Blue Rodeo - Five Days in July
This week we talk about Five Days in July, the fifth album by the Canadian country-rock band, Blue Rodeo.
Formed in 1984 by high school pals Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, Blue Rodeo became mainstays of the country and roots-rock revival in Toronto during the mid-1980s.
In 1993, the band gathered at Greg Keelor’s farmhouse to begin work on their next album, Five Days In July , which was actually recorded in five days. Bucking the trend of popular music at the time (grunge anyone?) the band made their most acoustic album to date. The lack of loud, distorted guitar didn’t seem to matter to their Canadian fans. Full of tunes about love and loss, many of of the songs on Five Days in July would become some of the band’s most adored songs. The album would end up being the band’s biggest commercial success, and cement their standing as one of Canada’s most beloved bands.
Recommendation for this episode: Deano and Jo by Deano and Jo.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
In 1978 Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor formed a band called the Hi-Fis with a sound that trended toward revved up power-pop
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In 1980, the Hi-Fis released a single “Don't Know Why (You Love Me),” complete with the “A Hard Day’s Night” opening chord, that had some local success on Toronto rock radio.
Looking for a change, Cuddy and Keelor moved to New York City in 1981 and started a new band Fly to France. Watch them perform an early version of “Rose Colored Glasses,” which would be rerecorded in a much more laid back manner for their debut album Outskirts .” It would quickly become a Blue Rodeo standard.
When Cuddy and Keelor returned home to Toronto in 1984, they found a vibrant roots rock scene. Front and center was a guy that went by the name of Handsome Ned. Watch him perform “Steel Rail Blue” on Canadian TV in 1986
The original Blue Rodeo lineup (Picture L to R): drummer Cleave Anderson, Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor, keyboardist Bob Wiseman, and bassist Bazil Donovan.
Here’s a great clip of Blue Rodeo performing the unreleased tune "5 Day Disaster Week" live at Toronto’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern in 1989
Watch Blue Rodeo perform “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” from Five Days in July at the 1994 Juno Awards.
Blue Rodeo was nominated for a Juno in 1995 for “Best Video” for “Bad Timing.” They were also nominated for “Album of the Year”
Here’s Blue Rodeo performing “Cynthia” on Austin City Limits in 2001.
During the pandemic, in 2020, the Canadian Broadcasting Network wanted to bring Canadians together in song. They asked their viewers to pick a song that had the “musical magic to bring everyone together,” and winner was “Lost Together,” the title track off of Blue Rodeo’s 1994 LP. They then had people submit videos of themselves singing the song, and pieced it all together as a sort of digital sing-along. You can watch the results below.
