Dean Brody

“Without risk there’s no reward,” says Dean Brody. “It’s important to be fearless. You need to be persistent. You can’t give up.” Brody would know. If there’s one thing the Jaffray, BC born singer/songwriter has proven in his career, it’s that he’s not afraid to pull up stakes and risk everything to chase down his dreams. Fair to say that ethic is a good part of the inspiration behind the title to his new record, Trail In Life, the follow up to his 2009 self-titled debut, and first on Open R...

“Without risk there’s no reward,” says Dean Brody. “It’s important to be fearless. You need to be persistent. You can’t give up.” Brody would know. If there’s one thing the Jaffray, BC born singer/songwriter has proven in his career, it’s that he’s not afraid to pull up stakes and risk everything to chase down his dreams. Fair to say that ethic is a good part of the inspiration behind the title to his new record, Trail In Life, the follow up to his 2009 self-titled debut, and first on Open Road Recordings. “My life’s been kind of a trail – it hasn’t been one spot for thirty years – it’s been a bunch of different places, different memories and different friends. It’s about time passing and reminiscing,” Brody says of the album. “Songs about driving, good old times, good old days and growing up.” But while Trail In Life may dwell on the good old times Brody remembers so fondly, his own trail in life and pursuit of a career in music has sometimes been a struggle – A ‘one step forward, two steps back’ story of perseverance, dedication and hope that, even if it’s not the focus of his latest batch of songs, lends depth to his music and lyrics. “We’ve moved so much and done so many crazy things,” Brody says, “but each leap of faith has been about the music, and they’ve all been big ones.” First there was the move to Tennessee in 2004 after landing a 2-year deal with a Nashville based music publisher. Brody wrote plenty, and honed his craft relentlessly, but when the contract ran out he was forced to pack up and head home to Canada; taking shifts at the same sawmill he’d first worked at in high school, looking for permanent work as a miner and preparing to pack in his dreams for good. Instead, on the strength of an eleventh hour call from Nashville based producer and good friend, Matt Rovey and an offer of a deal with Broken Bow Records, Brody turned the car around and headed back to Nashville. That second attempt at a Nashville career paid off big time: His self-titled debut, and lead single, ‘Brothers’, made an impact at radio in both the US and Canada. And although a waterskiing accident on the Potomac River during his first radio tour required him to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery, Brody persevered. ‘Brothers’ made the coveted top 30 in the US and had significant impact culminating in the surprise presentation and official ‘certificate of appreciation’ from the US Army for his songs’ contribution to the Armed Forces. It hit the top 10 in Canada, garnering multiple CCMA nominations in 2009, and taking home the award for Single of the Year. Both follow up singles, ‘Dirt Roads Scholar’ and ‘Undone’, went on to break the top 5 at Canadian radio and ‘Dirt Roads Scholar’ hit number 1 on CMT, becoming the most spun song by a new Canadian country artist in 2009. “Everything was going great,” he says, but just when all the hard work seemed to be paying off a disagreement with his US label threatened his dreams again.When Brody made the tough decision to part ways with Broken Bow in September 2009, he found himself not only without a record deal, but unable to remain in the US legally to continue his work as a songwriter. Once again Brody, his wife Iris, and their two young children made a move, relocating to the Nova Scotia’s south shore to regroup. Far from being beaten down by the struggle, Brody moved forward with new hope and energy, finishing up his second record, and landing a deal with Open Road Recordings. You can hear Brody’s roots loud and clear on Trail In Life. Both the ones he first put down in rural BC and the ones he tried so hard to grow deep in Nashville. But you won’t hear the pain he felt from having them cut out from under him repeatedly. “I try and dwell on positive things when I’m writing. There’s a lot of me in these songs, but I’m also fascinated by other people’s lives and sometimes I’ll write a song and just put myself in somebody else’s shoes.” Even when a song isn’t specifically about Brody’s own past, he has a singular talent for crafting stories so detailed you’d swear he lived every second of every line, and for telling them the way they should be told, up close and personal. And although Brody is sharing his stories with a wider audience now, that hasn’t altered his conviction that real life doesn’t play out under the lights, but in all the places we’ve come and gone from, the dreams we’ve worked so hard to realize and what we’ve learned along the way. Recorded at the Castle Studios and Soundstage Studios in Nashville, Trail In Life includes performances by Nashville A-listers as well as members of Brody’s touring band, and channels some of Brody’s best loved, longtime country influences; Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis and Alan Jackson among them. But this time out Brody feels he and returning producer, Matt Rovey, let his rock and roll side shine through more and credits Rovey’s talents in the studio as a major part of the success of the sessions. “Matt has so much experience; he can just stand back and see the big picture, whereas I get hung up on details.” While that may be, it’s those details and the weight of truth they lend to Brody’s music that make his songs and performances so compelling. That, and a remarkable gift for telling both his own stories and those of the characters who inhabit his songs so vividly you can practically see their faces in front of your eyes and feel the road rolling by beneath you as you listen. If there’s one constant in Brody’s music and stories, it’s romance – not the sugary candy coated variety, the real deal – the kind of love that’s lasted a long while and lot of miles. You can hear it on all out rockers like ‘Sunday Drive’, which takes listeners on a country road back in time to good times etched in Brody’s memory forever; on stories of summer love and autumn heartache like ‘Angelina’ and ‘Gypsy Girl’; and on more intimate tracks that explore the past and present of Brody’s life with Iris, like ‘Little Yellow Blanket’, ‘Kitchen Song’, and Trail In Life’s lead single, ‘Wildflower’. “Iris is a big inspiration for what I do and what I write. Everything I’ve been through she’s been through too and a lot of times she’s been through it feeling a whole lot more helpless than me.” Still, for all the uncertainty that came along with every leap of faith – whether he’s recounting his own experiences with friends and family back in Jaffray on ‘People Know You By Your First Name’; stepping entirely into another person’s life for the upbeat ‘Roll That Barrel Out’; or blending his own past with the imagined pasts of others on the album’s title track – on Trail in Life Brody looks back on his life and struggles with fondness and goodwill rather than regret. If the success of Brody’s first record was a kind of vindication for him, Trail In Life is a record his listeners can find a certain amount of vindication in them selves – A collection of songs that finds beauty and strength in the everyday things too often undervalued. Songs that linger on the moments between our most momentous victories and defeats, throwing into stark relief the simple struggles and small triumphs we all experience day in, day out, and celebrating them for what they are; the raw materials that all the best parts of life are made of.