Music

Skyscraper Soul

Album Credits

Produced by Jim Cuddy, Colin Cripps and Chris Shreenan-Dyck
All songs written by Jim Cuddy

About the Album

In the spring of 2010, following extensive Blue Rodeo touring, Jim Cuddy began to write music to accompany his wife Rena's comedic short film Four Sisters. It turned out that some of what he'd written didn't fit the film but on a creative roll he continued writing. Before long he had the kind of material he felt could make up his third solo album.

"When I write songs for my solo material, the songs tend to be a lot more personal than what I write for Blue Rodeo," says Jim. "I come in here and sit down with all of these instruments and work at building the ideas until a song emerges. Once I've demoed the track and played it for the band, we work on fleshing it out."

Production on Skyscraper Soul was handled by Cuddy, guitarist Colin Cripps and Chris Shreenan-Dyck. Jim was joined in the studio by his touring solo band, The Jim Cuddy Band (Colin Cripps, Bazil Donovan, Joel Anderson, Steve O'Connor and Anne Lindsay) and a number of Toronto's top horn players and string players. Many of the album's songs benefit from the spontaneity of having the musicians set up together in the studio and play live off the floor.

One of the album highlights is "Everyone Watched The Wedding," the record's first single, scheduled for release on Tuesday, August 16, 2011.

"I've never been much of a royalist but this song is about the royal wedding," says Cuddy. " Something about this last wedding got me. When I started reading more about it I realized that there is something about it that is very inspiring. And this was truly a gift. This song just came out. I had come in to the studio to do something completely different and within half an hour I had this song completely sketched out and that doesn't happen, usually there's more work involved."

Released: Release Date: September 27, 2011
Label: Warner Music Canada

Skyscraper Soul

  • 1. Skyscraper Soul
  • 2. Regular Days
  • 3. Everyone Watched The Wedding
  • 4. Still Want You
  • 5. Wash Me Down
  • 6. Watch Yourself Go Down
  • 7. Don’t Know That Much
  • 8. Banks Of The 49
  • 9. What Is So Wrong
  • 10. Ready To Fall
  • 11. Water’s Running High
  • 12. How In The World
  • 13. City Birds
  • 14. With You