Justin LaBrash is heading north on Saturday for the Prince Albert Street Fair.
The 23-year-old, originally from Lumsden, took home three Saskatchewan Country Music Awards (SCMA) this past weekend. He won Male Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year for ‘Running Away’ and Album of the Year for ‘The Neon Palm Tree.’
LaBrash will be performing on Saturday at the 14th Street stage along Central Avenue from 3 to 3:45 p.m.
“It’s a place that I’ve always had good experiences. I’ve never had a bad show up in the P.A. region and I was looking forward to coming back,” he said.
LaBrash is a self-taught guitarist and writes or co-writes his songs.
In his early childhood, LaBrash said his his parents encouraged him to try a new instrument every year. Although he settled on the violin, picking up an old guitar at home is what really sparked his music career.
“I would play, naturally, at family functions and what not and that led to trying out a couple coffee shops and it just kept snowballing from there,” he said.
“Now, here I am, 10 years later. I’ve won a few awards and I’ve had the pleasure of touring across Canada.”
LaBrash and his team are on the road nonstop this summer without a free weekend until September.
He’s stopped in the Prince Albert region in the past, most recently in Christopher Lake as part of a two-week tour. He also performed at the SCMA awards in Prince Albert in 2018.
“In and out of hotel rooms feels more like home sometimes than spending a whole month in one place,” said LaBrash.
The SCMA awards were held in Assiniboia this year. LaBrash said he was shocked to receive three of them.
“I did not see it coming at all. I wasn’t really prepared. I had to kind of scramble through my brain and come up with some words to say on the spot. After the first one I thought, okay, I should be good to just stay in my seat for the rest of the night. Then, another one came,” he explained.
LaBrash credits his team for the wins, and for helping him build up his successful career – but there’s still plenty more to come.
“I can guarantee that I’m going to come up with more crazy ideas and continue pushing the boundaries,” he said.
“I don’t think I would’ve believed myself if I could tell little Justin that everything would kind of end up where it is.”
