The Singer and You

Key of Zed, the duo of Mike Charko and Keith Shields, has just released a new original single. For fans of Blue Rodeo and a few other bands, you will recognize the references to a few other songs in the lyrics. See how many you can catch. (At a later date I will release an annotated version of the lyrics that will identify the references.) The story of this song is that the woman in the Blue Rodeo song "Try" is now older and more introspective and the lyrics are her answer to the man who said those words to her.

The Singer and You

(Lyrics and Music by Mike Charko and Keith Shields; copyright SOCAN)

(Listen here) 

Blue Rodeo on the stereo

(And) teardrops in my eyes

Reminding me of five days in May

And how I said I’d try

Was it just bad timing?

Or something I should have done?

That keeps me looking through the crack in the window

And wishing for the sun

And the singer and you and the devil too

They want to tell me what I should do

They want to tell me what I should do

Right is right and wrong is wrong

With every move I made

I couldn’t be what you wanted me to be

Every time you played

Old songs, rehearsed to a tee

Left no room to breathe

And the spirits of tunes - left unsung

Like the ghosts in me

And the singer and you and the devil too

They want to tell me what I should do

They want to tell me what I should do

Guitar solo:

Bridge:

Bop shoo bop bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop bop bop bop she bop

My solo written by you

Was singing the blues

How could I get the rhythm from you?

There’s nothing left to do

Rising star or wounded heart?

Were you teaching me to fly?

Could the bad inside of me

Really be the lie?

And the singer and you and the devil too

They want to tell me what I should do

They want to tell me the things that I should do

Bop shoo bop; bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop; bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop; bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop; bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop; bop bop she bop

Bop shoo bop; bop bop she bop

Cuddy Cavalcade

He may have a “Skyscraper Soul” but his music continues to reach new heights. Jim Cuddy came to Calgary on March 1 and brought with him, in his own words, a "cavalcade of stars." Cuddy gave plenty of space to his two sons who featured in two or more songs each. They are up-and-coming musicians who will blaze their own trail, but the proud father has given them a platform to allow the Canadian public to get to know them. They show great promise. Barney Bentall was also brought on stage to join the Jim Cuddy Band for a few songs and added much to the show.

Cuddy did a great job of featuring his new album as well as playing old standards from his Blue Rodeo music. The new music was sufficiently familiar to the audience as each concert ticket sold included a digital download of the album "Constellation." I might have liked to see a few more songs from Light That Guides You Home and Skyscraper Soul, but the Calgary audience was pleased with his Blue Rodeo selections. I was continually impressed by the level of professionalism of The Jim Cuddy Band. They are an outstanding collection of musicians who bring their best to the game at every concert and they were a pleasure to watch. Anne Lindsay, the only female member of the band, is a virtuoso violinist, and Colin Cripps and Bazil Donovan (both members of Blue Rodeo) are musicians with many years of studio and road experience.

Jim Cuddy is a Canadian treasure whose music stands the test of time. The concert was one of the best I have ever seen.

Favourite Moment:
Anne Lindsay featured in the song "Five Days in May." Lindsay (violin), Steve O'Conner (keyboard), and Colin Cripps (guitar) filled in the parts that one would have thought might be missing without Greg Keelor on this amazing Blue Rodeo song.

Blue Rodeo

Last Sunday night my wife and I went to see Blue Rodeo in concert at the Calgary Jubilee Auditorium. It was a great show filled with new music from the 1000 Arms album and old music from just about every one of their 15 studio albums. This is a band that has been playing since 1984 – 33 years ago. The entire band is precise, talented, and professional. Jim Cuddy could be called Canada’s Gentleman Musician, humble – giving each person in the band their fair share of the stage lights. He and Greg Keelor have made a great team over the years with each of them contributing their unique fingerprint to the band craft. They are like a finely aged bottle of wine that finds flavour from each of its components. I am sad to see that Greg Keelor can no longer play electric guitar on stage. He has hearing deficits which mean that the band must rely on relative newcomer Colin Cripps to play the blistering licks such as those at the end of “5 Days in May.” But Cripps is phenomenal and contributes much instrumentally and vocally. Their keyboardist, Mike Boguski is a tremendous player and makes the most of all those Hammond B and keyboard sounds. Glenn Milchem on drums, and Bazil Donovan on bass (vocals on one encore song - Little Old Wine-Drinker Me) fill out the rest of the incredible sound.

Jim Cuddy is sometimes melancholy as he considers his future and the future of the band. In an interview with The Star.com, given a few years ago, he lamented growing older and said, “The thought of turning 60 scares me more than anything else ever has before."[1] Now at 61, he has surpassed that barrier and has perhaps grown accustomed to it. Seeing his energy, hearing his amazing vocals, and his continually growing guitar skills, one would be hard-pressed to guess that he is 61 years old. He still is one of the greatest gifts of music Canada has ever seen.

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[1]https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2009/02/14/jim_cuddy_finds_pain_a_clarifying_thing.html