Country recording artist Chad Brownlee will perform at the Parksville Community Centre Feb. 6.

Country recording artist Chad Brownlee will perform at the Parksville Community Centre Feb. 6.

Hockey player turned country star to play Parksville

Former Canucks draft pick swaps hockey stick for guitar, Juno nomination

A former Vancouver Canucks draft pick Chad Brownlee was forced by injuries into a second career. This one seems to have worked out OK.

Brownlee, a Juno-nominated country recording artist, will appear in Parksville Feb. 6 for a concert at the Parksville Community Centre, and tickets are already on the move. Jayden Holman, a 19-year-old prodigy from Nanaimo, will open the all-ages show.

With approximately 400 tickets available for the concert, front-row seats have already sold out.

Brownlee, who was drafted in the sixth round of the NHL draft in 2003, played collegiate hockey and made his pro hockey debut with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL in 2007.

Two years later he was out of hockey and releasing his debut single, The Best That I Can (Superhero). In 2010, he cut his self-titled debut album, which earned him the Rising Star award from the Canadian Country Music Association.

His second album, 2012’s Love Me or Leave Me, earned a Juno nomination for Country Album of the Year. He followed up with his third release, The Fighters, last summer. Brownlee has had a pair of top-10 Canadian Country hits and five in the top-20.

Light refreshments and pizza will be served at the concession.

Tickets are $35 (plus service fee) for regular seats or $40 for second- and third-row seats. Tickets may be purchased online at www.ticketzone.com/ChadBrownlee.

— NEWS Staff

Parksville Qualicum Beach News