Add the text from the image as screen reader text

The CBC and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (ACCT) are proud to announce three remarkable performances on the 26th Annual Gemini Awards, airing on September 7.

The one-hour live gala will include performances by Jim Cuddy, City and Colour, and Deborah Cox with Kellylee Evans. Jim, a fan favourite, has been a constant keystone for Canada’s music industry, with a career spanning over two decades. Debuting at the Geminis, Jim will perform a new song from his third solo album, Skyscraper Soul, set to release on September 27, 2011.

Don’t miss out on your chance to be in the studio audience. Get up close and personal with your favourite performers from TV and music by purchasing a general admission ticket to the gala broadcast for $30 + HST. Check out www.facebook.com/SCENE and email contests@academy.ca for details and to purchase tickets – standing room only. A limited number of tickets will be available so act fast!

The 26th Annual Gemini Awards will air live on CBC for a special one-hour broadcast, from the CBC studios in downtown Toronto, at 8 pm EDT (8:30 NDT). Fans can also experience the show from a unique perspective online, alongside digital host Tom Green, in the Tom Green Room. The live stream begins at 7 p.m. EDT at cbc.ca/live and will be available On Demand as a digital companion to the television broadcast.

The 26th Annual Gemini Awards are also available on Twitter by following @CBCLive and #geminiawards and/or @thegeminiawards.

Just announced: The Jim Cuddy Band will team up with nominees The Heartbroken for a very special performance at this year’s Canadian Country Music Awards at Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum on September 12.

The CCMAs will be broadcast live on CBC, beginning at 8:00 pm EDT, and will be re-broadcast on CMT Canada at 10:00 pm EDT the same night. For more information on the CCMAs, please visit CCMA.org. Tickets to the show can be purchased at Ticketmaster.

We’re happy to tell you that the Jim Cuddy Band will be performing at The ROI in Oshawa, on October 14. You can pick up your tickets in the BlueRodeo.com Store right now! 

With Skyscraper Soul set for release in just over a month’s time, Jim has begun to do some interviews to discuss the new record, the Royal Wedding and more. Click here to read the Hello! Canada piece, and head to TheGridTO.com to read that interview.

Skyscraper Soul is now available for pre-order on iTunes Canada. Available in standard and deluxe versions (featuring two iTunes-exclusive bonus tracks), pre-order the deluxe version to receive an instant download of the album’s first single, “Everyone Watched The Wedding”.

Today we’re pleased to reveal the tracklist of Jim’s forthcoming new album, Skyscraper Soul, due in stores September 27.

The standard CD edition contains 14 songs:

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

While the JimCuddy.com exclusive deluxe edition features a second disc containing four demo recordings:

1 Regular Days – Demo Version
2 Skyscraper Soul – Demo Version
3 Everyone Watched The Wedding – Demo Version
4 Still Want You – Demo Version

Skyscraper Soul is available for pre-order here.

Next Monday, August 15, the Jim Cuddy Band will be in Toronto to tape a forthcoming televsion special for CMT Canada, during which they will debut songs from Jim’s new album, Skyscraper Soul. While taping is closed to the public, we’ve got 10 pairs of tickets to give away to this very special event.

To enter for your chance to see the show, all you need to do is head to Jim’s page on Facebook, “like” it if you haven’t already, and then post a comment sharing your favourite Jim Cuddy memory. Tell us the first Jim Cuddy song you heard or about the best JCB show you’ve seen, it’s up to you and just that simple!

The contest closes Thursday (August 11) at 6 pm EDT. Winners will be notified via Facebook on Friday morning. Please note: this prize is for tickets to the taping only, so you must be able to get yourself to Toronto on Monday afternoon to see the show.

Warner Music Canada recording artist Jim Cuddy is in the final stages of mixing the tracks that will make up his solo album, Skyscraper Soul, scheduled for release on Tuesday, September 27, 2011. The album was recorded in Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studio this past Spring.

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 did’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.”

Skyscraper Soul is available for pre-order here.

Jim’s been all over the place in the last few weeks in support of his latest release, Skyscraper Soul.

Don’t worry if you think you might have missed something because we’ve got a bunch of links to Jim’s recent special appearances, interviews and performances after the jump.

Canada AM on September 16 (Performances and Interview)

Explore Music (Video Interview)

CBC Radio 2 – Inside The Music (Jim’s Playlist)

2011 Canadian Country Music Awards – The Jim Cuddy Band with The Heartbroken (Audio Performance of “Everyone Watched the Wedding”)

Now Talks (Video Interview and Performances)

On September 27, Jim Cuddy’s brand new solo album, Skyscraper Soul, will be released!

From now until then, we are very excited to be able to give you a look into the making of Skyscraper Soul, including blog posts by Jim and his band, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, and even an audio stream of the entire album!

While the first blog post is available right now, the rest of this exclusive content will be revealed as the release date for Skyscraper Soul approaches.

Visit JimCuddy.com to read Jim’s “First Things” blog, which you can access by clicking on the July 27 window in our skyscraper landscape.

You’ll see that all of the windows on that page feature a date, which tells you exactly when the content behind each window will become available. Mouse over the windows for a sneak peak at what’s to come. You can also share everything on this page with your friends by clicking on the Facebook, Twitter and email icons at the bottom of each pop up.

And if you haven’t purchased a copy yet, we are still preselling three fantastic versions of Skyscraper Soul. You can preorder this album on CD, as a deluxe CD, or as a vinyl+CD package. Once your preorder is placed, you will instantly receive a link to download the demo recording of demo track “Water’s Running High”.

Enjoy!