Brand brings his pub tour to Highfields

EVEN after two decades on the road, Adam Brand doesn’t get sick of touring.

“After 20 years of doing something, you can think you might get jaded as some do, but if you saw us today you’d swear this was our first tour, it’s been really good,” he told The Guide.

The country music star will drop into the Toowoomba region next month as part of his 20-year anniversary tour.

The tour spans more than 60 dates and features some of Brand’s most intimate shows, including small towns he’s never played before.

“We’ve probably done about 50 this year, so we’re on the downward run. We’ll do a few early next year and that will be it. Toowoomba’s getting us at the right time,” he said.

It’s been at least three years since Brand played in the Garden City, and the 48-year-old said he was overdue for another performance.

“Toowoomba is certainly a good heartland of country music,” he said.

“I’ve played theatres and all kinds of venues, but there’s something about a pub, that old-school feeling.

“It’s that casual, Aussie afternoon feeling that suits our music and vibe and what we’re about.”

Country music has made seismic shifts in sound and musicality since Brand released his first album in 1998, with country artists now occupying more of the charts in both Australia and the United States.

Artists and songwriters are also no longer confined to the genre’s previously rigid thematic and musical structure and now incorporate other elements like pop, hip hop and electronic music.

He said the evolution of country music was necessary to secure its future success.

“What I think is that country music is breaking down barriers,” he said.

“Before, the genre was quite narrow and it had a fairly distinctive sound.

“Now you’ve (got) artists like Taylor Swift and Keith Urban crossing over into that mainstream world, it kind of blurs the lines.

“The perception of country is changing and I think it’s really interesting.”

The growing flexibility in country music is no problem for Brand, who has prided himself on changing up his sound through every release cycle.

“My whole career, I’ve been doing it I’ve never made the same album twice,” he said.

“I’ve suffered for it a little, because the purists don’t like change too much.

“I just couldn’t bring myself to make the same album over and over. The genre has to evolve and change.”

Adam Brand will play the Highfields Tavern on Friday, November 2 from 7pm.