Dean Brody

In a town where working the sawmills or coalmines is a lifelong reality, you're not supposed to have a music dream. Dean dreamed it anyway. You're not supposed to send unsolicited songs blindly to every record label on Music Row. Dean did it anyway... and got results. When he lost his Nashville song publishing contract in 2005 and returned home to work at the sawmill again, that should have been the end of his budding music career; but it wasn't. Then, just as he was beginning to tour radio stations to introduce his music, a freak accident nearly blinded him. He survived, resumed his interrupted tour, and found his heart tugging story song "Brothers" embraced by those radio stations. Few have come so far away from a show-business center as Dean Brody. He was raised in Jaffray, British Columbia, Canada, a small, mining, forestry and ranching town of 850 in the foothills of the Rockies; twenty-five minutes north of the Montana U.S. border. "I can tell you exactly how far that is from Nashville, because I've driven it," he says. "It is 2,300 miles. And that's a long, long way." Dean and some friends formed a rock band called Roadrunner when he was fourteen and then, inspired by a romance, he began to write country songs when he was sixteen. "I started working in the local sawmill when I was in the eleventh grade and after I graduated, I worked there full time. Every once in a while I would think, 'Would it be possible to move to Nashville? Could I really make it in country music?'

"But in my town, you didn't dream. It was like, 'You've got it good here. Why don't you just settle down?' So that went through my mind every time I would think about doing music. I can't move to another country, start all over and take my family.' Then finally we tried it, because they kept automating at the sawmill and cutting jobs." Inspired by Keith Whitley, Randy Travis, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Dwight Yoakam and the like, and ignoring the "hillbilly" taunts of his friends, Dean wrote and recorded country songs at a local studio. In 2003, he mailed twenty-five packages of his tunes to all the record companies in Nashville. "The funny thing is, it worked," says the still amazed performer. "That was my break! Three weeks later, I got a call from Cliff Audretch Sr., who was at Sony. He said, 'I like what I hear. I don't know what I can do for you, but you're welcome to come down and sing.' So I did."I sang a few tunes [for him in his office]. He said, 'I don't know if I'd chase the recording-artist thing. Write songs, because I know you can do that. As far as the artist thing, let it come to you. Don't force it. If you're meant to do it – it will happen.'" After a few more trips to Nashville, Dean found a publisher who was interested in signing him to a contract. In the meantime, the Brody's were so broke they were living out the winter with his wife's parents in a mountaintop cabin at Blue Lake Forestry Camp. But during that bleak time, Dean wrote "Brothers." In early 2004, he signed with a Nashville publishing company and the family moved to Music City, made friends, and got to know the entertainment community. Dean formed some strong relationships along Music Row that would later prove career saving, but no one recorded his songs. After two years, he lost his contract and work permit, and the Brody's went back to Canada. They moved back in with her folks, this time to their backyard garage apartment."I was back working part-time at the sawmill while [my wife] waitressed at Denny's during the day. It was hard, because I felt like I'd let a lot of people down. We also missed all our friends back in Nashville – friends we'd met through music and others outside the business." It turned out that they missed him, too. One particular friend was producer Matt Rovey, who works alongside star producer Keith Stegall as a recording engineer. Back in Nashville, Matt kept promoting Dean's music to anyone who would listen."The mines were hiring at the time," Dean recalls. "So we drove out to Elkford to look for a place to live. It's a good job, and I've got friends who do it. But I knew what it was like to do something I truly loved, and now that was gone. Anyhow, we found a place. The whole drive back, we were silent, because we both knew it was the end of the dream." The next day, Matt called and said, 'You're not going to believe this! Keith is over at Broken Bow Records now, and he wants to bring you onto the label.' As soon as the paperwork was done and I had my work permit and could cross the border, we were gone, back home with our friends again and with music again. And I realize without Matt working my corner while I was gone, I never would have made it back to Nashville, I've got a lot of respect for this guy."

In late 2006, Dean and his family moved back to Nashville. With Matt Rovey producing, he recorded his Dean Brody CD in 2007-08. While he was recording, he reports going through a spell of intense loneliness when Iris and his son Isaac went back to Canada for five months so that she could give birth to their daughter Molly.Lonely or not, the songs and performances on Dean Brody speak for themselves. "Brothers" tells the tale of loving siblings in wartime. "This Ain't the Same Town" is a hardcore honky tonker, while "Gravity" is a dreamy love ballad. Whether it's the cowboy saga "Cattleman's Gun," the nostalgic "Back in Style" or the gentle, lilting "Lazy Days," these are performances of uniform excellence. There is a delight at every turn on this collection – the "power waltz" "Up on the Moon," the driving rocker "Undone" and the jaunty, highly melodic "Dirt Roads Scholar." Rhonda Vincent drops by to sing harmony on the sunny and well-crafted "This Old Raft," and the studio band kicks tail on the "message bopper" "Old Joe Riley." "I believe my debut album says a lot about me as an artist. I wrote nine out of the eleven songs that I am really proud of," explains Dean. "Matt did an outstanding job as a producer and was able to bring these amazing players to the studio – these guys are as good as it gets. I'm very excited about this album and I'm hoping everyone else will be too!"