them a change in direction, I just hope they don’t get lost on the way.
You can buy Way Down Here on iTunes or at their official web store. Also, be sure to check local tour dates in the new year! Cuff the Duke is comin’ to a city near you!
Cuff the Duke - Follow Me : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Cuff the Duke - Promises : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Cuff the Duke - Surging Revival: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
