Categories : Country + Western, Folk + Roots, Music Reviews.
 |
Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
At a glance, the playlist for Blue Rodeo’s live at Massey Hall recording Blue Road seems, for lack of a better word, underwhelming. Featuring only three titles out of eleven that stand out as ‘big hits’ the multitude of B.R. fans that may have be asking questions at first can be thankful that looks can be deceiving.
Blue Rodeo’s 2008 tour, which was in promotion of their late 2007 release Small Miracles, divided its concerts into a stripped down acoustic set for half of it, followed by a rock out electric session for the second half. It is the first half of this concert that Blue Rodeo has chosen to include on their second live record. Opening with long time favorite ‘Five Days in May,’ which features an outstanding acoustic version of Keelor’s famed closing solo for that song, and carrying on largely with lesser known songs, the CD will see other such highlights as a cover of The Bee Gee’s ‘To Love Somebody’ and Melissa McClelland, whom along with Luke Doucet & The White Falcon opened for Blue Rodeo on this tour, performing on two tracks.
CD aside, Blue Road also features a bonus DVD which includes footage of the concert as featured on the CD, and interestingly filmed in “bootleg†style, giving most of the footage a look as if it were amateur film on Youtube. Also included on the DVD is a documentary filmed largely at Greg Keelor’s house and rehearsal videos for three previously unheard tracks ‘Losing You,’ ‘Almost Persuaded’ and ‘Don’t Let the Darkness in Your Head,’ all of which, if intended for an upcoming studio release, stand as healthy encouragement that their next record will be a great one.
With a catalogue as expansive as Blue Rodeo’s is, Blue Road is interesting in that it features material that you wouldn’t expect to see on a live record by the band. This also makes in somewhat refreshing, since, with the exception of a few must haves, it is almost entirely different from their previous two-disc live release. And with over twenty five years of music making under their belt, anytime the word refreshing can be used to describe their work, it must be a good thing.
