The Jim Cuddy Band

★★★★

If Blue Rodeo were The Beatles, Jim Cuddy, we humbly submit, would be Paul -- the slightly poppier and more accessible yin to the Lennonesque Greg Keelor's darker and more enigmatic yang. Hold your angry e-mails, that is not a dig at Cuddy. After all, Lennon made some groundbreaking solo LPs -- but whose stuff do you hear more often? The same could be said of the Rodeo leaders' solo work. Sure, Keelor has made some daring and unconventional choices with his psychedelic experiments but we suspect Cuddy's second solo album will end up in heavier rotation on most fans' iPods. Mainly because The Light That Guides You Home -- his first extra-curricular full-length since 1999's All in Time -- delivers everything you know, love, want and expect from Cuddy: Impeccably crafted, slightly nostalgic country-rock and roots-pop laced with gorgeous melodies, bittersweet lyrics, heartfelt vocals and twangy sincerity. There are cuts that gently rock like Neil Young in Laurel Canyon circa '69. There's some strummy folk with Dylanesque harmonicas and fingerpicked acoustic guitars. There's heartsqueezing piano balladry flecked with strings and a lonely, lyrical trumpet. There are jangly, Byrdsian guitars. There are fiddles that lend a Mellencampy air to the proceedings. And there's even a rollicking honkytonk number that boasts a boisterous barrelhouse piano and the album's funniest line: "16 bottles and a wedding trunk / Oughta be a law against marrying drunk." Yeah, it's a silly love song. But what's wrong with that? It's still a charmer. Just like the rest of this disc. - The Sun Newspaper Group (National)

Fat, driving country-rock rhythms, gorgeous ringing guitars, soaring piano and organ chords, and one of the truest and most expressive voices in contemporary music are the core matter of Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy’s second solo album, a set of 12 mostly confessional, sentimental and articulate songs about love in various stages of engagement, fulfillment and disintegration. Meticulously and lusciously produced by Cuddy and Colin Cripps, the album is a generous, big-budget item that boasts loads of musical muscle - guest singers Oh Susanna and Kathleen Edwards, a massed string section arranged by Cuddy Band fiddler Anne Lindsay, and sterling work from band regulars, assist Bazil Donovan, drummer Joel Anderson, keyboardist Bob Packwood and guitarist/singer Cripps - but never loses sight of the power of songs that come from the heart.
★★★✩ (out of 4)



- The Toronto Star

HIGHLIGHTS

The Light That Guides You Home
The Light That Guides You Home -- his first extra-curricular full-length since 1999's All in Time -- delivers everything you know, love, want and expect from Cuddy: Impeccably
crafted, slightly nostalgic country-rock and roots-pop laced with gorgeous melodies, bittersweet lyrics, heartfelt vocals and twangy sincerity. There are cuts that gently rock like Neil Young in Laurel Canyon circa '69. There's some strummy folk with Dylanesque harmonicas and fingerpicked acoustic guitars. There's heartsqueezing piano balladry flecked with strings and a lonely, lyrical trumpet. There are jangly, Byrdsian guitars. There are fiddles that lend a Mellencampy air to the proceedings. And there's even a rollicking honkytonk number that boasts a boisterous barrelhouse piano and the album's funniest line: "16 bottles and a wedding trunk / Oughta be a law against marrying drunk." Yeah, it's a
silly love song. But what's wrong with that? It's still a charmer. Just like the rest of this disc.
****
- The Sun Newspaper Group

Fat, driving country-rock rhythms, gorgeous ringing guitars, soaring piano and organ chords, and one of the truest and most expressive voices in contemporary music are the core matter of Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy’s second solo album, a set of 12 mostly confessional, sentimental and articulate songs about love in various stages of engagement, fulfillment and disintegration. Meticulously and lusciously produced by Cuddy and Colin Cripps, the album is a generous, big-budget item that boasts loads of musical muscle - but never loses sight of the power of songs that come from the heart.
3.5 (out of 4)
- The Toronto Star

...the band flex a lot of muscle. This pushes Cuddy’s ageless voice to unexpected heights, and his exuberance at fronting a different cast of characters is palpable....
The fact is, the man is one of this country’s great songwrites, and this album is a timely
reminder to not take him for granted.
- EXCLAIM

All In Time
As strong a catalog as Blue Rodeo has compiled over the past decade, Jim Cuddy’s solo debut actually ups the ante.
- No Depression

Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy slips into solo waters for a little soul-cleansing with All In Time. There’s no gurus on Cuddy’s CD, just a lingering melancholy whose heartache becomes a thing of musical beauty thanks to his haunting melodies, lyrical honesty and a voice that’s become a Canadian classic when it comes to combining the gentler qualities of country and rock.
- Calgary Herald

“Cuddy and company dished out one of those exceptional sets that feed off the crowd and build from the original tunes.... The beauty of Cuddy’s All In Time material is that it builds on a familiar sound and takes his extraordinary vocal skills to a new area.”
- The Ottawa Sun


- Various