Through the Eyes of a Child

Music analysis with Jim Cuddy

It seems strange to see one of the frontmen for one of Canada’s biggest bands opening up a gig. But so it goes with Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, who is starting off the night with his talented “solo” band when Sheryl Crow rolls through town on Sunday. And Cuddy says it’s not strange at all; sounds like he’s quite enjoying it.

“It’s not weird, it’s actually really fun,” says Cuddy. “It’s not a lot of work—it’s only a 45-minute set. You have to completely refocus yourself to get a lot of dynamics into 45 minutes. Then you get to drink wine and watch the headliner. It’s actually really relaxing.”

Cuddy, who released his second solo CD, the excellent The Light that Guides You Home, in 2006, has been keeping busy with his day-job band (who are releasing a DVD and live CD in October and plan on beginning work on a new record in the winter) as well as doing lots of benefit gigs and awareness-raising for various organizations, as anyone who visits his website (jimcuddy.com) can find out. Also on said site is a collection of analyses of Cuddy’s song “Pull Me Through” from a group of grade-eight students in Regina.

“That was something proposed by a teacher and they sent us the result,” says Cuddy. “I thought those kids were extremely perceptive; I was really impressed.”

Looking through the kids’ musings about the song, it’s easy to start thinking that as people get older, they start to overanalyze art; it seems like kids have something in their way of looking at music that gets lost as we age.

“No, I don’t think so,” says Cuddy, making my analysis of overanalysis seem like an overanalysis itself. “I think kids have an imagination and they interpret songs according to what they’ve seen with their parents and families. Adults interpret songs according to their personal experiences. Both are equally valid.”

But how to hold on to that youthful way of looking at music? Let’s face it, we can’t; as we get older, we deal with different things in life and that affects the lens through which we view things.

“I think as we grow, as we get to my age, we start to deal with loss,” says Cuddy. “Loss is a profound, emotional experience, and as we go through life we experience so many ups and downs. One of the great qualities of music is that it can reflect an emotional state.”

And that reflection of emotional states is something in Cuddy’s music that almost anyone—regardless of age—can appreciate.

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Sheryl Crow
(with the Jim Cuddy Band)
6pm Sunday, October 5
Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, 1925 Blanshard
Tickets $69.50 • 250-220-7777