High Valley Celebrate ‘Dear Life’ With Food for the Hungry in Nashville
High Valley celebrated the release of their new album Dear Life at Warner Music Nashville on Monday (Nov. 21) with an intimate album release party surrounded by friends, family and members of the industry.
The evening included a five-song set of several songs off their debut album, and also served as a way to raise awareness for Food for the Hungry, a non-profit which aims to end poverty through empowering children, families and communities to invest in their own development.
Both brothers Brad and Curtis Rempel of High Valley sponsor three young boys in Burundi, Africa, and for each guest in attendance last night, a pair of shoes was donated to communities in Burundi.
"You met my sponsor child, Evode, and we're already working on getting back to Africa," Brad told those in attendance after a video of their visit was displayed. "Those kids really don't know what it's like to dream big. My kids sure do, they think they're going to be rap stars and NFL quarterbacks at the same time. These kids that don't even know what it means to dream big ... I'm going to dream big for them. I dream that someday Evode will be able to not just make it through life, but that he graduates high school and goes to college and I can fly him up here. We're going to fight as hard as we possibly could for that."
The room was filled with fellow songwriters, some who had a hand in writing several of the songs on Dear Life, including Ross Copperman, Jon Nite, Ben Stennis and Tom Douglas, who Brad notes was the No. 1 songwriter on his "dream co-write" list.
"Lo and behold, I found myself driving a bunch of back roads out in the middle of nowhere to get to his house, which is awesome," Brad recalled of his co-write with Douglas. "We both live in the middle of nowhere and a bunch of amazing roads in between. It was me and him and Jaren [Johnston] and I said, 'Tom, I drove a bunch of roads I had never taken to get to your house today.' And he said, 'That's the song.' And this is the song."
With foot-stomping rhythms, spot-on harmonies and a banjo and slide guitar interlude mid-song, "Roads We've Never Taken" was a highlight of the six-piece band's five-song set.
Noticing Stennis in the crowd, the band quickly decided they had to perform one of his songs Monday evening. But they had a lot to choose from, as he had written six on the band's 11-song release.
"Ben was one of those guys who wrote with me first before anybody else in this town would because my songs really sucked," Brad notes. "We still write together a lot. Our wives are great friends. Our kids our great friends which kind of sucks because he wrote [Ronnie Dunn's] 'Damn Drunk' and now my kids have heard that word a lot which screwed that up."
And with that, High Valley played the first song on their release, "She's With Me" which is a fan favorite and the reason they decided to record it. It was easy to see why the song is so well liked with its catchy lyrics, hand-clapped rhythms and blend of pop, country and bluegrass.
High Valley ended their set with their current Top 20 single, "Make You Mine," but not before thanking all in attendance for supporting the song.
"It blows my mind," Brad notes. "We dream incredibly big and that is true. I don't ever want to apologize for it. With music we sure have dreamt really big and I could get incredibly emotional and awkward if I thought too much about how many dreams are coming true here tonight with this record coming out."
So, instead of thinking too much, High Valley closed the evening with an energetic performance of their rising single "Make You Mine," as those in attendance sang along word for word.
High Valley's Dear Life is available now.
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