Canadian country senstions High Valley, have come by their country roots honestly.
“We’re Christan boys, we started singing in church and we all grew up on a farm. And we’re playing a church at Christmastime. It’s fun to get back and do that again. So we’re excited about it ,” said lead singer Brad Rempel, who along with his brothers Bryan and Curtis, play their first headlining concert in Lethbridge, Dec. 10 at the Victory Church, which will include familiar Christmas songs, songs from the CD and maybe some new songs which may appear on their next CD.
Their last single, “On The Combine,” co-written with Paul Brandt, was released perfectly, just in time for harvest season this fall.
Bucky Covington had a hit with “ A Father’s Love ( The Only Way He Knew How)” earlier this year, however, High Valley’s version will be on the air in January.
“We started touring in 2001. We’d been playing ‘On The Combine,’ for years before we recorded it. We had enough farmers and people come up to us and said they liked it, that we had to put it on the album,” Remple continued from a sound check in Regina adding he is pleased with the popularity of the CD.
“It’s been awesome. It came out in the middle of September and it even spent a few days on the charts ahead of Taylor Swift. It wasn’t very long, but we enjoyed that,” he continued thanking HWV and CD Only for strong sales. But they are glad to be playing churches and community halls for their tour.
“Church is where we started singing and it’s Christmas, so we want to spread some Christmas spirit. People have different traditions. We’re on the road during the Christmas season. So it will feel like Christmas every night all over again,” he continued.
But they aren’t afraid to take a few well-meaning shots at the more pious than thou on their self-titled CD High Valley, which was released in September. Listen to ‘Somebody Like Me’ which tells the sad story of a drunk who wanders into a church looking for acceptance and forgiveness and only gets judgement and ‘Plastic Jesus,’ about people who only pray when they want something, for evidence.
“We want to sing about the kind of faith that everyone can believe in. And “Somebody Like Me ” has a choir on it, so we get the crowd to volunteer to sing that part of it. When you have 200 people sitting there and listening, you might as well get them singing,” he said.
High Valley will begin writing and looking at songs after this Christmas tour, for their sophomore CD.
“ We talk a lot with our fans. We hope people come out. It’s fun to play for a crowd. The bigger the crowd, the more fun it is,” he said.