Canadian country music artist and Nashville performer Donny Lee will be performing at the Red Deer Memorial Centre Oct. 1st.

His upcoming show, titled the Best of Country Music Show, is centred around a tribute to some of the best country music legends.

Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Lee is hitting the road to perform some of his hits and latest songs.

Lee has been in the process of working on his newest album set to be released soon.

His most recent album is Who I am, an album he said is different than what’s being played on the radio.

“We wanted to get more of a 90s/traditional country sound, so we added elements like fiddle and steel guitar and real hardcore country type of lyrics,” he said.

Songs on the album include Song for Dad, a song he wrote with his wife for his dad who passed away five years ago and That Would Be Me, a ‘don’t judge me, I’m just being me’ type album.

“We’ve got a little bit of a line dancing song in there called Chip And A Chair, which has done very well on Youtube. We’ve got people that have created line dances for the song as far away as South Korea, Ireland and England,” said Lee.

Lee’s inspiration varies, but as far as what he calls ‘hardcore singing styles’, he loves Keith Whitley and Merle Haggard.

“From an entertainment perspective, there’s nobody better than Garth Brooks. My influences and style change all the time. I love being able to implement not just a good singing style, but I like to entertain the heck out of a crowd too.”

Lee used to sing with his mother and father up on stage back in his hometown of Hamilton, and started touring at 16 years old across Canada and the United States, getting to open for a lot of Nasvhille acts that included Dwight Yoakam, Billy Ray Cyrus, Dolly Parton and more.

He ended up taking some years off from music and got back into performing five years ago in Nashville, which is one of the places he currently resides. He spends the other half of his time living in Fort Saskatchewan, where he’s spent a lot of his life.

Lee’s most recent memorable moment occurred at the Canadian Country Music Awards when he got to sing in front of his mom, which was a huge deal for him.

Lee was also in the music video Sing Along, a song from Christian Bush of the country group Sugarland and was a paid extra on the season finale of the television show Nashville.

Coming up, Lee is gearing up for his new album, which features lots of Canadian talent.

“We’ve got Chad Melchert, who’s Gord Bamford’s drummer, we’ve got Murray Pulver from the Doc Walker band on guitar, we’ve got Travis Switzer on bass guitar, who plays with Dallas Smith. We’ve just got some phenomenal Canadian musicians on this album and it’s going to be something that I can’t wait to get to radio.”

Tickets to Lee’s upcoming show Oct. 1st are available at the Black Knight Inn or online at tickets.blackknightinn.ca or reddeermemorialcentre.com/events.