Life keeps adding colours to Brandt’s music

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There he was, just a teenager with a guitar, some musical talent and one big booming country voice.

It was enough to see the young man win the talent contest at the Calgary Stampede many years ago and, with it, the chance to perform the next day on stage.

He arrived with his nerves jangling and prepared to go on, only to hear one of the organizers trying to whip up the crowd to yell out the lad’s last name.

“There he was getting them to do it syllable by syllable. Be-Lo-Ber-Syck-EE, or something like that.

“So, after the show, when we got home, my parents said, ‘If you’re going to be doing this and having any success at it, you need a different last name’.”

After checking out the names of nearby small towns and then flipping through the Carstairs phone book, a surname was finally chosen — Paul Belobersyscky was gone and Paul Brandt was born.

It’s his legal name now, one the Canadian country superstar shares with a good friend.

A few years after the one-time pediatric nurse decided music was his true calling, Brandt arrived at a show to find people walking around sporting Paul Brandt T-shirts.

He didn’t have any in his merchandising.

“So, I got to wondering who was doing this and were they trying to rip me off and I met a guy and asked him why he was wearing the shirt and he said, ‘Because I’m Paul Brandt. I own Brandt Trucking and it’s sponsoring this’.

“Well, we became friends and he provided the trucks for the Convoy video we did. He even helped with our move back to Alberta from Nashville.”

The move was scary, Brandt said. He headed to the acknowledged mecca of all country singers to see if he could make it, but missed his home, his family and the lifestyle he wanted for his wife and young children.

“I was terrified to leave,” Brandt said,

“but we’ve had nothing but success since

we did it.”

That success includes a TV series, a production company and recordings and, after four years at home, he’s hit the road on a tour that brings him to Kamloops on Saturday, March 3, at Interior Savings Centre.

“I missed it,” Brandt said of touring. “I wanted to get back out and I’m not sure how long I can be doing it, being on the road and being a dad.

“The kids went with us on the first leg of the tour and Liz [his wife] is there because she sings backup.

“The kids slept better on the road than they do at home so we might do it while they’re still young.”

Travelling along with him is Greg Sczebel of Salmon Arm who, when he’s not out promoting his own June Award-winning music, plays backup with Brandt.

Brandt’s not only travelling and singing, he’s writing songs, too.

“I’ve never written from the perspective of being a parent and there are all these new colours to paint with.”

He knows where he’ll be in July this year  — at least from July 6 to July 15, when he’ll headline Century, The Calgary Stampede’s Centennial Grandstand Show.

Brandt said he’s excited about it, returning to the place that gave his musical career its first kickstart.

This time, though, he’s hoping it’s a bit better than the first time the newly minted, talent-show winner Paul Brandt performed at the stampede.

“They called me  up the next day and asked me if I’d like to sing and said it would be the first time anyone would see my name Paul Brandt up there in lights.

“So, I said yes and I got there and my name was in lights and I went onstage and I looked out — and I was opening for the pig races.

“There better not be any pigs in sight when I’m on stage this time,” Brandt said with a laugh.

There are still tickets available for the show. Tickets are at the Interior Savings Centre box office, the Ticketmaster outlet a at Sahali Mall or at ticketmaster.ca.