Devin Cuddy is progressing with his second album “Kitchen Knife. He returns to Lethbridge to play the Geomatic Attic, Nov. 10.
He was here earlier this year at the Enmax Centre hoping for his dad, Jim Cuddy’s band Blue Rodeo.
The new album features more of Cuddy playing piano and further explores his love for New Orleans Dixieland jazz and blues piano.
“It is definitely a step forward ,” Cuddy said from Regina, the second stop on his latest tour.
“ It is very much piano based. The first one, I wrote on a guitar, this one I wrote all of the songs on piano,” he continued adding audiences have responded well to it since he released it in late July.
He noted his dad got him to take piano lessons when he was young which he didn’t enjoy until he discovered Dixieland Jazz in his dad’s record collection.
“ I’ve always played piano, but I really didn’t like it until my mid-teens,” he said adding New Orleans jazz immediately spoke to him.
“ I liked the nature of it. It’s good time music. I like the energy of early 20s and ’30s jazz. It’s a great mixture of influences. There’s Creole music, African music, jazz music, blues music and it all comes together to make it what it is. And I always liked the nature of that idea,” he said.
“ It gets some great piano sounds,” he said.
The only other time he has played Lethbridge was opening for Blue Rodeo earlier this year at the Enmax. He hasn’t had a big stage experience like it since.
“It was a great time. It was a great learning experience. I learned how to work a big stage,” he said.
They enjoy smaller, listening rooms like the Geomatic Attic.
“We really like the smaller stages. They’re nice. We can really connect with the audience in a different way.
Cuddy will be joined by long time band mates bassist Devon Richardson and drummer Zack Sutton and experienced guitarist Mike Tuyp who, though he is new to the Devin Cuddy Band, is a familiar face around the Toronto music scene.
“I’ve known Zack and Devon since College. But Mike is a new face. So we’re going to have a good time,” he said.
The Devin Cuddy band play the Geomatic Attic beginning at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $30.
