Yahoo Lifestyle The Uplifting Story Behind BRELAND’s New Song with The War and Treaty
“Same Work” is my favorite song on BRELAND’s new EP Project 2024. The uplifting track pairs his amazing vocals with those of the gospel-inspired country music powerhouse (and CMA Country Christmas regulars) The War and Treaty. When I recently had the chance to interview BRELAND for Country Living, I had to ask: What’s the story behind this song?
Answer: A life-changing encounter with a stranger, an *actual* holiday train, and the powerful bonds of found family. While “Same Work” is a song you can listen to year-round, the story behind it will give you the holiday feels.
To begin, the narrative told in the song is true. When BRELAND was playing CMA Fest two years ago, he met the man who would later inspire the song, a retired veteran who now works as a volunteer nurse, at a meet and greet after his performance.
When the singer thanked the man for his service (“I told him thank you for your sacrifice / And your job means a little more mine” in the lyrics), the man’s response struck a chord (“But he said, Isn’t it the same work / If we’re trying to heal the same hurt / Isn’t love the whole point of it all / All it takes to be a hero / Is a selfless heart and an open mind”).
BRELAND told Country Living, “He shared a really beautiful perspective with me about the work that he does and the work that I do, and some of the threads that exist between those jobs that I wouldn’t have necessarily thought myself. It was a really moving conversation.”
Fast forward to December 2023 when he was touring on the CPKC Holiday Train with fellow country artist Tenille Townes.
“We were playing a couple original songs and Christmas carols on this train that would pass through all these Midwestern communities,” BRELAND said. It was a fun experience, but it weighed on him that there was no chance to connect with fans. After each show finished, the train would move on to the next stop. “I was really missing the thing that drives me when I’m playing shows, which is being able to meet these people.”
He shared his frustration with Tenille: “I’m like, man, I’m not getting filled up the way that I usually do from getting to connect with these people and hear their stories. And I told her about the encounter that I had after CMA Fest. We ended up writing that song then and there on the train. It was therapeutic, cathartic for me at the time, because it was something that I was missing, but also, it was just a really beautiful story.”
Later, when BRELAND was putting together the tracks for his EP Project 2024, he realized the message of “Same Work” was a good fit for the project, which pays homage to his family ties to Selma, Alabama. He asked Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter, the husband and wife duo of The War and Treaty, to join him.
“I felt like having The War and Treaty on this song would elevate it a little bit because obviously, Michael, he’s a veteran himself, and he was able to connect with this song from both sides as a veteran but also as an artist. And so, he gets to see and experience this song from the old man’s perspective but also from my perspective.”
Another reason this collaboration is special is because Michael and Tanya have become like family to BRELAND—they even did Celebrity Family Feud together. “I’ve been connected with them since they first moved to town, and they remind me a lot of my actual parents. So our bond and our relationship goes a lot deeper than what we do professionally. And I think that’s also what the song is about. So for us to be able to sing this one together and tell the story together was really special.”
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