There's nothing like a little splash of Johnny Reid sunshine to drive those winter blues away.
Reid will once again take to the CN Centre stage March 8, just in time to ensure our survival of the snow days of reckoning that have plagued Prince George.
Revival is Reid's new two-time JUNO award nominated album, that he will showcase during his cross-Canada tour starting in Sydney, B.C., on Feb. 26 and ending April 24 in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Reid, a six-time JUNO award winner and twenty-six time Canadian Country Music award recipient, has mostly original songs on Revival like Soul Train, Heart of A Woman, Memphis and Cry No More, while reviving two oldies with updated covers of She Just Wants To Dance, because his daughter Ava loves the song, and Every Time I Roll The Dice.
The Citizen was able to chat with Reid during a telephone interview last week.
"When we come to Prince George we're bringing our 14-piece band and it's going to be a show not to be missed," Reid said during the phoner.
Reid has taken a bit of a side-step in his career and talked about working on a very special project for the last two years.
"I've been working on a musical for my grandmother," Reid announced. "It's for my Granny Margaret. She has such a great story - widowed when she was 21, raised three boys by herself, scrubbing floors, and such a great woman and so I wanted to immortalize my Granny. I wanted to see if I could bring her back to life on stage and the only way for me to do that is to write a musical so I wrote a musical called My Bonnie Lass."
The production has just been picked up by Michael Rubinoff of M. Rubinoff Productions.
"That's been a huge big thing for us, so in the next couple of years, I would say the spring of 2020, I'm going to bring this show to Canada and take it on tour across Canada and I'm going to introduce everybody to my Granny," Reid said. "It was a crazy time between the 1940s and 1970s and the strength and sense of humour with which these women raised a generation is just a beautiful story and the fact that it's a musical and has great characters will make it something people will definitely enjoy."
In his spare time, Reid has produced Glass Tiger's new album, 31, in partnership with Warner Music Canada. The album was just released. Glass Tiger, a Canadian band that's been making music for the last 31 years, will be on tour with Reid as he goes cross country on this Revival Live tour. Also joining the 46-date tour is Jessica Mitchell, a Canadian singer songwriter whose album, Heart of Glass, is set to be released this spring.
Reid, a consummate entertainer, always reaches out to the audience during every live show.
As a big bear of a man follows Reid around the concert floor, as a grandma kisses him on the cheek, as a little girl waves as she's lifted up in her dad's arms to catch a glimpse of the star up close, Reid always has a smile on his face and never misses a note.
What inspires you to give so much of yourself during each show?
"That's what we're supposed to do, right?" Reid said. "I feel like we're supposed to give. And this goes back to my Granny, I remember her telling me that I have a gift and not to waste it. My goal has always been to take what I've been given and share it with as many people as possible. If I can put a smile on someone's face or if I can remind somebody that they're not alone, and if I can - for 90 minutes - just take somebody on a journey with me, musically and emotionally, then I feel like I'm making a difference and that's always been of the utmost importance to me. I have a great admiration for people and I just wanna give back because I feel like I've been given so much."
Tickets are on sale now for the show at ticketsnorth.ca.
