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Cuff The Duke CD Release Party Friday and Saturday @ The Horseshoe


Jaimoe

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Two nights of Cuff The Duke, but I'm heading to the Friday gig: Tickets are $12.50 (with $1 service charge at Rotate This). It will be a good show - I've seen them twice and Cuff never disappoints.

The new album, Way Down Here, was produced by Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor (in his barn) and it sounds fantastic. Not surprisingly, Way Down Here has more of a Blue Rodeo influence, but the Oshawa boys still bring on the gritty Crazy Horse guitars on several tracks. Why Cuff The Duke aren't bigger in this country remains a mystery, but maybe this album will start their breakout.

I hope to see you there on Friday!

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I lost interest in them.

They've changed band members so often I don't even know who CTD are anymore other than Wayne.

I guess I should check out their new release before I give up on them entirely.

I do still LOVE "Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker" though

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Cuff has tweaked their sound since their great self-titled 2005 country-centric album. These last two efforts have found Wayne and company really embracing guitars without losing focus of producing great songs. Starhead, I think you’ll really like their last album, Sidelines of the City, and the new one. Oh yeah, Dale Murray, Cuff’s lead guitarist and pedal steel player since 2005, is fucking great and has made Petti a better guitarist too – their on-stage interplay is sometimes quite thrilling.

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I really liked La Strada. From Brooklyn, nice guys. Lakeriser were pretty good too, they're Hamilton locals. I actually enjoyed their set more.

Been a while since I saw the Duke in Toronto but the crowd stood far back from the stage and didn't seem to have much life. Luckily I was there to make up for it. Might try to make it out to one of the shows this weekend.

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Great show last night! Cuff played for around 100 minutes or more and were in fine form. Fans packed into the Horseshoe seemed to love the new songs - which are more countrified than stuff off their last album - but the set wasn't new song heavy.

The jams weren't as frequent as their were when I saw them two years ago at the Mod Club (in support of their excellent CD, Sidelines of the City), mainly because the news tracks are more structured - but lead guitarist Dale Murray still had lots of killer Crazy Horse-inspired solos. Greg Keelor joined the band to do a new Blue Rodeo song from their forthcoming The Things We Left Behind LP, and then a Byrds cover. I heard the new Blue Rodeo track a few days ago on the CBC and the Cuff/Keelor combo certainly did it justice; it helps that Cuff frontman Wayne Petti is a Jim Cuddy disciple, which suits me just fine.

Get out and see Cuff the Duke when they play your town - and they will. You will not be disappointed.

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I dunno J., I was kinda disappointed with both the new CD and the show last night. Where's the rock gone? The new CD seems a bit too much of a departure from their sound, all mellow and slow, without any of the drive or excitement of the self-titled and Sidelines. I think they either were letting Keelor have too much say, or following his advice too closely and seemed to have strayed from the bouncy, fun rock side of their 2 previous albums.

The show last night wasn't all that thrilling either. Not bad, just not as good as either the Mod club show or last years horseshoe shows.

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Of course it'll take a year for the new songs to resonate with their fans' date=' [/quote']

that does not bode well for the band, the fans, or the songs.

Isn't this true with most bands when they unveil a new album and its songs? Fans usually dig the songs they know more than new stuff. For example, most if not all of MMJ's Evil Urges' tunes didn't resonate during the two shows I was at like the stuff off of Z and earlier albums. Actually, a couple of the rocking new Cuff tracks came off best on Friday. The new songs are not inferior. They are just more country-leaning.

I thought Friday's show was very good, not as good as the Mod Club from two years ago, but a very good show nonetheless. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't have written a positive mini-review in the first place.

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seemed to have strayed from the bouncy, fun rock side of their 2 previous albums.

CTD have 3 previous releases...

* Life Stories for Minimum Wage (2002 on Three Gut Records, re-released 2007 on Outside Music)

* Cuff the Duke (2005 on Hardwood Records)

* Sidelines of the City (2007 on Hardwood Records)

* Way Down Here (September 8, 2009)

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