COUNTRY STAR THANKS STARS
Brett Kissel says Calgary fundraiser is personal
One night last July, Brett Kissel’s father Gordon was riding his ATV on the family ranch in Flat Lake, northeast of Edmonton, when he lost control.
The vehicle flipped and trapped him underneath for nearly 24 hours. When his family found him, he was clinging to life. STARS — Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service — was dispatched to the ranch and airlifted the elder Kissel to Edmonton’s University Hospital where he slowly recovered after a month-long stay.
His son later met the first responder from the STARS team.
“I have never in my life met a real-life hero until I met her, the lady who saved my dad’s life,” says the 27-year-old country singer in an interview from Edmonton.
Kissel hopes to reconnect with the first responders on Jan. 20, when he headlines a sold-out fundraising event for STARS at the BMO Centre. There are, of course, plenty of reasons for a successful performer to raise funds for STARS and Kissel has a long history of stepping up for charitable causes.
But this one seems to hit particularly close to home.
“Because of STARS my dad is still here today and he’s a grandfather to my kids and I still have a dad,” Kissel says. “It’s very, very important for me to give back now in my little way as an entertainer and say thank you to STARS and make sure their bank accounts are full and they can operate and do the same thing for other families.”
Kissel will be arriving at the BMO Centre with a week’s worth of gigs under his belt promoting his new album, We Were That Song. The tour, which kicks off Saturday with the first of three shows at the Deerfoot Inn and Casino, is a good start to 2018, building on what was a particularly productive 2017 for the country singer.
Kissel was named the Canadian Country Music Association’s Male Artist of the Year for the third year in a row. When We Were That Song was launched in Edmonton, mayor Don Iveson officially named Dec. 12 “Brett Kissel Day.”
Then there is the album itself. Kissel’s seventh studio recording is a polished, radio-friendly affair that was put together by a sprawling team of musicians, songwriters and producers in studios in Nashville, Calgary and Saskatoon.
Kissel co-wrote five of the 13 tracks on the record. Others were penned by teams of writers offering made-to-order songs to support Kissel’s vision for the record. Many of them are Nashville pros, of course, but they are also friends, Kissel says.
“It was easy for me to reach out to them specifically and say ‘Hey, I’m looking for a song like this, I really need a song like that,’ ” says Kissel. “They were able to come through and wrote some smash songs for the record.”
Still, it’s hardly surprising that We Were the Song sounds like it was engineered with country airplay in mind. Guitars and Gasoline is a breezy summer road tune that namechecks Springsteen (which has become a bit of a habit of country singers as of late). Anthem is a stately folk singalong with mild Celtic flavouring, while the catchy, nostalgia-fuelled title track, which gives a shout-out to John Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane, puts the pop in country-pop.
There are a few off-road excursions that come courtesy of the intriguing guest list on the album. Kissel enlisted 83-year-old country icon Charley Pride for help rebooting Burgers and Fries, a sadly wistful Ben Peters chestnut that Pride took to No. 1 back in 1978.
On the driving Damn!, one of the tunes Kissel co-wrote, Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine offers some fiery guitar crunch to the mix.
The two have been friends for some time in Nashville and Kissel has written songs with Mustaine’s country-crooning daughter, Electra. But he says he was surprised when the heavy-metal guitarist, after a few cocktails one night, asked why Kissel had never asked him to play on one of his albums. So Kissel did.
“His only stipulation was that it needed to be the most bad-ass track I’d ever written,” he says. “So I went back through my database and said ‘ Well I’ve got this one, what do you think?’ He loved it and played his guitar work while he was on tour somewhere in Asia I think. That’s the power of technology. He played his guitar work and we built the track around him.”
Still, the most personal tune on the album is no doubt the sentimental ballad God Made Daughters. He began writing the song when his now two-year-old daughter Mila was born and finished it in 2016, after the birth of his second daughter Aria.
“It’s actually very difficult playing that song live or even strumming it in the studio,” Kissel says. “That song is so personal. I never was an emotional guy and I still don’t think I am. But when you talk about your little girls, something just gets me.
“I remember the day they came into the world. I can’t believe how fast time is flying. With all those things, it’s very difficult for me to play that song. Depending on the mood on our tour, I might be able to get to that place and play that song and play that song not just for my girls but for any daughter in the audience.”
The Brett Kissel Deerfoot Inn and Casino show on Jan. 13 is sold out, as is a 1 p.m. all-ages show at the Casino on Jan. 14 and the STARS fundraiser on Jan. 20 at the BMO Centre. He has added a third show all-ages show at the Deerfoot Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. Visit deerfootinn.com.
Because of STARS my dad is still here today and he’s a grandfather to my kids and I still have a dad.