Dean Brody’s taste of Canadiana satisfies country music fans

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This article was published 21/11/2021 (1772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian country music is like Canadian football — similar to its more famous American counterpart yet fiercely proud of the differences that make it distinct.

Three downs of Canadian country music took the stage at the Canada Life Centre Saturday night with Dean Brody, High Valley and Petric, all of whom combine hard-rock melodies of Canadian acts of the 1980s and ’90s with 21st-century singers unafraid to add Nashville twang to northern accents.

It’s Garth Brooks mixed with Bryan Adams and a formula for international success created by Shania Twain.

Brody has found a bit of U.S. fame but he’s one of the biggest names in country music in the Great White North, thanks to two Junos, 16 Canadian Country Music Awards and eight albums of hits.

The B.C. singer showed during his headline performance why he could bag four more CCMAs when the 2021 edition takes place Nov. 29 In London, Ont.

Backed by a five-piece band, Brody channeled some serious Canadiana for a double-vaccinated crowd starved for familiar sounds. A fiddle kicked off his 85-minute set with licks that would be at home in an Irish bar or a Métis kitchen party, and it introduced his version of Great Big Sea’s rollicking It’s Friday. Later, he’d sing Canadian Summer, which name-checks legendary Canuck rock bands Blue Rodeo and Tragically Hip, not to mention camping on July 1.

It was as Canadian as the 55-yard line.

Like all country artists, Brody has many party songs in his playbook, and the Winnipeg crowd could relate to beer-drinkin’ tunes such as Can’t Help Myself and Good Goodbye, an ode to Mexican holidays.

High Valley is fronted by Brad Rempel from Blumenort, Alta., far north in the Peace River country, and he continued in the CanRock-and-country vein. While he sings “Ricky Skaggs on vinyl, King James on the Bible,” in the hit Grew Up On That, it was difficult to hear a Skaggs-esque mandolin amid the hard-rock mix.

Blumenort, Alta., like Blumenort, Man., is a place where Mennonites settled, and Rempel was quick to mention his family connections to Winkler, one of Manitoba’s prominent Mennonite communities, during the band’s 60 minutes on stage.

Saturday’s show was a milestone for Transcona group Petric, big winners at the Manitoba Country Music Awards earlier this month.

Earlier in the day, the band posted on Facebook an early photo of the Petric boys, Jason and Tom, when they first set out on their country music dreams, imagining performing at an arena stage one day.

That day was Saturday night, and the brothers, joined by Jordan Day, Ben Mak-Wiebe and Jon Plett on stage, found an enthusiastic early crowd who sang along with the lyrics to rockers such as All She Wrote, the closer for their 30-minute set.

Petric put in the hard work on social media during the pandemic, and singer Jason Petric showed he has the appeal that can serve the group well in a busy 2022, when the group hopes it’s musical journey follows in High Valley and Brody’s successful footsteps.

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter@AlanDSmall