MEDIA

MEDIA

TORONTO -- Like all good rumors, the one about Blue Rodeo calling it quits after their show this Friday at Maple Leaf Gardens has at least a small basis in fact.

The band will indeed take a break this fall to work on solo projects. However, they are not, repeat NOT, breaking up.

"It got so bad, I had to issue a special letter to the band's fan club," band spokesperson Ruth Kearney said from Toronto yesterday. She did confirm that both Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are pursuing solo projects, "simply for the delight of breaking the mold.

"But Blue Rodeo already have plans to begin work on album number seven in the early spring."

Keelor has already started recording his solo album for release in '97, while Cuddy probably won't put out his own album for a year, perhaps even two, Kearney says.

Both band mainstays have contributed to an upcoming benefit album, Pine Ridge: An Open Letter To Allan Rock/Songs For Leonard Peltier. Peltier is serving two consecutive life sentences in prison after being found guilty -- based on false information, many claim -- in the murders of two FBI agents in 1976. Rock, of course, is Canada's Justice Minister.

Keelor, who assembled the collection, sings the moving title track. Cuddy chips in with a number called Smoking Gun.