Blue Rodeo – Are You Ready
By Andrew Duncan • Jan 7th, 2009 • Category: Categories, Country/Bluegrass, ReviewsBlue Rodeo
Are You Ready
2005 – Rounder
Origin: Toronto, Canada
Style: Alternative Country
In a long-spanning career, you may expect to find a band searching for new ideas or drowning in a sea of musicians who have over-stayed their welcome.
Are You Ready seems to hold the band’s momentum with an album that is hit or miss. The album starts out strong with a pop-rock ditty, “Can’t Help Wondering Why,” a song that could almost be mistaken for something Sloan wrote. The title track gives out a little of the Austin grit, and reminds me of later Ronnie Dawson material. But despite the rough and ready rhythms and dark content, the song quickly meanders into some soft-spoken jam that bring out the Grateful Dead in the band.
The album does not really feel country until they get to the twangy “Rena.” But it’s “Phaedra’s Meadow” that is the low point of this album, blending in a Chieftan’s Irish sound that has no business being there. It’s a bad choice.
However, the song that makes this album worth the buy is “Tired Of Pretending,” lengthy for their standards tune but it explodes with emotion and one of the most honest-sounding songs on the album. At the end, they trail off with “Don’t Get Angry,” but it leaves me wanting to rewind back to “Tired Of Pretending,” and the powerful horn accentuation. That song is exactly what I love about alternative country music style.
Cross-Reference: Sloan, Calexico, and Wilco.
Andrew Duncan is a journalist who has migrated to the forces of academia. He has written for various publications including Chord, Heckler, Readyset...Aesthetic, and a vast array of alternative press contributions. When not roaming the streets of Indianapolis, he is either addicted to KXCI, making music, or striving to watch every film listed on IMDB.
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