Dean Brody returns to Halifax
Canadian country music star comes back for an up-close-and-personal show
The last time Dean Brody played a major show in Halifax he brought down the house at Scotiabank Centre on his Road Trip tour with Paul Brandt.
This time around, the easygoing Canadian country star is opting for a more up-close-andpersonal vibe, with two nights at Casino Nova Scotia’s Schooner Showroom dubbed An Evening With Dean Brody on Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24. That doesn’t mean things won’t get a little rowdy, but the atmosphere will be a bit more relaxed.
“It’s going to be a kitchen party kind of thing, I’m going to tell some of the stories behind the songs, tell people how I write a song, and me and the guys will goof around a little bit,” says Brody, noting that the Thursday show is seated, while the Friday show is standing room.
Musically, there won’t be much difference, and it’s hard to imagine the crowd staying seated for long for hits like Canadian Girls and Bush Party.
“It’s kind of an unplugged sort of thing, although stuff will be plugged in, but it’ll be more
stripped down. I’ve never really done that before, but anytime I’ve played in a smaller sort of setting, it’s been a lot of fun.”
Paring back the production may be a way to ease fans into the songs the Nova Scotia-based performer is currently working on in Nashville. His last album, Beautiful Freakshow, was aptly named because it was all over the map,
like a sideshow display.
The record earned Brody an impressive hat trick of 2017 Canadian Country Music Awards, for fans’ choice, songwriter and topselling single of the year, pushing boundaries with elements of pop, R& B and hip hop seeping into the songs. But for his current songwriting stint in Tennessee, he’s feeling more of an urge to hang out on the back porch rather than the front lines.
“The stuff we’re working on right now in Nashville is a little bit more of a throwback,” explains Brody, who’d recently done some writing with B.C.’S acoustic trio Washboard Union. “It’s more acoustic-based, going back to the sound of the banjo and the accordion. It’s a little bit more raw.
“This time around we’re ditching some of the pop elements, but what’s cool is you can still use some of those sounds or loops and have a gnarly-sounding piano out of an old saloon or something in the background. It’s an exciting time to be making music.”
Brody expects to be spending more time than ever in Nashville in the coming months. For one thing, it’s home for his longtime creative partner, writer/producer Matt Rovey (Alan Jackson, Zac Brown Band). For another, he’s able to tap into the creative wavelength there, averaging a song per day while feeding off the energy of the city.
“Writing songs on your own can get kinda lonely,” says the B.C. native, who first moved to Nashville in 2004 before later settling on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. “I still do it, even in Nashville I’m writing a lot by myself, but I look forward to those days when I can hang out with somebody, and the creative community is awesome.
“I just feel like being there, even as a solo writer, still allows you to go out and check out a lot of music. Even a hole-in-the-wall place where some amazing players are playing just for fun. I was missing that in Nova Scotia, not having access to the plethora of creativity that’s in Nashville.”
Brody earned his songwriter of the year CCMA for Beautiful Freakshow’s inspirational ballad, Time, his highest-charting single since the playful 2013 charttopper, Bounty. This month he released the album’s fifth single, 8th Day, featuring more of a mainstream country sound and subject matter aimed squarely at his heartland fan base.
“For years I’d be seeing this saying on T-shirts and on plaques, ‘On the 8th day, God made a farmer,’” he recalls. “It’s just a way to celebrate farmers and the fact that they’re special people.”
“So I thought of something in the spirit of Canadian Girls, but more specific to country girls, that would be fun to do. It’s a cute little song, there’s nothing serious about it. It’s just saying country girls are awesome.”