Country music singer and songwriter Brittany Brodie is in the middle of a cross-Canada radio tour promoting her newest single I Do.
The 32-year-old Mount Forest resident has been performing since she was eight years old, but in the last few years her career has taken off. Since 2015 she has released five singles with more possibly in the works for next year.
Her latest single, I Do, is “a good country love song,” Brodie said, putting to rest any thoughts that it’s a wedding song.
“It’s about relationships and the ups and downs and real love and how it isn’t just a honeymoon,” she said.
“As the seasons change so do relationships and so the pictures are up on the wall and then when you’re not getting along they’re coming down and then when things are going good again, they’re back up on the wall.
“It’s the funny little things because you know a lot of people don’t talk about that.”
To promote the single Brodie has been on a cross-Canada radio tour since Sept. 9 with the goal of visiting 133 country radio stations in Canada by mid-November.
She said meeting with radio stations and hosts is key to getting air time for her music.
“You need to build those relationships and if you’re not making the effort they’re probably not going to play you,” she said.
She completed Ontario radio tours for her previous singles, but this is her first cross-Canada tour.
“People knew who I was … I’ve built my brand up for many years now, so it was just right to get out there … then you start getting added to stations, then you’re (doing) live interviews where you go and you can do television,” she said.
“It is exhausting and it’s expensive and awesome and frustrating, but it’s all of the things we need to do.”
While on the tour, she’s on air every day, being interviewed and co-hosting and promoting her music.
Even when she wasn’t at the stations she said she was recognized by her fans, especially in western Canada.
Once when she was shopping she heard her music on the radio and when people working at the store found out who she was they started telling other customers.
“What could have been a 20 minute in-and-out was almost three hours by the time I had autographed and taken pictures and [met] fans,” Brodie said. “It was really cool and I was signing people’s shirts and dresses, it was really awesome.”
Brodie has also been acknowledged by the country music industry in Nashville, where she does most of her songwriting.
Earlier this year she was invited on stage to sing with Vince Gill and The Time Jumpers in Nashville.
“That just doesn’t happen,” she said. “So that was amazing like to get up on stage with one of the people you’ve looked up to your entire career.”
She also sang at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville.
“I sang Phoenix which was another single of mine … that’s, for me, an anti-bullying anthem … and that song’s super special to me,” she said.
“And I had grown men coming up to me crying, (saying) how much they needed to hear that song that night and how they were bullied and it was just so special for them to hear it and know that other people went through it.”
Brodie also performs the Canadian and American national anthems at sporting events in Canada and the United States.
Once the radio tour is complete, Brodie said she’ll take a few days off then get right back into it.
“I’m already planning my next trip back down south, so I’ll be in Nashville writing and recording and doing shows which will be coming up on my website soon,” she said. “In January … I’m doing the anthem at an Owen Sound Attack (hockey game).
“I’ll just be doing my same thing and plugging away and the shows for next year, they’re already in the works … they will be posted on my website as they get confirmed.”
In the meantime, Brodie will be opening for Cash: The World’s Most Authentic Johnny Cash Tribute at the Fergus Grand Theatre on Oct. 27.
For more information visit brittanybrodie.com.
