Singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker to perform at concert in Swift Current
Award-winning Saskatchewan singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker will give a public concert performance during a visit to Central School in Swift Current.
He will be participating in a songwriting workshop with students during the day on Oct. 26 and he also agreed to do a public concert in the evening.
Central School music teacher Celia Hammerton is thrilled to have Straker back at the school for the workshop and the concert, titled An Evening with Jeffery Straker.
“I thought Jeffery’s going to be here anyway and maybe he would like the idea of doing a concert at the same time,” she mentioned. “So when I suggested it to him, he said that would be great.”
He will be joined on stage by Regina guitarist Bryn Besse, an experienced multi-instrumentalist who has performed with artists such as Belle Plaine and Blake Berglund.
Straker recently won the 2023 Saskatchewan Country Music Association Keyboard Player of the Year award. His previous awards include Saskatchewan Music Awards Roots/folk Artist of the Year in both 2020 and 2021.
He has performed internationally on several continents. His most recent concert tour abroad was a two-week trip to England in November 2022. He released a new acoustic five-song EP titled Just After Sunset shortly before the England tour.
“He’s such a great entertainer,” Hammerton said. “He’s a storyteller and he has the gift of entertainment, and has such good songs as well. So hopefully we can pack the auditorium for him.”
Straker, who is a classically trained pianist, shares his musical knowledge in an enthusiastic way through workshops for adults and students.
He visited Central School several times before for songwriting workshops with students. This time he will help
them to create a Christmas song for the school.
“This is the first time we’ll do a Christmas song,” Hammerton said. “So this is the sixth time that Jeffery will come to Central School for a songwriting day.”
He previously guided students to create a song for the school’s centennial celebration, a song for a Telemiracle performance by the school choir, an anti-bullying song to perform on Pink Shirt Day, a Cougar Strong song to reflect the school’s culture and values, and a song for Remembrance Day.
“They’re songs that can be sung year after year, because after we the students have created their song with Jeffery, we then make a backing track with the help of Ken Friesen of Breezin’ Studios,” Hammerton explained.
“We make a backing track and then we also record a performance of some of our students singing as well. We have a performance version and a backing track so that the students can sing it
year after year in the school.”
She referred to the example of the school song, which is played through the school’s public address system with the ringing of the last bell every Friday.
“The school song is played through the hallway,” she said. “The kids sing it as they leave the school on a Friday and we have it at our assemblies too. So it’s still sung consistently.”
She noted that these songwriting workshops are positive learning experiences for students, which is why several have taken place since 2014.
“He takes them through the process of songwriting and then helps them to write their own words into a song,” she said.
“And prior to the songwriting, Jeffery sends some questions and I take the students through a brainstorming session. We do that with all the students in the school and all the students feel that they’ve been part of the project. Then we have approximately 20 students from Grade 5 to 8 who are interested in learning more about the process and the writing of the song, and then they spend the whole day with Jeffery.”
This same format will be followed for the writing of the school’s Christmas song on Oct. 26. Students responded with excitement when Hammerton announced the upcoming songwriting workshop.
“I could see straight away that the kids were excited and they want to participate,” she said. “Some of the students actually came up with the idea of a Christmas song and in some ways it’s a difficult topic to tackle, partly because so many Christmas songs have been written over the years.”
The intention will be to create a new song that will be unique to Central School and reflects some key elements of the Christmas period.
“You want to make it our song, you want to make it original and there’s a lot of different directions you could go with it,” she said. “We will see what comes out of the brainstorming, but I think the emphasis will probably be on Christmas is a time for giving, caring and thinking of others.”
The new song will be performed for the first time by the school choir at the annual Christmas concert and thereafter it will be used in future years during the festive season.
Central School has been able to provide these songwriting workshops to students with the support of grant funding received from the Saskatchewan Music Educators Association.
“It covers a proportion of the amount and the school makes up the rest,” she said. “I think the school is willing to do that, because they see the benefits of this to our students and the excitement and the positive outcome that these projects create.”
The Evening with Jeffery Straker concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 26 at Central School. Tickets are $20 each and available at the school as well as at Pharmasave Swift Current.