Jeffery Straker. (Submitted photo/Jeffery Straker)

By Ian Gustafson

Return of Music

Jeffery Straker to perform in outdoor concert in P.A. in July

Jun 23, 2021 | 2:24 PM

Local music fanatics who’ve been itching to see live music will get the opportunity in July when Saskatchewan-born singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker will perform at Paintball Paradise Prince Albert.

On Friday, July 9 at 7:30 p.m., there will be an outdoor concert on the property with a limit of 150. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs.

Owner of Paintball Paradise George Lewko told paNOW this will be the first concert they’ve hosted since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had a pumpkin music festival that we did for a couple years and then COVID sort of finished that off,” Lewko said. “We’re going to try just to have our concert with Jeffery and it should be a lot of fun.”

After meeting Straker at an event in January, they kept in touch which led to Lewko inviting Straker to play in Prince Albert.

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Tickets will be $25 each and there will be an on-site concession serving burgers, fries, hotdogs, homemade pies, and other items.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. Bring your own chairs there are a lot of picnic tables and that type of stuff there but we’ll still have social distancing in place. It should be a fun night and maybe if this one’s successful we got plans for maybe another two or three coming up as an outdoor venue,” he said.

Straker, who grew up in Punnichy, told paNOW in February he was going to do a series of backyard shows like last summer, because he cannot play in venues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After crossing paths with Lewko, he decided to add Prince Albert to his backyard show tour across Saskatchewan. He has performed at the EA Rawlinson Centre before and other small shows in the area.

“The response has been really good, so I think a summer show in the P.A. area would be well received, so George’s proposal lined up really well,” Straker said.

He added the backyard shows have been fun and have averaged around 40-50 people, which his far less than some venues he has played in pre-pandemic.

“It’s a real intimate feeling you know it’s like playing in a big living room but you’re outside,” he said. “I absolutely love them. Even up to 150 people, that’s still not huge, it’s that same intimate feeling. I really like it. You feel as the performer like you really get to connect with the crowd, and that’s why I do like it. That’s why I love live performances connecting with an audience through my songs.”

Straker’s new album, Just Before Sunrise, debuted on May 7 and he explained those who come to the show will hear a mixture of old and new music.

“A lot of the songs are story-driven and I talk to the audience between songs and it turns into an intimate sort of conversation in a way, tell some funny stories, and then transition into a song… Over the last couple of weeks it’s been a really nice feeling I mean people are going to get sort of a concert experience but I think the magic of this, in particular, is that this is probably going to be the first live concert many of these people would have been to in over a year so I think it’s going to be really special,” he said.

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Ian.Gustafson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @IanGustafson12