In Our Nature

Canada’s long-running alt.country band—they were alt.country before the term existed—Blue Rodeo celebrate more than 25 years of ups and downs with their 13th album, In Our Nature. It was recorded at co-founder Greg Keelor’s farmhouse, just as the band’s classic 5 Days In July album had been done 20 years earlier. Keelor’s well-publicized hearing problems have kept him off the electric guitar and prompted the addition of new members (guitarist Colin Cripps and keyboardist Michael Boguski), but they haven’t curtailed the chemistry he has with songwriter Jim Cuddy. The songs carry a certain mortality closer to the front lines than previous albums, but the harmonies on “New Morning Sun,” “Tell Me Again," and “Mattawa” add color. The heartfelt, quieter moments of “Wondering,” “In Our Nature," and “Out of the Blue” take the group into poetic territory where a pedal steel guitar opens the landscape and gives the songs a shade of Gene Clark’s melancholia.