Blue Rodeo

After wrapping up a successful trip to Austin’s SXSW music festival, the members of Blue Rodeo headed to some place very different – Kandahar, Afghanistan. Canada’s media has taken quite an interest in the band’s trip to entertain our troops. Articles about their adventure to Afghanistan have appeared on CTV.ca, in the Ottawa Sun and by Canadian Press, among other sources. Also along for the trip were chief of defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier, several former NHL players and the Stanley Cup itself.

Blue Rodeo did bring their cameras with them and we’re hoping they took some great shots that we’ll be able to share with all of you.

The band just keeps rolling: Blue Rodeo have just announced a series of West Coast dates for May of this year. Kicking off in Bellingham, WA on May 15, this tour will see the band make stops in a number of cities they haven’t seen in a while. Check out the tour page to see where they’re going.

Update:  Matinee is now available in the store!

After 20 years as the rock solid foundation of Blue Rodeo, bass player extraordinaire Bazil Donovan has finally released his debut solo album, Matinee. The twelve song collection of classic country standards features a number of guests, including Justin Rutledge, David Baxter, Bob Packwood, Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor, Travis Good, and Lori Yates.

Currently available only at Blue Rodeo’s live shows, Matinee will be available to order from BlueRodeo.com very soon. Stay tuned!

After much delay, the first batch of new products from the Small Miracles tour has finally arrived. There’s still more to come, so make sure you check the Store for updates, but for now you can choose from items like the Small Miracles Tour t-shirt, the long sleeve Butterfly t-shirt and much more. Check out the full selection in our store now.

At a press conference this morning, it was announced that Blue Rodeo have been nominated for three Juno Awards, including Group of the Year. The band was also received nods in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year for Small Miracles and Video of the Year for their Christopher Mills directed clip for “C’Mon”.

Other nominees include One Degree artists The Sadies (Roots and Traditional Album of the Year: Group), Justin Rutledge, Oh Susanna! (both Roots and Traditional Album of the Years: Solo) and Richard Underhill (Instrumental Album of the Year). Congrats to all!

The Juno Awards will be presented on Sunday April 6 in a ceremony to be broadcast nationally on CTV. Check your local listing for airtimes and make sure you tune in to root for the band!

Tonight, Friday, February 1, CBC Radio 2’s Canada Live will broadcast Blue Rodeo’s January 7 show at Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. Beginning at 8 pm with Luke Docuet and the White Falcon’s opening set, the entire show will be broadcast nationally. You can also stream the show directly from the CBC Radio 2 website.

Enjoy!

This week on MySpace.com, Blue Rodeo’s “Black Ribbon (Acoustic)” is featured as the single of the week. The song is streaming from the player on the band’s page and is available for download, but it won’t be for long, so don’t delay!

*Update: Today’s presale for Kingston has been cancelled because the Kingston date is being rescheduled. Once we know what’s happening with that show we’ll update this news post.*

Blue Rodeo’s long-delayed show in Kingston has now been confirmed for March 29, at the newly-constructed Kingston Regional Sports & Entertainment Centre. The BlueRodeo.com Store’s presale for this gig will kick off this upcoming Monday, January 14, at 11:00 am EST. Our presale’s are only available to BlueRodeo.com member, so if you don’t have an account yet; create one now. We’ll see you Monday!

On Sunday, January 6, Blue Rodeo kicks off their cross-Canada tour in support of Small Miracles, the band’s latest album. If you plan on catching any of those shows, please send your shows reviews and photos to us here at BlueRodeo.com. We’ll post our favourites here on the site for all to see.

Tickets for many of the band’s shows are still available. For more details, please stop by the Events Calendar.