Blue Rodeo finds success at home in Canada
CBC Archives | Posted: June 27, 2018 3:52 PM | Last Updated: June 27, 2018
Songwriters Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor appeared on CBC-TV in 1988
Two high school buddies named Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor formed one of Canada's most enduring bands back in 1984.
In 1987, Blue Rodeo released its first album, Outskirts, and by mid-1988 it had gone platinum in Canada on the strength of the hit single Try.
In a 1988 interview, seen at the top of this page, songwriters Keelor and Cuddy described their efforts to hit the big time in New York City before returning to Toronto to find their niche playing country-inflected music.
According to Blue Rodeo's official website, Keelor and Cuddy's first band was the Hi-Fi's, a group they put together in 1977. During the group's New York period in the early 1980s, they were known by the name Fly to France.
'Call Jim or Greg'
When they founded Blue Rodeo in 1984, the pair found their drummer by placing a classified ad reading: "If you've dropped acid 20 times, lost three or four years to booze and can still manage to keep time, call Jim or Greg.''
At the time of this 1988 clip, Blue Rodeo consisted of Keelor and Cuddy, plus Bazil Donovan on bass, Bob Wiseman on keyboards and Cleave Anderson on drums.
Blue Rodeo was inducted in to Canada's Walk of Fame in September 2009 — the fifth band to receive the honour.