Dean and Dallas show is one big party

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This article was published 08/10/2019 (2496 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Time flies when you’re having fun. And time has been a-flyin’ since Dean Brody and Dallas Smith kicked off their Friends Don’t Let Friends Tour Alone tour last month.

The Canadian country music heavyweights are playing two shows together at the Club Regent Event Centre on Thursday and Friday with guests Chad Brownlee, MacKenzie Porter and the Reklaws, who have been jumping in on different legs of the tour.

“The synergy and the camaraderie between all of us… it’s just been really awesome and I think it’s going to make the tour feel short by the time we’re done,” Brody says, adding that the theme of the tour can be extended to include the artists’ production crews and bands.

“Our drummers are like best friends now; it’s like a big party, it’s really great and I think it’s reflected onstage, too.”

This is the first time Smith and Brody have toured together and the pair of celebrated musicians — they have three Juno Awards and 23 Canadian Country Music Awards between them — were eager to try out a new format.

“We thought it would be amazing if we did a tour where we interacted with each other, not just co-headlined,” Brody says. “I’ll jump in on one of his songs and he’ll jump in on one of mine.”

To make the idea work, they had to spend some time learning each other’s songs before hitting the road. It was an interesting exercise because while both artists have their fair share of party-starters, their musical styles are quite different. Brody describes his sound as traditional bluegrass and Smith, the former lead singer of hard-rock band Default, is more contemporary and has a penchant for hitting the high notes.

“Dallas has a higher range, he sings really high, so on Cheap Seats, I don’t even sing the chorus, I’m like, ‘Dude, that’s all yours,’” Brody says, referring to the gold-certified hand-clapper from Smith’s 2014 album, Lifted.

Still, it wasn’t hard to find common ground.

“He’s definitely melody-driven and so am I, so it definitely helped when learning each other’s songs.”

Friendship isn’t always a given between two big names in the same corner of the recording industry, but Smith and Brody hit it off. Both hail from British Columbia and got to know each other backstage on the North American country music festival circuit.

However, the exact timeline of their friendship is up for debate. Smith insists they met for the first time at a CCMA after-party, but thanks to a number of adult beverages, Brody can’t be sure.

“That night was obviously kind of foggy for me,” he says, laughing.

Regardless of how it started, mutual respect has helped the relationship flourish.

“I definitely respected Dallas musically before I knew him as a person and then getting to know him, he doesn’t have an ego, it’s easy to work together,” Brody says. “Honestly, I feel like we both have respect for each other and that goes a long way.”

Both artists have released EPs this year, Smith with The Fall and Brody with Black Sheep, and concertgoers can expect a mix of old and new music at the Winnipeg tour dates.

Brody has recorded six studio albums over the past decade and maintains a casual approach to songwriting. Most songs start with him noodling on the piano, ukulele or guitar and the lyrics or the idea fall into place after he finds a melody he likes.

His popular new single, Whiskey in a Teacup, diverges from that formula. The idea for the song came about when he was in the American South and noticed the slogan “whiskey in a teacup” plastered on memorabilia in country stores all over the place. Walk the Line actor Reese Witherspoon also has a cookbook with the same title.

“I thought that certainly it had been written because it’s such an obvious title for a country song and I researched it and all I could find was a punk band that had a song with a similar title, obviously a totally different feel,” he says.

When it came to writing the song, he found inspiration a little closer to home.

“My wife is sweet and she’s beautiful, but man, when you get to know her, she’s got some spunk and some edge.”

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney