The remote hometown and the unique upbringing seem a magic combination for the music coming from High Valley. These two young men are making what the music industry in Nashville has called “singular,” “seminal,” and “a perfect mix of radio, revision, and respect.” Brad and Curtis Rempel
like to call it “popgrass.” Growing up on a 1,400-acre farm in the far-northern reaches of Alberta,
with music, farming and family as the basis of their entertainment, their musical language was
formed at a very young age. When they started out, the Rempel brothers booked as many gigs as they could, playing cover songs to audiences near and far. During these formative years, High Valley became a buzz-worthy act in Canada’s outlying areas.
“We made music, we played hockey, we worked on the farm, and we never spent our lives thinking about how much we needed or wanted to be somewhere else,” Brad recalls. “Our parents took us outside, and we had a blast being creative and making our own entertainment. I think it was very beneficial for us to have been raised out there.”
The band held their first recording session in Nashville in 2001 and subsequently spent a lot of time on the road. After signing to Eaglemont Entertainment in 2007 and enlisting country music legend Paul Brandt to produce their self-titled Canadian label debut, High Valley started to gain traction across North America.
Throughout their music career, High Valley has earned many accolades including 10 GMA Canada Covenant Awards, multiple CCMA Award and JUNO Award nominations and the 2013 CCMA Award for Interactive Artist of the Year. They’ve opened up for several major acts including Little Big Town, Alan Jackson, and Shania Twain mostly recently for both of her shows at the 2014 Calgary Stampede.
High Valley’s latest release, County Line, was recorded and produced by Billboard Producer of the Year Seth Mosley in Franklin, TN and features songs co-written by Brad Rempel, Ben Stennis (Jason Aldean, Chase Rice, Tim Hicks), Fred Wilhelm (Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town) and award-winning Canadian country music songwriter Deric Ruttan. After recording roughly 50 demo tracks for the new album, High Valley enlisted help from their fans and gave them the opportunity to vote for the 10 songs that would make the cut.
The final product resulted in an album that incorporates bluegrass, classic country and Mosley’s pop influences, which Brad and Curtis describe as ‘pop-grass’. A few of the unique tracks that can be heard on the album include “Make You Mine” featuring their musical hero Ricky Skaggs, country music anthem “County Line” and the album’s first single “Rescue You”. According to Brad and Curtis, the album “represents a more fun, energetic side of High Valley that fans have always seen live but never heard on our albums.”
The title track off of the new album saw huge success on the music charts in 2014, it was selected as a “Highway Find” on Sirius XM’s The Highway and the track sky-rocketed to the Top 5. “County Line” also holds the record as the longest running Top 10 hit on the Canadian country music charts in 2014.