Singer-songwriter Paul Brandt’s The Journey Tour stops in Ottawa on Feb. 16 at TD Place Arena.
Born in Calgary, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter has a largely prolific career for a Canadian country artist, having received multiple CCMA Awards and Juno awards and charting on both Canadian and American charts.
“I think that now, even after 20 years, it’s still something that feels pretty surreal,” Brandt said.
Before his music career began, Brandt was a registered nurse working at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. While he was still living with his parents, he got a call from a record label, telling him that they liked a demo he had sent them. They said that they wanted to see him perform live.
“I was playing for friends and family, just kind of enjoying playing music, and all of a sudden, I’ve got Nashville calling—that was pretty amazing,” he said.
Brandt is also known for a number of philanthropic endeavours such as addressing youth suicide and bullying, providing safe drinking water in the developing world, and assisting various humanitarian relief organizations. At the 2008 Juno Awards, he was presented the Allan Waters Humanitarian of the Year Award.
“We love using the music to make the world better,” he said.
After the Humboldt Broncos bus crash last year, Brandt visited some of the injured players in hospital and spoke out in support of the Humboldt Strong movement.
One of his biggest charitable projects of the past year has been a human trafficking awareness campaign called #NotInMyCity. He’s using his current tour to raise awareness for the campaign across Canada.
“It’s been exciting to know that something as unlikely as an anti-human trafficking campaign has sprung from this career in country music,” he said about the success of the organization.
Brandt is currently on tour promoting his 2018 EPs–the two-part EP The Journey.
Brandt said most of his albums follow a general theme, and that these EPs tell the story of his journey from Alberta to Nashville, and then eventually back to Alberta, where he currently lives with his wife and kids. Although Alberta is home, he still makes frequent trips to Nashville to write and record, just like many other Canadian country artists.
“It was a bit of a storytelling device—having a part one and a part two—I’m really glad to see the way people responded to it . . . I think it kept people’s attention,” he said.
Brandt is bringing a star-studded list of Canadian supporting acts with him on tour, including fellow Albertans High Valley, as well as Saskatchewan’s Jess Moskaluke and the Hunter Brothers.
At the 2018 CCMA Awards, all four acts went performed Johnny Cash’s classic “I Walk The Line.” The cover performance is part of the current tour.
In 2002, Brandt co-wrote “For You,” a song Cash recorded and performed alongside Dave Matthews. Brandt said he has a high level of respect for the Man in Black from that experience, but also from growing up around his music.
“It’s pretty daunting to take on a Johnny Cash classic, and you want to make sure you’re being respectful––you don’t want Johnny to roll over when you’re trying to play on of his songs,” he said.
Brandt said he’s looking forward to continuing his tour across Canada, watching the other artists on the tour perform, reuniting with his family when it ends and reflecting on the experience.
“I literally feel like I’m waking up every day to a brand new adventure and there’s still creative ideas flowing. We’re still just basically in the middle to tail end of the promotion of this project and I’m already thinking about the next album, so we’ll just have to wait and see what it brings when we’re finished this tour,” he said.
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