''Dear Life'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

duo

High Valley High Valley is a Canadian country and bluegrass band originally from Blumenort, Alberta, a small community near the hamlet of La Crete. The group is composed of Brad Rempel (lead vocals) and his supporting band, Dave Myers (bass guitar), Raymon ...

and the group's debut major-label release. It was released on November 18, 2016 through

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

and

Warner Music Nashville Warner Music Group (WMG) owns, has a joint share, or is associated with the record labels listed here. Flagship labels *Atlantic Records *Elektra Records *Parlophone Records *Warner Records Atlantic Music Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * A ...

. The American track listing for the album features two tracks from the duo's previous album, ''

County Line Borders are generally defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ...

'' (2014), in place of two of the newly recorded songs, notably removing the Canadian lead single, " Every Week's Got a Friday" in favour of " Make You Mine".

Background

Following the departure of founding member Bryan Rempel in March 2014, High Valley returned as a duo and released their fourth studio album, ''County Line'' in October of that year. They experienced a commercial breakthrough with the record, landing six consecutive singles in the top 10 on Canadian

country radio Country radio refers to radio stations that play country music. Most country radio stations are commercial radio stations. Most country radio stations usually play only music which has been officially released to country radio by record labels. T ...

from 2014 through 2016 and earning three Gold-certified singles from

Music Canada Music Canada is a non-profit Industry trade group, trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 in Toronto to represent the interests of companies that record, manufacture, produce, and distribute music in Canada. It also offers benefits to s ...

. In October 2015, High Valley signed a record deal with

and

. They soon began working on new music for their major-label debut, and had recorded seven of the songs that would make the album's final track listing by May 2016. The title, cover, and release date of ''Dear Life'' were revealed on October 3, 2016. The album was made available for pre-order on October 14. In support of pre-orders, one new promotional track was released to digital retailers weekly from October 14 through the release date of November 18, 2016.

Reception

The album debuted on the Canadian Albums chart at No. 36, and Billboard's Top Country Albums album at No. 37. It sold 2,300 copies in the US in the first week, and with an additional 800 copies in the second week. The album has sold 12,000 copies in the US as of March 2017.

Singles

"Make You Mine" was re-issued in the United States on February 26, 2016 as their debut major-label single and

lead single A lead single (or first single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. A similar term, "debut ...

from ''Dear Life'' in that country. It was serviced to radio on February 29, 2016. The song debuted at number 59 on the ''Billboard'' Country Airplay chart in March 2016 and reached a peak position of 17 in March 2017. It is also their first entry on the magazine's

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart, where it has peaked at number 21. "Make You Mine" was first released in Canada in December 2014, serving as the third single from previous album, ''County Line'', and reached peaks of 5 and 58, respectively, on the

Canada Country The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

and

Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music industry record chart in Canada for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It was launched on the issue dated March 31, 2007 as the standard record chart in Canada; a new chart ...

charts. In Canada, " Every Week's Got a Friday" was released August 26, 2016 as the album's lead single. It has since reached 8 on the Canada Country chart. " I Be U Be" was serviced to Canadian country radio on February 27, 2017 as the second single in Canada and third overall. " She's with Me", previously the top-10 follow-up to "Make You Mine" from ''County Line'' in 2015, impacted American country radio on April 17, 2017 as the album's fourth single and second in the United States. The title track, " Dear Life", was released in July 2017 as the third Canadian single and fifth release overall. "Young Forever" was serviced to Canadian country radio as the fourth and final Canadian single, and sixth overall release from the album, in January 2018.

Other songs

"Young Forever" was released in both countries as the first

promotional single A promotional recording, promo, or plug copy is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as mu ...

from the album on September 9, 2016. It is also featured on the soundtrack to the

sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...

, ''

Madden NFL 17 ''Madden NFL 17'' is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League and published by EA Sports for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. As the 28th installment of the '' Madden NFL series'', the g ...

''. "Long Way Home" was made available as an instant-grat track to Canadian digital retailers on October 14, 2016 when the album was made available for pre-orders. In the US, " She's with Me" was made available instead. "Dear Life", "Memory Makin'", and "I Be U Be" followed suit on October 28, November 4, and November 11, respectively.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits are adapted from

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

of ''Dear Life''. ;High Valley * Brad Rempel – Lead vocals, guitar * Curtis Rempel – Vocals,

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, guitar ;Musicians *

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

s – Nick Buda,

Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, 1973, in Easley, South Carolina) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. As a session drummer, he has contributed to the work of many well-known artists, and he is also a p ...

, Miles McPherson, Ben Phillips,

Nir Z Nir Zidkyahu (, , born November 1967), also known as Nir Z, is an Israeli studio-session drummer, and the brother of Blackfield's drummer Tomer Z. He joined in spring 1997 with Genesis, he played in eight tracks for their last album ''Calling A ...

. *

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

– Joeie Canaday, Tony Lucido, Steve Mackey, Mike "X" O'Connor,

Jimmie Lee Sloas Jimmie Lee Sloas is an American session musician, producer, and songwriter, who plays bass. History Jimmie Lee Sloas, born in Ashland, Kentucky, grew up in Fairborn, Ohio and Isonville, Kentucky. His father, Dave, was a member of the popular ...

Guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

– Mike "X" O'Connor, Raymond Klassen,

Tom Bukovac Tom Bukovac (born December 20, 1968) is an American session guitarist and producer. He is also a popular YouTube personality with over 100,000 subscribers. He is a five-time winner of Music Row's Top Ten Album All-Stars award in the guitar categ ...

, Chris LaCorte, Troy Lancaster, Dan Macal, Rob McNelley, Seth Mosley, Mike Payne, Keith Sewell,

Ilya Toshinsky Bering Strait was a Russian country music band, whose style was sometimes called "redgrass". In 2003, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award and appeared on the TV show ''60 Minutes''. The group disbanded in 2006. The lineup on their first al ...

, Derek Wells *

Programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

– Mike "X" O'Connor, Seth Mosley *

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

– Raymond Klassen, Josh Matheny * Keyboards – Tim Lauer *

Cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

– Carole Rabinowitz *

Viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

– Kristin Wilkinson *

Violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

– David Davidson, David Angel * Orchestrations – David Davidson *

Background vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

– Seth Mosley, Ty Hutner, Dusty Hunter, Jerricho Scroggins, Asa Wiggins, Ally Smith, Luke Brown, Jordan Phillips, Ben Stennis, Adam Stark, Dave Myers, Patrick Donahoe ;Production *

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

– Seth Mosley, Mike "X" O'Connor *

Recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

– Mike "X" O'Connor, Jerricho Scroggins ** Recorded at Castle Recording Studio, Dark Horse Recording, Full Circle Music, Portofino Island Resort, Beachy Keen, Little Big Sound * String

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

– Bobby Shin ** Assistant string recording – Jerricho Scroggins * Mixing – Mike "X" O'Connor, Jerricho Scroggins, Sean Moffit ** Additional mixing – Tom Coyne, Mark Endert, F. Reid Shippen *

Digital editing In mass communication, digital media is any communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronic d ...

– Michael Sanders, Andy Selby, Nick Schwarz, Asa Wiggins, Mike "X" O'Connor, Jerricho Scroggins ** Additional editing – Michael Sanders, Dave Hagen * Mastering – Tom Coyne, Randy Merrill ;Design * Creative direction – Shane Tarleton * Art direction & design – Mike Moore *

Photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

– Robby Klein * Styling – Kim Perrett * Grooming – Libby Barnes

Chart performance

Certifications

References

External links

''Dear Life''
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{Authority control 2016 albums High Valley albums Atlantic Records albums Warner Music Group albums