Country singer’s drive-thru concert
With venues closed by COVID-19, country singer finds new way to perform
EDMONTON — As we cautiously move from our living rooms back into the real world, the idea of watching live concerts huddled together like baby owls still seems a long way off in terms of plain sensibility during a COVID-19 pandemic which has not even globally peaked, with no available vaccine in sight.
But like so many of us, Brett Kissel is kicking at the chute, and the Edmonton country singer is jumping on the trend already exemplified by Keith Urban last week in Watertown, Tenn.: drive-in concerts.
And really, what could be more Albertan than listening to country music in your truck?
“One of the greatest ways to bring people together is through music — it’s been amazing,” says Kissel over the phone. “It’s what I love to do. And before COVID-19 it was a specialty for me, you bring people together, you get paid, and you have an epic Saturday night.
“Well, that’s gone now.”
But in the spirit of so much other innovation in the arts, Brett Kissel — Live at the Drive-In will take place in the sprawling parking lot of River Cree Resort and Casino just west of Edmonton in Enoch Cree Nation on June 13.
Kissel admits he’s never been to a movie at a drive-in — the idea of them slowly dried up since their midcentury heyday — so the singer especially excited to go to his first where he actually gets to be the show.
“And it happens to be the first of its kind for Canadian country music,” he says with a smile you can hear stretch out over the phone. “It’s pretty cool.”
The staging of the fundraiser concert is being supported by Safeway Canada, which will also help get 100 per cent of the event’s ticket sales to Food Banks Alberta.
But additional performances will be added if the idea takes off, eh.