Top 40 country hit machine Emerson Drive welcomes back a founding band member during their almost sold out show at the Yates Centre, Feb. 24 — sort of.
“We’re going to have a choir from one of the local schools for “Moments,” because the teacher ( Chris Hartman) is a teacher there at one of the Junior High Schools now and is one of the original members of this band, ” enthused lone original member and frontman Brad 
Mates.
Emerson Drive have released five albums inlcuding theor latest, a greatest hits package called ‘A Decade of Drive” which feature a string of radio friendly hits including their biggest hit “Moments” as well as “Believe,” “I Should Be Sleeping,” “ Countrified Soul,” a “Good Man” and “I Love this Road.”
“So I’m sure he’ll do a great job putting it together. We’re trying to bug him to get up on stage with us. He’s a hell of piano player and singer,” he said.
“I don‘t think he’s mentioned that to me, but they’ll probably ask me,” said Chris Hartman, taking a quick break from rehearsals for St. Francis Jr. High School’s upcoming production of “Willy Wonka” based on Roald Dahl’s famous book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, running March 9-12 at the school.
“I was a founding member of the band when we were in high school in 1996 and went down to Nashville with them and was with them for their first couple hits,” Hartman continued adding he left the band to get his education degree and has been teaching at St. Francis Jr. High School since 2003 where he teaches math, runs the choral program and does a little bit of everything.
But he kept contact with his former band mates and is always on the look out for ways to give his students new experiences and opportunities.
“Having a choir on stage is something we discussed when I was in the band. We always wanted to hear what it would sound like. So when I heard they were going to be in the area I called Brad and he jumped at the chance,” Hartman continued adding the 20 member choir are Grade 9 students who have been rehearsing their parts for the past couple weeks.
“It isn’t a traditional choral thing to do, but I wanted to give them the experience of being on stage with a professional band and learn what it is like to be able to sing background vocals,” Hartman continued.
“They’re really excited about it. They are on stage for “Moments” then they get to sit back and enjoy the rest of the show,” he said adding he doesn’t regret leaving the band just before they took off.
“We all have responsibilities, so we’ll call when we can. We’re all getting married and having kids. And I’ve got my responsibilities here,” he said.
“They are a great bunch of guys. And it was an awesome way to spend my early 20s to have all of that freedom, ” he said.
Brad Mates said touring is different with the band members and crew having wives and families to support.
“It is a little bit different, so we do things a little differently and it is a little difficult. We have a lot of families to support now,” Mates continued adding he always enjoys playing “Moments.”
“Moments” became our first number one. We liked that it told a story that really connected with people. “Moments” sat around Nashville for five years. A lot of artists listened to it and passed on it because they thought it had a negative message. But we saw a positive message and saw something in it,” Mates said.
“ That’s what we shoot for. When we look at a song now, we compare it to “Moments.” That’s how high the bar is set now. We listen to close to 700 songs, and 35-40 we write ourselves. We listen furiously until we find the ones that are right around that area,” he continued adding even though they have been based out of Nashville for many years, The Grande Prairie born country -pop band haven’t forgotten where they came from.
“I think the last time we were in Lethbridge was opening for Big and Rich and Terri Clark , so that was a few years ago. And we also opened for Shania Twain. It is always interesting to come back to a town for a headlining show when we were last playing in a 40 minute opening slot,” he continued.
“Lots of people come back to see us because they enjoyed it so much the first time,” he said.
“Most artists like us came up through playing the club and bar scene. We played bars and clubs for many years. If it wasn’t for the smaller cities and towns, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” he continued.
Emerson Drive have a string of radio friendly hits including their biggest hit “Moments” as well as “Believe,” “I Should Be Sleeping,” “ Countrified Soul,” a “Good Man” and “I Love this Road.”
“We were looking back on the past 10 years and suddenly realized that we had 16-17 singles (off of the band’s four studio albums). But we didn’t just want to put out the same old greatest hits album, so we added three new songs and three videos. We wanted to make it as interactive as possible than most greatest hits albums,he continued adding the tour on the CD is going well, though it has only just begun.
“The tour was ideally booked. The CD just came out on Feb. 8 and we started the tour right away. So it’s fresh. People are buying the CD and they want autographs. It’s brand new. It’s not like it’s been out for a couple months,” he said.
The band goes through about 700 songs both ones they have written as well as others written by some of Nashville’s best songwriters. They always look for a positive message in them.
“Moments” became our first number one. We liked that it told a story that really connected with people. “Moments” sat around Nashville for five years. A lot of artists listened to it and passed on it because they thought it had a negative message. But we saw a positive message and saw something in it,” Mates said.
“ That’s what we shoot for. When we look at a song now, we compare it to “Moments.” That’s how high the bar is set now. We listen to close to 700 songs, and 35-40 we write ourselves. We listen furiously until we find the ones that are right around that area,” he continued adding the touching first single “When I See You Again,” was inspired by the suicide of former band member and bassist Patrick Bourque.
“That song has been around for three years. We tried to represent what we were going through at the time, but it wasn’t working so we put it on the shelf and then revisited it a few months ago. I’m glad we did. It takes a bit of time to digest something like that,” Mate said.
Tickets for the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 24, cost $49.
Special guest Ridley Bent will be opening the show.
