Brett Kissel is coming home for his third and final I’ll be Home for Christmas concert at Flat Lake, which he anticipates will be a bittersweet occasion for him based on the events of last year.
“We’ve had great success with it from the beginning,” he said of his annual concert, which takes place Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at Flat Lake Community Hall. The Saturday performance is sold out, while there are only 25 tickets left for his Friday performance. The show has always been high-octane fun, but last year’s event was shadowed by a tragedy in Kissel’s family.
His grandparents were planning on attending the show, but on their way to a hair appointment, they ended up in a car accident on Highway 28. Kissel’s grandfather passed away a day before the show, while his grandmother died on the day of the concert itself.
Despite his loss, Kissel went on to perform. “It was just the strength of my family, my friends that had come out. I didn’t want to let them down,” he said, noting his grandpa had always said the show must go on. Though Kissel had previously played through a broken finger and broken guitar strings, he’d never played through something as difficult as the loss of his grandparents. However, everyone had a great time and shared a drink in memory of the couple, he said.
The upcoming concert will be a “little bittersweet” for him, since it’s the one year anniversary of his grandparents’ death, but Kissel adds, “At the same time, there’s no better place to be than to celebrate my grandparents, their lives, than at home, surrounded by my friends and family.”
He’s looking forward to the upcoming concert for another reason too. Kissel has spent much of the past year “cooped up in Nashville and other parts of the world,” which has him ready to break out and perform.
Over the last three years, and over the course of much of the last year, Kissel has been honing his craft as a songwriter. When he used to play at events such as the Lakeland Rodeo Finals, the Boscombe Hillbilly Jam or the Bonnyville Opry, he’d mostly play cover tunes. But he noted record labels are increasingly looking for “the complete package,” with people like Taylor Swift writing, singing and performing their own music.
“She’s really a triple threat,” he said of Swift, adding she also receives royalties from her songs, “so she’s a multi-bajillionaire.”
Kissel is moving to Nashville with his wife in January of next year. He will still be coming home as often as he can, but says it will be more difficult to plan Christmas concerts at home.
“I’m just hoping that everyone will have a great time seeing me up close and personal . . . I’m hoping I can leave it on a high note, since it’s the end of an era for a local boy,” he said, adding he hopes to put on a “super-energetic” show, partly as thanks to all the local people who have supported him, his music, and the annual Christmas concert. “I’m hoping everyone will have a great time, that they eat lots, that they drink lots and dance lots.”
If that isn’t enough for local fans, they will always have his next album, Started with a Song, to get their Kissel fix. The album is due to be released on a major record label in the spring of 2013 and will feature 16 songs, all written by Kissel. Closest to his heart, perhaps, is the final song, called Together, which he wrote about his grandparents, from their meeting in the one-room school house in the country to their work on the farm to the final moments of their life together.
“My grandparents (were) big fans of classic country music,” he said, adding he managed to get George Jones’ entire band to play on the song. So far, he has not performed it for an audience, but he hasn’t ruled out playing it in honor of his grandparents at the upcoming Flat Lake concert.
Anyone interested in snagging the final tickets left for the Friday show can call Kissel’s mom, Brenda, for more details, at (780) 645-6583.
