THE BATTLEFORDS — When the iconic Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played for 1,200 people at Paradise Hill's Summer Bash, a young musician from North Battleford was the opening act.
It was a dream come true for Bruin Eberle. Not only did he open for his all time favourite band, they called him to the stage to perform during their encore.
"I'm still high," says Bruin. "It's going to be a long time before I ever come down off of it. I don't know if I ever will."
Not everyone's dreams come true by the time they're 22. But it wasn't out of the blue. There's more to the story.
"They are good buddies of mine," Bruin explains. "I've known them for at least a decade."
The son of John and Hilda Eberle says he's been following the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, literally, since he was a baby.
"I was three when Mom took me to my first concert."
He was already as consummate a fan as any three-year-old could be - he knew all their names and all about their families. He could even strum their songs on a flyswatter.
A loyal follower, he met the band members in autograph lines at other concerts, but when he was 10, he made the personal connection that lasts to this day.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was playing at what was then known as the Centennial Auditorium, now TCU Place, in Saskatoon.
"John McEuen, the banjo and string guy, was standing outside talking on the phone to his wife," says Bruin. "I knew exactly who he was and I was so excited I ran up to him and said 'Hi! You're John McEuen, right?"
The youngster's excitement had an impact on the multi-award winning founding member of Bruin's favourite band.
"He had to tell his wife, 'I'm in Saskatoon, Canada, and there's this 10- year-old kid and he knows who I am.'"
It seemed to stick with him, says Bruin.
"He found me after the show and gave me his email address, so then every show I'd go to I'd email him up and say, 'Hey, gonna be there, we should have a visit.'" A relationship developed.
"Just being there, concert after concert after concert, and backstage hanging out with them, they start to know you a little bit more."
When he started recording his own music, he sent some to McEuen. The feedback was encouraging.
"He loved what I'd started doing, so he was in support of that."
The fact that McEuen was impressed with his songwriting and his ability to record all the instruments and parts on his computer with nearly studio quality underscored Bruin's belief that he was meant to be in the music business.
"They were my favourite band and they were the guys who got me playing music," says Bruin.
Before he got into writing his own music, it was all Nitty Gritty.
"That's how I started," he says. "I learned every Nitty Gritty Dirt Band tune I could."
He laughs, "I was almost a Nitty Gritty tribute band!"
While he will always be the ultimate Dirt Band fan, he is finding his own musical way.
"I'm trying to sell myself now as a new songwriter, not as just a cover artist."
He is seeing success, evidenced by increasingly frequent absences from his "day job" as a carpenter. That's okay with his boss. His dad, along with the rest of his family, is on the support team backing Bruin's musical journey.
Bruin comes from a family of people who excel. His father is known for his commitment to the community and was named Volunteer of the Year by Battlefords Tourism this spring. From his mother, who plays the organ at church and trained in piano and voice as a child, he and his three sisters inherited a talent for music. (His dad "plays the radio.")
As a student, Bruin excelled not only in music, but in sports, academics and the arts.
"Anything I tried I could be good at, given enough time to figure it out," says Bruin.
Having many paths to choose from, it wasn't until after he graduated high school that he made his decision.
"Music seemed the most natural choice," he says.
"I don't want to say I get bored of things easily, but I don't like the monotony of being in the same place the same time every day. Music is a perfect thing for that," says Bruin. "You are always going from one place to another, checking out new scenes and meeting new people, and that's what I love doing."
That's something he also enjoys about carpentry.
"There's always something different."
It also meets some musical needs.
"It pays for the guitars and the gear," he laughs.
Bruin plays about 10 instruments.
"A few different kinds of guitars, drums, bass, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, piano ..."
He also plays the alto saxophone, but not since his high school band days.
"It's funny, because that was one instrument you had to force me to play."
Bruin often performs solo, but he also has a band that will back him up, depending on the budget and the function.
He enjoys the solo gigs.
"I find that I can connect a lot more with people I'm playing for if I'm just by myself with my guitar," he says. "Then I can chat with them and talk more one to one on a personal basis, like a house party kind of thing."
Although he frequently performs solo, he is not alone in his journey, maintaining a close circle of friends, family, supporters and colleagues. When he received an email to open for Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's show at Paradise Hill, part of their Will The Circle Be Unbroken North American tour, he immediately contacted fellow North Battleford musician, Kurtis J. Kopp.
"We've worked together before and he's just so easy to work with," says Bruin. "We think on the same level, so he's very easy to collaborate with."
His circle of supporters was instrumental in his most recent directional decision - to perform simply as Bruin. He has re-branded himself and re-launched his website to mark the new beginning in his music career.
"Bruin works whether it's with a band or by yourself," he says. "It's a big, bold, in-your-face kind of name, easy to remember."
The Eberles, wholly supportive of Bruin's career, are well aware their surname might be problematic for Bruin. The family's preferred pronunciation is with a long A, as in "Ay ber lee," but it's frequently pronounced "eh ber lee" or "ee be lee," among other variations. Bruin says they don't mind when it's mispronounced. It can be completely botched, and they just say, "that's close enough."
He laughs, "We did tae kwon do growing up. We'd go all across Canada and they'd say your name so many different ways you'd have to really listen to make sure it was you."
It's not just the pronunciation that's at issue, says Bruin, there's also the issue of finding it online. By pronunciation, one would likely search under A.
Besides, he points out, after an evening of drinks in the bar, just plain Bruin will be more easily remembered.
Re-branding himself at this point in his career also marks his new focus on writing, performing and recording his own music. He's getting close to sending demos out, he says. For now he's putting tunes on the Internet for free downloads until he has material ready from a pro studio.
What he writes about varies, he says.
"Being a young single guy, 'girls' is a pretty easy issue to write about," he laughs.
There are also "your party songs - the feel-good, bonfire, drinkin' tunes."
But then there are songs like the one he wrote coming back from a trip to Nashville.
"I was kind of inspired," he says. "It was all about making the best of opportunities as they come up, not just sitting around waiting for things to happen, but going out and working for what you want and just taking it. "
The trip to Nashville was an example of Bruin doing exactly that.
"If a guy is going to be in the music business he should at least go to Nashville and get a feel for it if that's where he wants to be," he says.
A friend he had met through the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a singer songwriter originally from Dallas, Texas, had moved to Nashville, and he decided he would visit her and see what Nashville had to offer.
While there, he and his friend had supper with Dirt Band member Jeff Hanna and his wife, hugely successful songwriter Matraca Berg.
"I was there for four days. I got to go out and check the scene and meet some pretty established people in the business. It was really cool."
Nashville felt good to Bruin. It felt like it could be home.
"When you feel as comfortable as you are around all that stuff, then you know that it's an easy place to belong," says Bruin about the country music scene. "You just know that this feels right."
