![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Brandon-James-image3-7.26.26.jpeg\")
A big entrance was planned for James when he arrived at the festival, where he was swarmed by fans asking for photos or peppering him with questions about Wyoming. “It was a little bit overwhelming for me.” (Brandon James)A Wyoming Connection<\/p>\nWhen 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018There\u2019s no way this is real,\u2019\u201d he told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Things really kicked up a notch when the husband-wife duo, backed by a local group of musicians, started performing \u201cGypsy Darlin’,\u201d one of James\u2019s original songs.<\/p>\n
To their surprise, the crowd of mostly Italian festivalgoers \u2014 decked out in their pearl snaps, Wranglers, boots, and hats \u2014 launched into a fully choreographed line dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was actually pretty crazy,\u201d James said of the entire experience. \u201cWe got a really great response. The show was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A big entrance was planned for James when he arrived at the festival, where he was swarmed by fans asking for photos or peppering him with questions about Wyoming. “It was a little bit overwhelming for me.” (Brandon James)A Wyoming Connection<\/p>\n
Throughout his career, James has performed in Wyoming, Texas, and spent a little time in Nashville, but an international gig wasn\u2019t remotely on his radar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But it turns out that James had popped onto the radar of Gigio Pesola, an Italian cowboy who has organized the Valsassina Country Festival<\/a> for the past decade after spending Pesola and the other festival organizers were looking for a headliner who plays traditional country music and has lived the cowboy life.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey liked what they heard and went from there,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n James also liked what he saw as part of his reconnaissance to vet the festival\u2019s legitimacy.<\/p>\n He found social media posts from past festivals featuring enthusiastic crowds, along with videos showing crowds line dancing in unison to traditional country songs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s huge over there, to say the least,\u201d he said about Italy\u2019s love affair with Western cowboy culture. \u201cThey really love country music in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, all of that pre-trip research couldn\u2019t quite prepare James for his Italian welcoming.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been performing in Wyoming for years and I have my small following here and in Texas, it\u2019s nothing crazy,\u201d James said. \u201cOver there, it was like I had been a popular act for years.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first got there, I was swarmed with people,\u201d he said, adding that his Italian fans asked for photos and peppered him with questions about life in Wyoming.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little bit overwhelming for me,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Plus, the Wyoming cowboy was impossible to miss.<\/p>\n Throughout the three-day festival and during promotional events leading up to it, he always wore his hat and boots.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of eyes on the hat,\u201d James said. \u201cA lot of people would say \u2018howdy\u2019 to me.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat was hard for me because I don\u2019t know nothin\u2019 about line dancing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Italians definitely know somethin\u2019 about the culture of the American West.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though surrounded by the lushly vegetated mountains of the Alps, the festival\u2019s setting reminded him a bit of the Tetons.\u00a0<\/p>\n And in lieu of a rodeo, the festival featured a \u201cranch academy\u201d where people could learn how to saddle and ride a horse.<\/p>\n That is, when they weren\u2019t busy wandering around the American car and motorcycle show, digging into the barbecue, throwing back some Jack Daniel\u2019s or buying some new Western wear from the vendors.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are little telltale signs that things aren\u2019t exactly authentic \u2014 an off-the-shelf hat that hasn\u2019t been shaped, say, or unscuffed boots \u2014 but James said he was surprised by just how much festivalgoers love and embrace the culture.<\/p>\n That same subculture helps to explain the enduring popularity of a saloon-themed restaurant chain<\/a> called Old Wild West that dishes up \u201cCheyenne Chicken\u201d and the Italian shop owner<\/a> who has spent nearly 50 years pedaling items celebrating the American West in a beach town.<\/p>\n As many Wyomingites and Montanans have experienced in recent years, \u201cYellowstone\u201d 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.<\/p>\n While James said he\u2019s had \u201csome really good shows\u201d throughout his career, the level of excitement over an American in Italy made for a very different show.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe fan interaction and engagement was probably the most memorable part,\u201d James said. \u201cIt was really cool to see and be a part of and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n A Whole New World<\/p>\n The experience has also unlocked a world of new possibilities for James.<\/p>\n This trip was his first to Italy, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, and he\u2019s already thinking about returning \u2014 perhaps for other international country music festivals in places like Denmark or Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives us an idea of what\u2019s possible,\u201d James said. \u201cWe can definitely attack that market and grow the fanbase that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Since returning home, James said he\u2019s been \u201cchucking along\u201d with making some new ear candy for his growing group of fans around the world and has plans for a \u201cstripped-back\u201d album in the near future that will have a more intimate sound to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019ve believed he\u2019d headline an international show.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you would\u2019ve told me I would be headlining a show in Italy, I would\u2019ve told you \u2018You\u2019re crazy,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the email arrived inviting Brandon James to headline a country music festival in the mountains of northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-108290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116987528845789820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
many years working at Kara Creek Ranch in Sundance, Wyoming.<\/p>\n![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Brandon-James-image0-7.26.26.jpeg\")
James and his wife, Shanda, performed at the festival and were backed by a group of local musicians who had learned his setlist in advance.\u00a0 (Brandon James)A Celebrity Moment<\/p>\n![\"Though](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Brandon-James-image2-7.26.26.jpeg\")
Though James knew that country music has become very popular in other parts of the world, he said the\u00a0 excitement of Italian festivalgoers made for a very different show.\u00a0 (Brandon James)Italy\u2019s Love The American West<\/p>\n