Fresh off her successful Patsy Cline concert tour, country singer-songwriter Lisa Brokop will be bringing her “Legendary Ladies of Country” concert to Ashcroft on Friday, April 20. The show is Brokop’s tribute to artists such as EmmyLou Harris, Barbara Mandrell, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and others whose music inspired her when she was growing up.
“The Patsy Cline Project was awesome, and I thought it would be fun to create another show,” says Brokop, who grew up in Surrey, B.C. but has called Nashville home for 25 years. “These were the ladies I admired when I was young. I’d record their music off the radio with a cassette player, then learn the songs and sing them.”
Brokop comes by her love of, and talent for, music naturally. Her mother played the accordion and sang, and her brother played drums, and the three of them performed at community events.
“I’ve been singing since I was eight, and have been touring and travelling, and making records, for a long time. I had songs on the radio when I was 17, and got my first recording deal in Nashville when I was 19.
“I started so young. I just wanted to sing. I didn’t think about the trials and tribulations of trying to make a career in music. Ignorance is bliss.”
Brokop is in the middle of folding clothes and packing for a mini-tour of her latest concert, which began in Fort Saskatchewan earlier in the week and concludes in Quesnel on April 21. She said it was fun to put the concert together, going through the songs of the artists who inspired her. “I put in as many favourites of mine as I could, and there’s a visual component as well.”
Brokop writes a lot of her own music, and says the concert includes a couple of original songs in the style of some of the legendary ladies whose songs she sings. “They’re in my own voice. I wanted to honour their songs, not imitate them.”
Of the songs included in the concert, Brokop says “They’re timeless. That’s what I love most about them. They’re so genuine and real, and will live forever. People have lived those songs.”
The “Legendary Ladies of Country” concert will be at the Ashcroft HUB starting at 7 p.m. on April 20; doors open at 6:30. Tickets are $30 in advance and can be purchased online at http://bit.ly/2EPL1kL, or at the HUB office. Tickets will also be available at the door for $35 each.
editorial@accjournal.ca
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