Paul Brunelle (June 10, 1923 – November 24, 1994) was a singer, songwriter and country guitarist of western Quebec. He is considered the pioneer of country in Quebec and the main source of influence on the artist who would popularize the genre, he recorded with RCA until 1975, and then on the Bonanza label.
Born in 1923, Willie Lamothe Brunelle was one of the child singers in his hometown of Granby early in 1930. Employed at the Miner Rubber, he bought his first guitar on credit for $6.50. In his mid-teens he formed a country and western group.One of the first singers and writer-composers (in both languages) to enjoy success in this musical genre, Brunelle won the Living Room radio contest at Montreal radio station CKAC (1943, 1944), and in 1944 he began recording which included the popular hits "Women, You're Pretty" and "My Child, I Forgive You." This last piece is an adaptation to French of the traditional song "When It's Springtime in the Rockies".
The success of Brunelle was immediate. He also broadcast a program on CKAC in 1945, and apparently sold 200,000 copies of "Cruel Destiny." This was followed by inter alia, "On This White Rock", in December 1946, "In a Night of Stars" in August
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1947, then in 1948, "The Song of the Vagabond" (in April) and "In the Distance There in my Prairie" (July).
He then hosted his own radio show at CKAC (around 1946). After touring the province with Laurent Lacroix (1949) and Antoine Grimaldi (1950-51), he established his own group (1951). His wife, Suzanne Brunelle, accompanied the troupe, which also offered dance numbers and comedy. For 10 years he appeared in cabarets, theatres, and on stage in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and New England.
In addition to starring (1955-57) in the "Paul Brunelle and his Troubadours” broadcast on CKVL, he was regularly invited to take part in the television series of Lévis Bouliane, Willie Lamothe, Marcel Martel and Ti-Blanc Richard in Montreal and Sherbrooke. He is best known in the US for his 1955 novelty yodeling hit, "The Cowboy of the Mountains."Often compared with U.S. singer Ernest Tubb, he recorded with RCA (until 1961), with London (1961-75), and then with Bonanza, creating a total of more than 40 recordings. His greatest successes include "Par une nuit d'étoiles", "Mes chers vingt ans", "Le Train qui siffle", "Destin cruel" and, later, "Ma belle poupée d'amour" and "Ma petite maison".
Paul Brunelle continued his career until early 1980, when throat cancer forced an end to his career as a musician. In the last years of his life, he would appear on stage only on rare special occasions, most recently in 1992. He died in his hometown, Granby on 24 November 1994 (aged 71)In 2005 the label, Experience, issued a compilation compact disc of sixteen remastered hits originally recorded between 1945 and 1957. Billboard additionally lists four 2007 US CD album releases from Brunelle on the DDM and Select labels, and an additional three songs appearing on three different Quebec Country compilations featuring various artists of the genre.
(Edited from Wikipedia & The Canadian Encyclopaedia)