Singer Lisa Brokop finds new groove, asks Hey, Do You Know Me? on CD
TORONTO (CP) – On her new record, Hey, Do You Know Me?, singer Lisa Brokop hopes to become reacquainted with country music fans who still think of her as that cutie teen who sang Take That or Give Me a Ring Sometime.
“People who would have remembered one of my first records, to compare that to now, I’ve grown so much and I’m a completely different person,” the 32-year-old singer-guitarist said recently from Nashville where she was preparing for a tour of Western Canada, beginning Wednesday in her hometown of Vancouver.
Brokop got her start as a teenager, releasing her first album at age 17.
Shortly afterwards she landed a lucrative record deal with Capitol Records. Executives were impressed when they heard her play a few short gigs at a showcase in country heartland Nashville as well the lead in the film Harmony Cats.
The union led to two well-received CDs, Every Little Girl’s Dream and a self-titled one with radio hits She Can’t Save Him and Before He Kissed Me.
Brokop and Capitol then split. The young singer took some time off and tried her hand at songwriting.
“I didn’t know that songwriting was going to be so important for me,” she said. “It’s really a huge part of my career now.”
Fast forward to 2005 and Brokop has been through three record labels as well as a run at putting out a CD independently.
But now Brokop, who has won several Canadian Country Music Awards, seems to have found a new groove. She’s signed to Curb Records, home to a slew of hot country artists such as LeAnne Rimes and Tim McGraw.
Two songs from her current CD, released in early January, have been burning up the radio waves. Wildflower and Hey, Do You Know Me? made it to the top 5 on Country Music Television Canada’s popular weekly countdown show.
As well, Terri Clark is going to put one of Brokop’s songs, Travelling Soul, on her next record due out in March. Reba McEntire put Brokop’s Secret on her last disc.
“She’s definitely made a huge comeback,” says Dayna Bourgoin, music director for Country Music Television Canada, which plays and has helped fund Brokop’s videos since the mid-1990s.
“She’s always been there. She didn’t completely disappear . . . but it really did take her quite a few years to break through.”
Bourgoin suspects Brokop, like so many others, got stuck in line behind the Shania-train of the 1990s.
Luckily, adds Bourgoin, Brokop has kept honing her craft.
“She just sings so powerfully. It comes from her heart. Our viewers definitely respond to her.”
Brokop, who has lived in Nashville for the past decade, admits she’s needed to “hop around” a little bit to find her footing in a turbulent industry.
“You don’t know everything at 16,” she said of her early days. “I’m much more savvy now. I’ve learned a lot over the years. I’m getting better at spotting a fly in the ointment.”
Now managed by her older brother Dean, Brokop is hoping fans are willing to “get to know” her adult self on the current CD.
“It’s a little bit deeper then maybe some of my music in the past,” she admits. “That just comes from the growth that I’ve had in the last few years as a songwriter and personally too . . . a little heartbreak here and there doesn’t hurt when you’re writing songs.”
Here are Lisa Brokop’s tour dates:
Jan. 26: Vancouver
Jan. 27: Kamloops, B.C.
Jan. 28: Calgary
Jan. 29: Edmonton
Feb. 1: Moose Jaw, Sask.
Feb. 2: Regina
Feb. 3: Yorkton, Sask.
Feb. 5: Winnipeg
Categories