Blue Rodeo plays the Danforth Music Hall as their end-of-year ritual.
It's coming on Christmas, they're putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace. But there are those, this time of year, who just wish they had a river upon which to skate away.
Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo are often seen as the yin and yang of alt-country rock, but they're really not so different. Certainly they are united when it comes to the band's new album, A Merrie Christmas to You. It's a bittersweet record, with seasonal songs that consider the sadness as well the merriment of the holidays.
"This is a reflective Christmas record," says Mr. Keelor, sitting with his band mate at the Blue Rodeo headquarters and studio on the Danforth. "It's not artificially cheerful," adds Mr. Cuddy, about an LP of covers, traditionals and one (Glad to Be Alive) reworked Rodeo original. "It represents a different take on the theme."
In a recent interview for Maclean's, the Saskatchewan-raised Joni Mitchell talked about the "theatre of song," while despairing over the mistreatment of a wistful composition of hers from 1971. "God, when I hear people cover the song River with a smile on their face – and you can hear the smile – that is so wrong for the theatre of the song," she said. "It's melancholy. If you are singing it with a smile, it means you're just a singer, not a performer."
River has been covered many times and in many ways, none more wrongly than by James Taylor, whose breezy version is stripped of any sorrow. In contrast, on A Merrie Christmas to You, Mr. Cuddy's silvery tenor hits the right notes and mood, even if he had to slow things down to find them. "Joni's version is very quirky," he says. "I couldn't do it as fast as she does it – she flies through that thing."
For his part, Mr. Keelor took on Merle Haggard's If We Make it Through December. Though the sentiment is hopeful and the song is set to a sociable giddy-up, the lyrics concern a factory layoff, the winter's coldest time and a Christmas that is unaffordable this year.
As for the Rodeo pair's own yuletide situations, Mr. Cuddy and clan will celebrate with its annual round of get-togethers, including a Christmas gathering of two dozen people from both sides of the family. Mr. Keelor's seasonal circumstances usually involve a large family of friends who live near his farm east of Toronto. This year, however, those neighbours are spending the holidays abroad, which leaves the singer on his own. He has no plans at this point, but the uncertainty isn't worrying.
"It's not sad," he says. "If I were to spend Christmas alone, there might be a little pang of it in the morning, but I've made a career of melancholy. I'll be okay."
Blue Rodeo plays Danforth Music Hall, Dec. 21, 5 p.m. $61 (sold out). 147 Danforth Ave., 1-855-985-5000 or ticketmaster.ca.
Brad Wheeler