THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The definition of a rebel is someone who goes against the grain. For close to 30 years now, Blue Rodeo have taken the road less travelled – and succeeded far beyond anyone’s expectations. The band emerged in the early ’80s 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 omnipresent on radio across Canada and set in motion a three-decade 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.
Now, with their 16th album Many A Mile, Blue Rodeo’s successes are measured in terms that include induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (2012), a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award (2014) and the acknowledgement that the band has steadfastly defined itself by its own terms, and sold in excess of four million records in the process.
Reflecting back on three decades of successes and those early Blue Rodeo days, co-founders 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.”
