If Cris Cuddy somehow doesn’t already know how deeply respected as a musician he is, and just how loved as a friend he remains, he’ll be provided full evidence on both counts December 7th at The Social in downtown Peterborough.
On that day, from 2 to 5 p.m., musical collaborators and longtime friends of the singer-songwriter will gather at the George Street North bar to not only celebrate Cuddy’s longstanding talent, but also to bolster his spirits as he battles a rare form of blood cancer.
Back in March, a GoFundMe appeal was created by Cuddy’s friend Marcus Waddington, a Vancouver-based singer-songwriter who, back in the day, played alongside him in the band Jeremy Dormouse.
With a goal of $11,000, that appeal is close to that target, sitting now at just more than $10,000 with every dollar destined to help Cuddy overcome lost performance income as he undergoes treatment. However, something needed to be done in the city that Cuddy has so many ties to. Enter singer-songwriter “dennis” O’Toole, the driving force behind the benefit at The Social.
O’Toole has reached out to a number of musicians, the tie that binds being their having performed and/or recorded with Cuddy at some point in any one of a number of collaborations.
“We’ll be hard-pressed to get everything into three hours but we’ll keep it rolling,” assures O’Toole of the response to his call.
VIDEO: “Reggae Love” – Max Mouse and the Gorillas
Among those taking to the stage will be Pat Temple and the HiLo Players, including Rob Foreman, Nicholas Campbell and Brian Ferguson, and former Prairie Oyster frontman Russell deCarle and his longtime guitarist Steve Briggs, who performed November 23rd at a sold-out Gordon Best Theatre. Washboard Hank and Sweet Muriel, along with O’Toole fronting his band Old Soul, are also in the mix.
Bobby Watson “has threatened to come out and play with my outfit … I’m going to hold him to that,” says O’Toole, adding that Al Black, Dave MacQuarrie, Andy Pryde, and Pineapple Frank Barth will also take a turn or two on stage.
“And any and all former Gorillas will be welcome,” he says, referencing members of Max Mouse and the Gorillas, a Cuddy-led band in the ’70s and early ’80s band that garnered quite a following across Canada — its rollicking stage presence and danceable music highlighted by the Cuddy-penned “Reggae Love,” which was as close to commercial success as the band got.
Among those local musicians who were members of the band, at various points and for varying lengths of time, were the late Buzz Thompson, Jim Leslie, J.P. Hovercraft, George Bertok, and Watson — the latter three having also performed with Cuddy as part of country rock fusion band Bacon Fat in the early 1970s.
“It was very grassroots sort of rock and roll odyssey,” says O’Toole of Max Mouse and the Gorillas, adding “The ethos was to make a million posters and wallpaper the world.”
“They did a dance hall tour back in the early days where they touched base in a lot of little communities, in a lot of the old wooden (floor) dance halls. They lifted the roof off of them.”
O’Toole says his helping Cuddy get to his medical appointments has afforded the pair “visiting time we wouldn’t have had otherwise.” While refusing to go into any detail regarding Cuddy’s illness, he acknowledges, voice lowered, “It’s common knowledge that the prognosis is not good.”
If there is a silver lining, O’Toole says he has had time to reflect on what Cuddy has meant to him as a musician, a mentor, and a friend.
“Cris exposed me to a whole lot of music that I never would have run across otherwise … some of the great obscure singers and songwriters,” he says. “He was writing and performing in a fashion that nobody I bumped into was. He turned me onto all sorts of wonderful stuff — stuff that was a little bit out of the mainstream.”
“I was probably in Grade 11 when I met him,” O’Toole recalls. “He would have already graduated university. I was just starting to write songs and was playing a little bit. I was a church basement folkie, not really aware of everything that would be coming my way.”
“When I first met with Cris, he just tore my head off. One man and a guitar … I never felt that kind of musical power up close. He was very supportive of my early writing. On his (2018) recording Dream On, he covered a tune of mine that I wrote when I was 16 or 17 years old.”
While there’s no set admission cost for the benefit, O’Toole is hopeful attendees will be generous, noting there will also be a silent auction. He’ll also have at the event “several hundred” copies of a recording that Cuddy did with his Cris Cuddy Acoustic Unit that will be sold for a donation.
VIDEO: “Luck of the Draw” – Cris Cuddy
At this point, O’Toole is not sure if Cuddy will be up to attending the event, noting “He has been avoiding most social situations (because) he’s immunocompromised.”
“I’m not sure how much he knows about this. I’m sure he’s aware that something is in the works. He might seize upon the opportunity to see a whole lot of people, or he might shy away from the need to see a whole lot of people.”
One thing O’Toole does know is he himself has already said goodbye to too many musical friends over recent years.
“I just turned the corner on 71,” he says. “It seems to me any time after 70 is grace time. Pat Temple is fond of saying ‘We’re all just moving up in the line.'”
“I haven’t been able to guarantee for people whether this event is a benefit or a celebration of life. It’ll be one or the other but, yeah, things are winding down.”
As for O’Toole, he debuted his new band Old Soul on November 23rd at the Pig’s Ear Tavern as part of a benefit for acclaimed Peterborough-based luthier David Fox. The Cuddy benefit will mark their second appearance.
“At this stage of the game, I’m only interested in playing original music,” says O’Toole.
“That paints you into a corner. We’re not a dance band. We’re not a country band. Not only has the scene changed enormously, so has the music. I don’t have time to play at the commercial aspects of music. I just want to play from the heart. If that means playing for free, I’m fine with that.”
And if it means performing a benefit to honour his longtime friend, well, even better.
VIDEO: “Rock on” – Cris Cuddy
