Regina based songwriter Jeffrey Straker is pleased to be part of a pride week show at McKillop United Church Hall, June 19.
He is touring in support of his new CD “ Dirt Road Confessional,” which he recorded with a variety of high profile producers including Royal Wood and Murray Pulver, which were each an inspirational experience in their own unique ways.
He is pleased to play a Pride Fest show.
“ It feels great to be part of Pride Fest shows. I play about 100 shows a year, not all of them pride shows. They are always a lot of fun. Pride shows in bigger places like Toronto are always incredibly big parties. Pride shows in smaller cities like Regina and Lethbridge are more about reminding people that they are here and to make everybody feel accepted in the group, he said.
Straker will be playing piano and singing the Lethbridge show with fellow Regina musician Danny Jones, playing double bass and guitar.
“So I’m playing this show for pride and because I have new music to share,” he said, adding he is excited about the more folk/ pop underpinnings of his sixth album.
he enjoyed working with Royal Wood and engineer Lawrence Katz.
“I did something I never have before. I went in, wrote a song and recorded it from start to finish in one day. I did two songs that way,” he said.
“We started early, well early for a a musician, but not for me as I’m a morning person, at 10 a.m. And because We‘re all players, we all had lots of ideas. So it was a really amazing experience.” he said, adding working with Murray Pulver was also an amazing experience, but in a different way.
“ He’s such a guitar playing monster. His arrangements are all over the songs, though I wrote them,” he said.
He released the album on May 19 to and immediately embarked on a tour which is already a success.
“ I’m playing two shows in Regina which are sold out and will play several more before I get to Lethbridge, he continued.
He is pleased with the new musical direction of the album.
“I grew up in rural Saskatchewan where old time country music was always playing while I was studying classical music. So it has always been there. When I started writing these songs, it was like pulling on a familiar pair off socks,” he said, adding all of his albums have a different sound.
“ This one just has more of a roots folk sound.
He is also excited to provide the soundtrack for a new play by Saskatchewan playwright Kelley-Jo Burke, called “Us.”
“ She contacted me about using a couple of my songs for it.I said sure , then looked at the script and said why don’t I write all new material for it instead of lifting older works and she said sure, and the next thing I knew, the play became a musical. It will premiere in February 2018,” he said.
“ It’s about a summer camps in Alberta like Camp Firefly for LGBT youth, though not specifically about those camps. But it is about fitting into a group, which is a universal theme, so it will have more of an audience than just LGBT,” he said.
Jeffrey Straker plays the McKillop United Church hall, June 19 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.
