Blue Rodeo gets hall of fame nod.
Bound for the Canadian Music Hall of Fame April 1, 2012, members of Blue Rodeo pose outside of Greg Keelor's Peterborough area farm in 2009. From left to right: Jim Cuddy, Bazil Donovan, Bob Egan, Greg Keelor and Glenn Milchem.
Photo/DUSTIN RABIN
A couple of North Toronto Collegiate grads, along with their longtime Toronto-raised bass player, will lead their Danforth Avenue-based band into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in the new year.
"We couldn't be more honoured to be going into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame," said Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo, in a press release.
Cuddy and Greg Keelor, who became friends while playing football for North Toronto Collegiate, have been the song-writing backbone of Blue Rodeo for 25 years.
And still with them is the one other founding member - Trinity Bellwoods bass player Bazil Donovan who first studied music theory at Western Tech in Bloor West.
"Yesterday was a pretty great day for me," Donovan said from his home in Trinity Bellwoods, having just returned from playing the nation's capital. "I was at a show in Ottawa playing for the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture was introducing us and we had just found out we are actually getting inducted into the Hall of Fame.
"I guess for me it was one of those days when you really feel like you are part of the Canadian fabric.
"We have been the soundtrack to everyone's barbeques in the summer and people's weddings and that kind of thing. Countless people come up to me, like the Prime Minister, and say, 'our first date was your concert'. Within the borders of this country we have had an impact."
Cuddy still lives in the Riverdale area near Blue Rodeo's Danforth rehearsal studio.
"We have always been grateful for our long musical journey above the 49th parallel," Cuddy said. "Though far from over, we humbly take our place among those who have given us so much inspiration."
In a previous interview, Cuddy explained that Keelor "lived around the school and I was more downtown at Mount Pleasant and St. Clair."
The two, however, didn't hook up musically until after high school.
"I played folk guitar and piano," Cuddy said. "Occasionally I would play a song or two at a party on the piano but it was still too terrifying to play in public at that point.
"So it wasn't until I went to university (Queen's University in Kingston) that I got more serious about it."
He would play in his room, check out the coffee shops "and then I just started gradually going to open mic nights and getting the courage up."
He can still recall his first gig.
"The first gig I had - my mother is from Picton - was at the Inn on the Bay (in Picton). On the weekends I would just stand in front of the fireplace and just play songs. That's the first time I actually stood up, got paid $25 or something and played the songs I knew.
"And then it sort of went from there. I just got more and more serious about it."
The rest, as they say, is Canadian music history with four million records sold.
"I'm sure many Canadians feel just like I do...that Blue Rodeo has been there with a song that deeply resonated with certain moments of our lives over the last 25 years or so," said Melanie Berry, president and CEO of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS).
The three founding band members, along with current stalwarts Bob Egan, Glenn Milchem and Mike Boguski will be feted at the JUNO awards on April 1.