Jeffery Straker is celebrating fifty years of the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils, and he’s bringing along some friends to the party. Straker, Jack Semple and Annette Campagne will celebrate the major anniversary with a series of shows, including two local dates in Yorkton and Langenburg.
The shows are something special, because you don’t often see an entertainment package like this on one of these tours, explained Straker.
“Jack and Annette and myself all have a different musical style. We’re all singer/songwriters, but I come at it from a roots/folk angle, and I’m a piano player. Jack is a blues guitar player, and Annette is a folk singer who sometimes sings in French and sometimes in English. There’s a real diversity in the show.”
The trio got together after being prompted to make a celebration show. Straker, Semple and Campagne played together in a Christmas show, Jeffrey Straker and Friends: A Very Prairie Christmas. The audience responded, and the trio loved making music together.
“If I have to go on the road for a month with two people, I want to go on the road with two people I know I get along with and I know are super, amazingly talented.”
They sing their own songs, but also do songs together, doing three part harmonies and playing together.
A tour celebrating the arts councils makes sense, said Straker, because for many people in rural Saskatchewan, it’s their first taste of live music, and that includes Straker himself.
“I come from a small town myself. I come from a town of 300 people that wasn’t that far from Yorkton, I come from Punnichy. I grew up out of the urban areas, I grew up on a farm. I remember back in my school days, I remember the arts councils sending touring acts through to our schools. Some of the earliest performances by people who weren’t from our town, were brought in by arts councils. Fast forward to today, a lot of the touring acts who are touring Canada, they’re stopping in Regina or Saskatoon, maybe Moose Jaw or Swift Current, but they’re not going to these places, and that’s not to say there aren’t great and hungry audiences looking for a good live show, and are super appreciative of it.”
He loves playing in a small town, but that also comes with it’s own pressure, he explained.
“Because I come from a small town, they all kind of feel like a home town crowd to me, and I really want to impress them. Although there’s always this super warm welcome, I put extra pressure on myself that I deliver something good.”
Those rural roots are also a big part of Straker’s music, from his first album to today. His latest single, One Foot on Main Street, is about growing up in a small town, and how it’s still part of his life.
“The older you get, the more you realize how much your roots are planted in the ground.”
The single is building toward’s Straker’s next album. Writing the album began in a sad event, with the sudden death of Straker’s mother. That began reminiscing, and he found himself flooded with memories of her and growing up.
“When I drove back to Punnichy for my mom’s funeral, that day I was waiting at the train tracks in my car for the train to go by, and the train tooted its horn. I had this very vivid recollection of being on a bike with my best friend waiting for the train to go by when I was less than ten. The opening of the song is “I would hear the horn blowin’ on the CN train.” It’s literally that picture in my head that sparked the beginning of the song. It’s very special and actually very emotional to sing.”
He’s excited about the eventual album, which is partially recorded. It’s a turn into the roots and folk direction, and he feels it suits the new music. While it was sparked by a sad event, he said it’s not a sad album, with plenty of up beat songs to go with some of the more introspective ballads.
“With time, you really do, if you allow yourself, you get to see some great joy you had with this person. Luckily, part of me has got there.”
The Langenburg date will also be a reunion for Straker, between a musician and an instrument. The piano in Langenbug was found on SGI Salvage for a low price, and Straker was the guy the Langenburg Arts Council got to test it. This is his first time playing it since it arrived at its new home.
“I played it and said ‘this piano’s amazing.’ It smelled like smoke though, because it was in a house fire. It turned out that the smoke damage was really insignificant, that was able to get cleared up, and they bought the piano for super cheap.”
Straker will be in Langenburg on Oct. 25, brought to town by the Langenburg Arts Council. He will be in Yorkton on Oct. 26 as part of the Yorkton Arts Council’s Stars for Saskatchewan series.
