Blue Rodeo announced Thursday it is releasing a new album and hitting the road for another cross-country tour.
The band — minus Greg Keelor, who was reportedly caught in traffic — shared the news with fans during a Facebook Live session.
The new album, 1000 Arms, is set for release on Oct. 28 and features 12 tracks co-produced by Tim Vesely of the Rheostatics.
“Tim was very instrumental in this record coming out the way it did,” Cuddy explained. “He had a lot of advice for us which we took and was very valuable.”
Cuddly said the title of Blue Rodeo's 15th studio album comes from a story he heard about a San Francisco woman living with bipolar disorder who relies on the people in her community to help her when she has an episode.
"We've been thinking about our community, our musical community, because of the things that have happened in the past year," he said. "So it just seemed like an appropriate thing to acknowledge."
The band also said it will kick off a 29-date tour on Jan. 11 in Thunder Bay, Ont. that will end Feb. 26 in Moncton, NB. Every ticket includes a digital copy of 1000 Arms.
Blue Rodeo was formed in 1984 and released its first album, Outskirts, three years later. It went on to win nearly a dozen Juno Awards and become one of Canada's most successful bands.
The group currently consists of founding members Cuddy, Keelor and Bazil Donovan as well as recent additions Glenn Milchem, Michael Boguski, and Colin Cripps.
Cuddy said after three decades, the inspiration is the same.
“The accomplishments are the great reward for getting out there and playing but the actual motivation is to just be in a room together and make music and then want to present it to the public,” he explained.
Also on Thursday, Blue Rodeo unveiled the video for the first single off 1000 Arms, “Superstar.”