Today is the official Canadian release date for The Things We Left Behind, the brand new studio album from Blue Rodeo.  Vinyl fans will appreciate that Blue Rodeo sequenced the new album with vinyl in mind – spreading two albums worth of carefully placed music across four sides of vinyl.  The Things We Left Behind is available in two flavors – as a double CD set, and also in the previously mentioned vinyl format, packaged in gatefold packaging with CD copies of the album included, and a lyrics insert.

For those in the U.S. – the new album will get a proper U.S. release in the above formats on January 26th (on the band’s own Telesoul Records), accompanied by a planned U.S. tour in Spring 2010.  Blue Rodeo will mount a short series of U.S. dates starting on Friday with two sold out shows in New York City.

I’m still waiting for my copy of the new album to show up, but in the meantime, good ol’ ATV pal Chase pointed me towards an excellent full transcript interview with Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, talking comprehensively about the new album, and the overall career of Blue Rodeo.

The interview, conducted by journalist Jason Schneider, is the most comprehensive and revealing interview I’ve ever read with any member of the band – loaded with the kind of dirt that you expect a guy like Keelor would spill, and yet you rarely read this stuff in interviews.  Keelor sheds a whole lot of light on the story behind the departure of BR keyboard player Bob Packwood, who abruptly left the band last year just days before they were about to start a U.S. tour.

As a fan, I was most interested in the discussion of the individual Blue Rodeo albums, which revealed some interesting details about each that even I was unaware of.  As I’ve often suspected, the band doesn’t have a lot of love for The Days in Between album, something that Keelor (at least partially) confirms:

I love the demos; they’re sort of experimental, but then the record… It’s not my favourite Blue Rodeo record. I mean, I don’t even know the songs on it. Like, I couldn’t sit down and sing one of my own songs off that.

There is similar discussion about Tremolo, and both Tremolo and The Days in Between continue to be the odd records out in the Blue Rodeo catalog which is unfortunate, because I think they’re two of the band’s most underrated albums.

Blue Rodeo – The Days in Between

Kudos to Jason for an unbelievable interview – check it out, and stay tuned – he’ll have an interview with BR frontman Jim Cuddy coming online soon to present the other half of the story.

Blue Rodeo – The Things We Left Behind – The Interviews, Part 1:  Greg Keelor

On the other side of things, I came across the most uncomfortable interview I’ve ever seen, also with Blue Rodeo.  Give this one a look – it’s a complete opposite in comparison to the above.  Cricket, cricket….