The reigning king of Canadian country music is coming back to Prince George.
Of this nation's solo male country artists over the years, only Hank Snow has been to the same international chart heights as Paul Brandt, and after maintaining success over 20 years in the business, with many more creative miles yet to go, Brandt is easily striding towards the kind of indelible reputation usually reserved for time-tested names like Stompin' Tom, Tommy Hunter and Wilf Carter.
Brandt is back with a new song package and once again it is winning the ear of fans. He doesn't pump out formulaic annual albums like so many artists do in that field, so each time he unveils a disc it has been carefully crafted and scored with the public. He roared out of the gates in 1996 with international hits like My Heart Has A History and I Do, then two more albums in the next three years, each one containing their own hits.
But he was living in Nashville and working in the Nashville way. He didn't like it. He felt himself, with the overt urging of some in the record industry, sacrificing who he was as a person for the sake of record sales.
The truck drove back to Canada with no trouble. He broke free and came home, and may have set the standard for other artists to come in that he discovered he could do it his own way in his own country and still attain his music career goals. The hit-list proved it out over time: the postcard tune Alberta Bound, a definitive cover of Convoy, the adventure anthem Didn't Even See The Dust, Give It Away, the live hits (a rare feat) Small Towns And Big Dreams, Canadian Man, and When You Call My Name, and the list goes on, turning him into the first international country star in Canadian history to have more success back at home than he did south of the border.
And he's still going. His latest tune Open Road is being called one for the ages by critics, and it's the big push behind the Road Trip Tour he's bringing to Prince George on Tuesday night with Dean Brody and Jess Moskaluke.
"I'm geared up and ready to rock," he said, looking forward to Prince George in particular because he did not come here for the tours and appearances attached to the gospel album that dominated his calendar for the past three years or so. It didn't get him to P.G. but it did spread his word in many locations in Canada and, since he has that level of reputation, to the famed Ryman Auditorium stage in Nashville - which was originally a church and was also the first home of the Grand Ole Opry.
"I remember the first time I played at the Opry, and when they moved to the new Opry House they cut a hole out of the floor of the Ryman stage and brought it over. It's where all the greats got to stand. When I first went there I got into the history of what the Ryman was first about, you don't want to take it for granted when you get that chance, so I'm on the Grand Ole Opry stage, playing for all these people, and I finally got over the nerves, I forgot about the history and was just going to be in the moment and play my hit, and I leaned back a little bit in that circle and it creaked underneath me, and I tell ya, it just brought it all back, just shaking, because Hank Williams stood here, all these greats. It was a pretty cool moment."
Those moments can't be taken away from him, just because he shifted gears and roared off into the Canadian dust, leaving Nashville corporate country behind. And he admitted, it was a scary moment when he pulled that trigger.
"I honestly thought that when I left the label and moved back to Canada, that my career was going to kinda spiral and that would be it, and wasn't that fun," he said, but Canada was ready for him.
"We had our most successful years after we left the label, and it has been getting busier, so it is a crazy life right now. And we're juggling that with being parents. It's awesome, but it's nuts. It's a very, very busy and a very full life."
You could almost call Dean Brody a brother figure, without either of them knowing it. Brody, too, went to Nashville, was embraced by Music Row, but felt unwelcome pressures on his personal and creative sides, so he left for Canada and hit it bigger back home than even his strong statistics in Tennessee.
Now the two of them are on the road together.
"I'm pretty thrilled to get out on the road with Dean," said Brandt. "The first time I heard him on the radio - I don't know how to say this the best way - I didn't think oh, this is great because it's Canadian, I thought oh this is just really great. As soon as I got a feel for his artistry, it was that excellence that drew me. And then when I saw he had a similar trajectory, choosing to work back in Canada, trying, like me, to find that creative independence, and because of that you feel that unique approach he has."
They pull in for a Road Trip Tour stop on Tuesday night at CN Centre.
