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Olympic glory rubs off on Jim Cuddy

IN CONCERT What : The Jim Cuddy Band with Barney Bentall, Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley Where : McPherson Playhouse When : Friday Feb. 23 8 p.m. Tickets : Sold out Pull Me Through might be the most satisfying No.
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Jim Cuddy, centre front, with band members, from left, Steve OÕConnor (keyboards), Bazil Donovan (bass), Joel Anderson (drums), Anne Lindsay (fiddle) and Colin Cripps (guitar).

IN CONCERT

What: The Jim Cuddy Band with Barney Bentall, Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley
Where: McPherson Playhouse
When: Friday Feb. 23 8 p.m.
Tickets: Sold out

Pull Me Through might be the most satisfying No. 1 song of Jim Cuddy鈥檚 career, even if it took 12 years for the single to reach the top.

Released in 2006 on a solo album by the Blue Rodeo singer-guitarist, Pull Me Through managed to crash the iTunes servers at one point this week, after it was used in a video celebrating Canadian figure skaters Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue.

The CBC TV clip went viral following the pair鈥檚 emotional gold-medal win Monday night, a performance some have ranked among the greatest free dance routines in Olympic history.

The Moir-Virtue win and subsequent video quickly catapulted the piano-driven ballad into the No. 1 spot on iTunes 鈥 where it remains today, ahead of new hits by Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake and Imagine Dragons.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a good example of how people listen to music,鈥 Cuddy said Wednesday on the phone from his Toronto home.

鈥淭he song is actually about losing somebody. But when you watch the video, you鈥檙e really drawn to the idea of two people so attached to each other that they can always pull each other up when the other one is down.鈥

The video was put together by CBC video editor Tim Thompson, who asked Cuddy a month ago if he could use the tune in a tribute video he was putting together for the Olympics.

Cuddy agreed, and went back to preparing for the Jan. 26 release of Constellation, his fourth solo album.

When the video finally aired, Cuddy was caught off guard by the response.

鈥淲hen somebody asks to use your song, they often use a portion of it 鈥 they don鈥檛 use the whole song like they did here,鈥 Cuddy said. 鈥淚鈥檓 extraordinarily grateful to be associated with such an incredible moment. I think it鈥檚 got to be one of the finest Olympic moments I鈥檝e ever seen. Those two are so ridiculously inspiring.鈥

Cuddy kicked off his 31-date solo tour of sa国际传媒 on Feb. 8, which brings the 62-year-old Toronto native to Victoria for a sold-out performance Friday night at the McPherson Playhouse.

The tour is a special one for Cuddy, who is bringing a mixture of friends, family and Blue Rodeo bandmates along for the ride. Colin Cripps (guitar), Anne Lindsay (fiddle), Bazil Donovan (bass), Joel Anderson (drums) and Steve O鈥機onnor (keyboards) from the Blue Rodeo camp will join Cuddy鈥檚 sons, Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley, and Cuddy鈥檚 longtime friend and collaborator, Barney Bentall, for the trek.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been inclined to sticking with people around me, to be partner-oriented,鈥 Cuddy said of the players he assembled for the tour.

鈥淏ecause we鈥檝e developed all this camaraderie and musicality over the years, it just seemed natural to put it all on the stage.鈥

Cuddy is busy at the moment 鈥 he played with Blue Rodeo at a show in Toronto on Wednesday and will be on stage in Vancouver tonight 鈥 but he鈥檚 hardly complaining. He wants to be as active as possible while he鈥檚 still able and eager.

鈥淚 like the pace. I like to keep working. I have a skillset that I have developed over 30 years that would definitely decline if I didn鈥檛 work. I have no interest in taking a long period of time off. Singing is really about keeping the muscles sharp. I do lots of travelling and have lots of time off. But the last thing I want to do is sit around and drink, and not sing.鈥

Constellation features a number of songs about loss and mortality, as Cuddy was writing for the first time about the deaths of two longtime friends, and the eventual death of another.

Cuddy was especially close to Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, whose spirit can be heard between the notes on Constellation. Downie鈥檚 final performance before his death last year was a cameo on stage during a Blue Rodeo concert at Massey Hall in Toronto.

Couple that with the assisted suicide of a longtime friend and the declining health (due to early-onset Alzheimer鈥檚 disease) of Spirit of the West鈥檚 John Mann, another longtime Cuddy associate, and the record practically wrote itself, Cuddy said.

鈥淸These things] just sort of determined the theme of the record. I don鈥檛 ever sit down with a theme in mind. I just mull over what鈥檚 been going through my mind over the past year, and muse over what I should write about.鈥

Songs about tough times are often the ones that resonate with fans, he said.

鈥淭his was a really significant year, and in that regard, it made it easy to write. I wasn鈥檛 making up subjects. I was trying to honour subjects.

鈥淭here was a little bit of pressure 鈥 not stultifying pressure 鈥 to get it right, to not waste words. With any record, if you鈥檙e writing 12 or 15 songs, there鈥檚 a line here and there you put in because it vaguely fits and it rhymes.

鈥淎nd I really tried to not do that at all on this record. Who knows how many opportunities like this you鈥檒l get, so don鈥檛 waste any lines.鈥

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To view the Pull Me Through CBC video, go to youtube.com/watch?v=0T_dqPeAZKg