"Alberta Bound"

Okay, I just have to share this story, it is SO ironic!

About a week before I applied to become a reporter in La Crete, I applied to a bunch of radio contests in the area. One of which, was with Cool 100.1. We needed to write down our favourite song, and whichever song was picked won a free oil change. Those of you that know me best already know the song I would have written down…

On Tuesday, just after my interview with Tom downtown Toronto, I checked my email. I won. My song: Alberta Bound by Paul Brandt (my favourite song by my favourite artist from my favourite province: Alberta!)

My heart was racing, not because I won and not because I’m overly superstitious, but I knew it couldn’t be just by chance that I won with a song Alberta Bound on the same day I had been interviewed for a job in Alberta. I knew before I got the email from Tom that I was going to Alberta – Paul Brandt kindly let me know through his sexy, deep voice on a noontime Belleville radio station contest.

When I got the email from Tom it was no surprise that I was being offered the job. As my mom said, “Well of course, who wouldn’t hire you? You’re amazing.” And in the words of Paul Brandt, I was “Alberta Bound.” The next afternoon, my song was played on the radio.

The free oil change is somewhat ironic in itself, because I’ll be driving to Alberta. Everything just came together!

Another note about this song, when I saw him perform the song in Brantford, Ontario, in 2007, he sang the first line of Alberta Bound: “The sign said 40 miles to Canada,” and then pointed to myself, my room mate Kelsey Riley, and her friend Jackie, stopping singing and we sang to him and the audience “My truck tore across Montana, Ian Tyson sang a lonely lullaby.” Since Paul Brandt is basically a country music God, in my eyes, this was basically the best moment of my life.

I guess Alberta Bound is just my lucky song!

Watch out, Paul Brandt, I’m Alberta Bound and coming to your province! If my car happens to break down in front of your door, with the song Alberta Bound blaring in my speakers, it will be no coincidence and certainly not a planned breakdown. I swear.



Lyrics to Alberta Bound:

Sign said 40 miles to Canada
My truck tore across Montana
Ian Tyson sang a lonesome lullaby

And so I cranked up the radio
Cause there's just a little more to go
For I'd cross the border at that Sweet Grass sign

I'm Alberta Bound
This piece of heaven that I've found
Rocky Mountains and black fertile ground
Everything I need beneath that big blue sky
Doesn't matter where I go
This place will always be my home
Yeah I've been Alberta Bound for all my life
And I'll be Alberta Bound until I die

It's a pride that's been passed down to me
Deep as coal mines, wide as farmer's fields
Yeah, I've got independence in my veins

Maybe it's my down-home redneck roots
Or these dusty 'ol Alberta boots But like a
Chinook wind keeps coming back again

*Chorus*