May 22, 2009 - 04:30 AM

NUMBER ONE

Blue Rodeo -- Five Days In May

"But I know my past you were there/ Everything I've done/ You are the one."

There are no two in Canadian music who have harmonized into one in the manner of Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor. They are two individuals married in sound, joined at the hippest junction in the Canadian sound. Blue Rodeo is a band, yes, but the membership has changed since they first set foot on Queen. Basil Donovan is the stalwart bassist and the only other original member. In a way he is Crazy Horse holding down the groove. Cuddy/Keelor are Neil Young's two poles, so extreme from each other that they meet on the other side. Cuddy and his mellow manner. Keelor, gruffer, coarser in sound but together we listeners get lost. They are two tongues; angelic and rebellious and one voice.

With Five Days In May, they take their place not just alongside all the others in the Cancon pantheon but beyond them ... as the culmination of all those who tracked before them. It is all here in this song.

"Looking back it's hard to tell why they stood while others fell....."

After the steady climb, after two founding members left, Blue Rodeo was at the proverbial crossroads. Tooling around the shed gave rise to a quieter, melancholic, contemplative album. New members had been brought in. It all gelled. In the relaxed state the truth won out. Blue Rodeo became itself again.

From their stand on the mountain top, they can look back at their own old folkie days. Twenty years meant something. The roots were in the soil and toil of this land. Canada is in the song's train beat and the harmonica, the wash of piano. It is in the story, the space, the feeling, the vibe ... the reverb. Keelor's guitar explodes across the night sky, raining down fireworks as Cuddy's vocals swell and waver like the Northern Lights. The guitar plumbs the depths and the love story takes one up and up into the realms of possibilities.

"He wrote her name in the sand ...." "She loved the lines around his mouth."

These two lovers stumbled into one another seeking shelter from the storm, (Lightfoot's rain? Young's hurricane?). There is no destiny here. No pre-ordained future, which is fitting for a nation of immigrants. No birthright, no just casual circumstances. Two who found their own River to skate away on .... "Rain on the windshield heading south." Movement as salvation.

Encoded in the art of Canada is the idea of Survival and the necessity of community as a means. The many solo artists the country produces seems at odds with this. Nevertheless, if you look deeper you will see many of these solo types have collaborators, as producers, managers, back-up bands that stand behind them through thick and thin. Community is held in high esteem in the Canadian psyche. Being helped and helping others in return. The crabs in the bucket are few and far between in the Great Canadian Myth.

Blue Rodeo called upon its community for survival. Kim Deschamps, Glenn Milchem and James Gray joined the band. Sarah McLaughlan, Colin Linden, Anne Bourne came in as guests. The band was renewed with this spirit and that spirit is reflected back in the community members have gathered around them. They are a generous band. Our own Cuff The Duke has toured with them and has recorded their new album at Keelor's farm. Others in their rodeo are Luke Doucet, Melissa McClelland, Justin Rutledge, The Sadies, Great Big Sea.

Their influence is huge and it rests on this song.

William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at wmacg@yahoo.com.