"I've Been Watching Every Move That You Make"

I honestly thought that it would start somewhere else. But fate intervened.  I'm really not supposed to believe in fate.  But I had already picked the album for my first post on this new blog.  And then I'm walking through the living room from the office out to the garage to grab a smoke.  The Man is reclined on the couch searching for something to watch on the television, flipping through the on-screen cable guide.  As I walked by, "Postcard from the Edge" flashed on the listings.  "Hey, wait ... " I said. "I think Blue Rodeo's in this movie at the end.  Check the time it's over.  I'll catch the last minutes."  We ended up watching most of the movie...
So I decided to start here, on a find that I stumbled across with not much influence at all:  outside of listening to a lot of Eagles, the Band, Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne in my youth.  Canadian acts (well ... outside of Byran Adams - *yawn* - and Celine Dion - yikes!) do not get much exposure in the States.  And a band that sounds like a combination of the four acts that I mentioned before, would not get a lot of attention in the late 1980s when their debut album was released.  And they didn't.
I came across them by watching a lot of music videos while I was in my early 20s (not too unusual).  They ran the video on CMT (Country Music Television).  I found the video from VH1 on YouTube, but I don't remember ever seeing it air on that channel.  Who knows if they ran in on MTV?  I lived in the Bible Belt of north Louisiana.
I'm sure I was puttering around my newly-declared bachelor pad and the video must have come on.  I can remember being riveted the first time I saw the clip.  Looking at the video again after so many years, it's not that impressive.  Back then it was minimalistic and beautiful.  It's wonderful, but not life-changing.  But it changed my life a bit all those years ago... as all great music does to me.  Especially if I find a group or artist that I can love.

I headed to the local Wal-Mart to see if they had the cassette of "Outskirts," the debut album.  Of course they did not.  (At that time, I'm sure that there was plenty of Randy Travis and Hank Williams, Jr.)  So I headed to the next option:  Alexandria.  This city (about 50 miles away) was about double the size of mine, but I still had to go to three different record stores before I found the cassette.  The clerk that helped me said that he had never heard of them (not surprising) and asked about their style of music.  I just said "Cowpunk, sorta like Lone Justice."  I don't think Lone Justice is really cowpunk, but I really had no clue.  They were similar to Lone Justice, I discovered ... and different.

Honestly...,when I first put the cassette in my player for the drive home and the opening  a capella harmonies of "Heart Like Mine" kicked in, I thought this is o.k. ... Until the drums and electric guitars roared in.  Then I thought "This is great!"  The opening song gave way to "Rose-Coloured Glasses," which started simply with appegiated guitar chords.  But I'm sure that I just fast-forwarded to "Try."  It was the reason I was driving a two-hour round trip.  I'm certain on the return home, I listened to nothing but that one song.
Like most loves, I think that I can recall it taking a little while to get the entire album completely into my system.
The group's leaders, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, write all the Blue Rodeo songs together.  I discovered that I preferred the songs that Jim Cuddy took the lead vocals on.  Songs on the recording like:  "Rebel" a country shuffle with a swaggering but resigned vocal, "Underground" cheerful but longing pop, and "Try" where Jim starts with a whisper and ends with a wail.
The guys harmonized through the opening country-burner "Heart Like Mine" and the Elvis Costello-like "5 Will Get You Six,"   leaving Greg Keelor with lead vocals on the remaining five songs.  "Rose-Coloured Glasses" was a straight-ahead mid-tempo rock song.  "Joker's Wild" a bit of a blues stomp with a good walking bass line.  "Piranha Pool" started with the sound of Bob Wiseman slamming open the key cover on a piano and then following with almost two minutes of incredible jazz fingerwork.  "Outskirts" was the one Keelor song that I liked instantly (it started with some great Byrds chords).  "Floating" was long.  Back then I hardly ever made it through the seven and a half minutes.  With its chorus reference to the opening scene of "Sunset Boulevard"

I feel like William Holden floating in a pool

It was just strange...but I grew to love it.

If someone were to ask me, "What is your favorite Blue Rodeo disc?"
Easy, I'd say.  "Casino."
It's their most consistent album, for my money (post to follow, you can be certain).
But if someone were to ask me, "What Blue Rodeo album would you own, if you could only own one?"
Easy, I'd say. "Outskirts."
This was where I fell in love with Blue Rodeo.  And when you have a "first-moment" moment, you wanna hold onto it.