Drumheller is in for a hell of a show come December when country singer Brett Kissel wraps up his massive tour with a performance at the Badlands Community Facility on December 6.

Kissel, calling from Ottawa as he starts another leg of his We Were That Song tour, may be one of Canada’s biggest names in country, with thirteen Canadian Country Music Awards, but you wouldn’t guess it by talking to him. The northeastern Alberta boy comes from humble roots on the family farm and it shows – our conversation moved from his tour, touted as the biggest in Canadian history, to talking about his family, life growing up on the farm, and what it means to balance family life with all the craziness that comes with being a country-star.

“We’ve played everywhere on this tour so far, every province, every territory, and in order to do that we had to make sure we didn’t care about the size of the room, we didn’t care about the size of the town – if they love country music then we wanted to go there,” Kissel says, adding he’s excited to return to the BCF for the first time since 2012 and “party really hard,” as it will be the second to last show on his tour. In the past year he and his bandmates have performed over 300 shows in a tour which has brought him zigzagging back and forth across Canada.

To keep balance on such a large tour, he and his bandmates of course focus on staying healthy – eating well, exercising, and having fun when they can – but for this tour the Kissel family has joined him on the tour. He and his wife Cecilia have two daughters under three, with another on the way, and in talking to him and looking through his Twitter feed one can tell he is a family man through and through. Cecilia and Brett made a pact when they got married that music life would be integrated with family life and vice versa.

“Both my little girls learned to walk on the tour bus, so that’s very special to me, that my daughters have been a part of this crazy ride and this crazy music business. They’ve travelled to every province and territory before they are three years old,” he says. His daughters have made their way into his music videos, and his upcoming single ‘Cecilia’ is named after his wife. When they get to Drumheller the family plans on visiting the Royal Tyrrell Museum and having some fun with the kids while they’re here.

Kissel grew up on the family farm in the Flatlake area of northeastern Alberta and he “loved every minute of it.” Even though his live performances are certainly rowdy, high-energy affairs, his upbringing gave him the grounded, disciplined, and family-oriented foundation which comes through strongly when talking to him.

“There’s a story I love to share. When I was 16 I played the Big Valley Jamboree. It was such an amazing night where we had a great turnout and it was just so much fun. I remember driving home that night and I didn’t get home til four in the morning. And my grandpa knocks on the door and says ‘It’s 10 after 6 in the morning, time to wake up and do some chores.’ I’m like, ‘grandpa, don’t you realize I just played the Big Valley Jamboree? I’ve got two hours sleep, there’s no way I can do chores.’ He says, ‘wake your ass up, you ain’t no country star on the farm.’ And so I always remember that when I get home and I get back to Alberta, I’m just a regular guy.”

Brett Kissell will perform on December 6 at the Badlands Community Facility. Tickets went on sale earlier this month and are available at www.tour.brettkissel.com. Special VIP table seating is available by emailing drumheller@brettkissel.com

The downtown landscape is changing with a number of cosmetic changes and a number of new businesses have been choosing to do business there, affirming town administration’s goal of creating a more vibrant and economically-healthy place for visitors and locals.

Traders Furniture, Fashion Sense Boutique, Vintage Kitchen and Bar, CitiZEN yoga, three cannabis shops, Greentree Dental relocating, and a new hair salon are some of the businesses who have or will be opening their doors downtown. Town development officer Julia Fielding says it is not an unusually high number for Drumheller but they’ve seen quite a turnaround downtown.

“The potential downtown is huge, we have some beautiful buildings there and it’s exciting to see people investing there,” she said. “I do feel we have a lot of people here who really see the benefit of working downtown.”

The town, as well as a number of local businesses and organizations have been working to improve downtown’s appearances, such as Century 21 sponsoring the rooftop dinosaur statues, the DinoArts Association’s recent dinosaur mural on the Napier Theatre, and the local pride association sponsoring the pride crosswalk this summer. Mayor Heather Colberg says while this town administration has had a priority of working to beautify the town, community members have been stepping up to do their part, too.

“I think the direction of this administration is that we are putting efforts into making the community an inviting place to be. It’s taking time and unfortunately you can’t change everything overnight, but it’s nice to see people are enjoying it and are happy with what they see,” Colberg said.

Candice Dow opened Fashion Sense Boutique on 3rd Avenue about three weeks ago and has already felt support from the community. She managed Merle Norman for 18 years before it closed this summer and saw the potential downtown of opening her own women’s clothing store.

“I just felt it was going to leave a hole in the town so I decided to open. I’ve seen a lot of familiar faces from the other store and some new ones. There’s been a lot of support – people are happy they can shop locally for the brands I carry and I’ve already developed a good relationship with those customers,” Dow said.

While not a new business, Vintage Tap House owner Evan Pappas is expanding his restaurant later this month with the opening of Vintage Kitchen and Bar, an all ages restaurant next door to his existing location. He tells the Mail he saw the potential of operating an all-ages establishment.

“The town has supported us for the past 27 years so we’d like to think it’s worth opening up a business here,” Pappas said. “We’ve owned this since 2000 and in 2009 when we did renovations into a pub and grill we saw we were doing good as a bar but we had a lot of people say they wish they could bring their kids in for supper.”

Calsea Freeman will be opening CitiZEN yoga downtown this fall. She spent her summers growing up in Drumheller and knew it would be a good place to both live and operate a business.

“I definitely wanted something on mainstreet with walking traffic and exposure with events happening. Downtown, I thought, is a good place to do business,” she says.

Both Mayor Colberg and development officer Fielding says the town is working on its strategic plan but the improvement and beautification of downtown will continue. Fielding says the town has been working to actively promote Drumheller as a place to live and work in. This summer they completed an investment attraction program which saw ‘secret shoppers’ evaluate businesses and have been pushing promotional material to market Drumheller to potential residents.

“We have a wonderful, small community, with low commute times. We have a lot of businesses here with a positive attitude trying to make the best of what we have and playing to our strengths. We have a lot of things to offer people to live here.”