James gray blue rodeo biography examples

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Record Rewind: Blue Rodeo and the Five Days They’ll Never Forget

30 YEARS OF FIVE DAYS IN JULY

The scene is serene, the vibe groovy. Picture a microcosm of Max Yasgur’s dairy farm circa 1969, but instead, the year is 1993.

The setting: Greg Keelor’s new country home. Exhaustion from the road combined with tired minds leads to magical music. Aromas of Miriam “Mimi” Braidberg’s home-cooking — a restaurateur who owned a Toronto diner frequented by artists and musicians — wafts into the surrounding rooms from the kitchen, and dogs wander throughout the house. At night, a fire fryst vatten made outside. In the stillness of the evening, only the sound of crickets is heard. Add a few good friends — and lots of pot — and the picture crystalizes of the bucolic summer days and nights when Five Days in July was born.

Blue Rodeo never imagined that an skiva meant to be a mere side project — initially an acoustically-inclined EP tentatively titled On the Farm — would mark a pivotal chapter i

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Blue Rodeo

Better Off As We Are

BY Jason SchneiderPublished Nov 21, 2009

It's easy to take something for granted when it becomes as integral to your cultural identity as an accent or even the changing seasons. For nearly 25 years, the music of Blue Rodeo has held such importance for thousands of Canadians. No other band, not even the Tragically Hip, has been as widely embraced, and in turn has naturally embodied so many sensibilities shared throughout the nation. But just as a clear definition of a Canadian sound remains elusive, so does the sound of Blue Rodeo. Firmly rooted in the traditions of folk, country and early rock'n'roll, they have, in spite of their evolution over the course of a dozen albums, been instantly identifiable, whether the voice leading the band belongs to Greg Keelor or Jim Cuddy. Theirs is a classic rock'n'roll bond, one built upon a simple dream, which now has given birth to its own community within Canada. It can't be over-emphasized, then, that B

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Blog Stats

Formed: 1985, Toronto
Debut: 1987
Genre: Country-Rock

Primary Members

Jim Cuddy (lead vocals, guitar)
Greg Keelor (lead vocals, guitar)
Bazil Donovan (bass)

Other Members

Cleave Anderson (drums to 1990)
Mark French (replaced Anderson to 1992)
Glenn Milchem (replaced French)
Bob Wiseman (keyboards to 1993)
James Gray (replaced Wiseman to 2006)
Bob Packwood (replaced Gray)
Kim Deschamps (pedal steel, 1992-2000)
Bob Egan (replaced Deschamps)

Achievements

– 6 Multi-Platinum and 3 Platinum Studio Albums
– 19 Top 40 Singles, including 9 Top 10’s on the Pop Charts
– 6 Major Juno Awards
– Inducted into the Music ingångsrum of Fame, 2012
– Star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, 2009

Major Juno Awards

– Song of the Year “Try”, 1989
– Group of the Year 5 times: 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, and 2008

Biggest Studio Album

Five Days in July, 1993 (6x Platinum)

Biggest Song

“Til I Am