FINDING HIS FOCUS
Musician balances work, family life
Zachary Lucky lives in Ontario but he still has a Saskatchewan phone number.
“There’s just part of me that doesn’t quite want to let go,” he said with a laugh from his home in Orillia, Ont. “I don’t know if I’ll ever change my phone number. I like the 306.”
The musician, who was long based out of Saskatoon, moved to Ontario several years ago to take the next step in his career. What happened after that was quite the opposite of what he expected. At 28, he’s now a family man focused on finding the balance between music and being a partner and father.
Lucky has gone from touring up to 200 days a year to making sure his stints on the road don’t exceed two weeks at a time. In his early 20s, he said he had no reason to be at home.
“The idea of being gone all of the time was super attractive. I think life sort of gave me what I needed,” he said. “I probably could have kept going and taken my career in a different direction but having kids sort of forces you to get your sh-- together.”
Lucky feels fortunate to have had so many years to build his career, brand and fan base. For a lot of years, there was just music. Now there’s more. Everything he does today is more intentional and, as a result, he said he’s a better songwriter.
His latest album, Everywhere A Man Can Be, acts like a bookend to that part of his music career. He wanted to tell the story of the last seven or so years on the road.
It captures moments that stick out clearly in Lucky’s memory, from the time he drove all night after playing a gig in Moncton, N.B., to catch the ferry to Newfoundland to the first time he played Jasper to a legion hall audience of almost no one.
No song captures Lucky’s shifting mindset better than the single Sell All You Have.
The timeless-sounding folk tune was written as he travelled back and forth between Saskatoon and Toronto.
He and his partner were expecting their daughter.
“I was sort of figuring out what it meant to live somewhere other than Saskatchewan,” he said.
He soon discovered he wasn’t the only Saskatonian in Canada’s largest city. He became part of a community of ex-pats.
While getting ready for a gig at a friend’s house, he noticed a photograph of a family farm on the wall. It reminded him of one in his grandparents’ kitchen. His friend told him how that farm had been passed down generations but there was no one left to carry it on.
“It’s this story I hear a lot in the Prairies,” he said. “It’s a much bigger metaphor than just the farm. To me, that’s Saskatchewan right now, which is really sad.”
It got Lucky thinking about what that meant to him both as a musician and a father. He wrestled with how he was going to provide for a family as a musician. Musicians don’t usually have a lot of money but there’s one safety net.
“I guess if I had to I’d just sell my guitar,” he said. “To me, it’s really about all of us and how people are just doing what we have to do to get by on the daily and the ins and outs of just being alive.”
It’s a theme that carries through to songs like Wild Rose Country, which was written from the perspective of an East Coast Canadian who moved to Alberta to find work.
His upcoming show at The Bassment marks the second time he’s played his hometown in support of Everywhere A Man Can Be. This time, the show will be a more introspective solo affair, with lots of insight into the songwriting.
After his initial full band shows, Lucky said it can be a bit frightening to take the stage alone.
“It’s just you and your guitar. It’s a totally different vibe and you feel a little naked but it’s been really fun getting back to the roots of what I used to do,” he said.