Toronto alt-country band Cuff the Duke are on the cusp or releasing their latest CD “Union” — the second part of what was to be a double album package.
“Joel Plaskett is a buddy of ours and he released a triple CD, so maybe a double album isn’t that impressive,” said Cuff the Duke guitarist/ singer/ bassist and Moog organist Wayne Petti. They play the Geomatic Attic, Oct. 10 with Jenn Grant.
“So instead, we decided to release it at exactly at the same time as we released our last CD “Morning Comes,” he continued adding there are a lot of companion songs between the two CDs.
The new Cd, “Union” which is the third Cuff the Duke CD produced with Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, is a more electrified affair, though they didn’t originally intend it to work out that way.
“A lot of the songs on ‘Morning Comes,’ lent themselves to being acoustic songs. But a lot of the songs on “Union,” lent themselves to be electric. We felt the last few records were very, very acoustic based, so we felt it was time to turn it up a notch,” he said.
““It’s not super heavy or loud, it’s just more electrical,” he continued.
“We’re really proud of it,” he said.
He enjoys working with Keelor. Cuff the Duke have toured extensively with Blue Rodeo.
“ He’s great. Greg’s like a big brother to me and he’s a musician and songwriter, so he understands. He was very, very helpful for us to achieve our musical vision,” he said adding they won’t tour extensively with Blue Rodeo in the near future. They have their own busy schedule over the next few months.
“He have to spread it out a bit, though it would be good for us to tour with Blue Rodeo,” he said.
The new CD was officially released in Canada on Oct. 2, followed by the Canadian tour, then the band will will fly to Europe for a few weeks as the CD is released there. They will return at the end of November and tour the United States to coincide with the American release of the CD.
“It’s kind of a crazy schedule,” Petti laughed, adding he is looking forward to playing with Jenn Grant.
“I hope she’ll join us on stage, though I haven’t spoken to her yet. We meet her in Calgary. She’s touring with Kathleen Edwards now,” he observed.
“’I’ve heard good things about that room ( The Geomatic Attic,)” he said.
“ A lot of our favourite bands play theatre shows, so that’s something we’re moving towards. We want to flex our different musical muscles,” he said.
Tickets for the show, which begins at 8 p.m. at the Geomatic Attic, cost $30.
