Jim Cuddy is returning to Victoria with a stripped-down trio featuring guitarist Colin Cripps and fiddler Anne Lindsay, both of whom played with Cuddy on the Butchart Gardens’ outdoor stage last summer.
The Saturday, Jan. 11 show at the McPherson Playhouse also promises special guest Sam Polley, Cuddy’s youngest son and a Toronto alt-country hero in his own right.
Cuddy and his “other” band, Blue Rodeo, have been a fixture on the Canadian music scene since the mid-80’s, releasing 15 LP’s and garnering numerous Juno Awards as well as an Order of Canada in 2013 for Cuddy and his Blue Rodeo partner, Greg Keelor.
Cripps joined Blue Rodeo in 2013. A studio wizard with production credits with Bryan Adams, Colin James and Kathleen Edwards (and many others), Cripps is a first-call Toronto studio guitarist and founding member of the Jim Cuddy Band. He and Lindsay back the leader’s countrified crooning on the band’s latest CD, Countrywide Soul. It’s a countrified collection of originals, Blue Rodeo remakes, and covers of Nashville classics like “Almost Persuaded” and “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
The trio format may see the Royal Conservatory-trained Lindsay stretch out on violin and Swedish nychelharpal, an exotic, stringed instrument she unveiled during a solo set at last summer’s Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm.
Cuddy’s solo work has included contributions from Sarah Harmer and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, but with the eclectic, masterful talent of Cripps and Lindsay at his side, the Blue Rodeo veteran will offer enough star turns and warmth to light up the McPherson’s intimate setting.
For more information and tickets, visit rmts.bc.ca or call the box office at 250-386-6121.
– Joseph Blake
editor@mondaymag.com
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