When the email arrived inviting Brandon James to headline a country music festival in the mountains of northern Italy, the Buffalo, Wyoming-based singer-songwriter reckoned it might be a scam.
“I thought, ‘There’s no way this is real,’” he told Cowboy State Daily.
Not only was the invite real, but many other surprises awaited James and his wife, Shanda, when they traveled to Italy this month for the annual festival held in Valsassina, a small town in the Lombardy region about 45 minutes north of Milan.
While nearby Lake Como is a playground for celebrities like George Clooney, Madonna, and Richard Branson, just down the road James was likewise getting the VIP treatment.
Things really kicked up a notch when the husband-wife duo, backed by a local group of musicians, started performing “Gypsy Darlin',” one of James’s original songs.
To their surprise, the crowd of mostly Italian festivalgoers — decked out in their pearl snaps, Wranglers, boots, and hats — launched into a fully choreographed line dance.
“It was actually pretty crazy,” James said of the entire experience. “We got a really great response. The show was amazing.”
A Wyoming Connection
Throughout his career, James has performed in Wyoming, Texas, and spent a little time in Nashville, but an international gig wasn’t remotely on his radar.
An invitation to headline a country music festival in Italy, of all places, was why the Kaycee native was so dubious of that fateful email.
But it turns out that James had popped onto the radar of Gigio Pesola, an Italian cowboy who has organized the Valsassina Country Festival for the past decade after spending
many years working at Kara Creek Ranch in Sundance, Wyoming.
Pesola and the other festival organizers were looking for a headliner who plays traditional country music and has lived the cowboy life.
“They liked what they heard and went from there,” James said.
James also liked what he saw as part of his reconnaissance to vet the festival’s legitimacy.
He found social media posts from past festivals featuring enthusiastic crowds, along with videos showing crowds line dancing in unison to traditional country songs.
“It’s huge over there, to say the least,” he said about Italy’s love affair with Western cowboy culture. “They really love country music in this area.”
A Celebrity Moment
Even so, all of that pre-trip research couldn’t quite prepare James for his Italian welcoming.
“I’ve been performing in Wyoming for years and I have my small following here and in Texas, it’s nothing crazy,” James said. “Over there, it was like I had been a popular act for years.”
For someone who has long looked up to greats like George Strait, Randy Travis, Keith Whitley, and Merle Haggard, James got a taste of what that sort of fame is like.
“When I first got there, I was swarmed with people,” he said, adding that his Italian fans asked for photos and peppered him with questions about life in Wyoming.
“It was a little bit overwhelming for me,” he added.
Plus, the Wyoming cowboy was impossible to miss.
Throughout the three-day festival and during promotional events leading up to it, he always wore his hat and boots.
“There were a lot of eyes on the hat,” James said. “A lot of people would say ‘howdy’ to me.”
However, the Wyomingite was out of step when he was selected to be a celebrity judge for a line dancing competition, alongside a professional skier and comedian.
“That was hard for me because I don’t know nothin’ about line dancing,” he said.
Italy’s Love The American West
Italians definitely know somethin’ about the culture of the American West.
A differing love of line dancing aside, the whole vibe of the festival made James feel a little bit like he was back home in Wyoming.
Though surrounded by the lushly vegetated mountains of the Alps, the festival’s setting reminded him a bit of the Tetons.
And in lieu of a rodeo, the festival featured a “ranch academy” where people could learn how to saddle and ride a horse.
That is, when they weren’t busy wandering around the American car and motorcycle show, digging into the barbecue, throwing back some Jack Daniel’s or buying some new Western wear from the vendors.
There are little telltale signs that things aren’t exactly authentic — an off-the-shelf hat that hasn’t been shaped, say, or unscuffed boots — but James said he was surprised by just how much festivalgoers love and embrace the culture.
That same subculture helps to explain the enduring popularity of a saloon-themed restaurant chain called Old Wild West that dishes up “Cheyenne Chicken” and the Italian shop owner who has spent nearly 50 years pedaling items celebrating the American West in a beach town.
As many Wyomingites and Montanans have experienced in recent years, “Yellowstone” has sparked a whole new interest in our neck of the woods and whether real-life cowboying compares to what people have seen on TV.
While James said he’s had “some really good shows” throughout his career, the level of excitement over an American in Italy made for a very different show.
“The fan interaction and engagement was probably the most memorable part,” James said. “It was really cool to see and be a part of and experience.”
A Whole New World
The experience has also unlocked a world of new possibilities for James.
This trip was his first to Italy, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, and he’s already thinking about returning — perhaps for other international country music festivals in places like Denmark or Germany.
“It gives us an idea of what’s possible,” James said. “We can definitely attack that market and grow the fanbase that way.”
Since returning home, James said he’s been “chucking along” with making some new ear candy for his growing group of fans around the world and has plans for a “stripped-back” album in the near future that will have a more intimate sound to it.
More than just a cool story, though, the Italian job also validates many years of hard work for a kid from Kaycee who never would’ve believed he’d headline an international show.
“If you would’ve told me I would be headlining a show in Italy, I would’ve told you ‘You’re crazy,’” he said.
