2012 | Adult Alternative Album of the Year | Jim Cuddy | | The JUNO Awards

In the spring of 2010, following extensive Blue Rodeo touring, Jim Cuddy began to write music to accompany his wife Rena’s comedic short film, Four Sisters. It turned out that some of what he’d written didn’t fit the film but on a creative roll he continued writing. Before long he had the kind of material he felt could make up his third solo album. “When I write songs for my solo material, the songs tend to be more personal than what I write for Blue Rodeo,” says Jim. “I come in here and sit down with all of these instruments and work at building the ideas until a song emerges. Once I’ve demoed the track and played it for the band, we work on fleshing it out.” Production on SKYSCRAPER SOUL was handled by Cuddy, guitarist Colin Cripps and Chris Shreenan-Dyck. Jim was joined in the studio by his touring solo band, The Jim Cuddy Band (Colin Cripps, Bazil Donovan, Joel Anderson, Steve O’Connor and Anne Lindsay) and a number of Toronto’s top horn/string players. Many of the album’s songs benefit from the spontaneity of having the musicians set up together in the studio and play live off the floor.