Jeffrey Straker has taken his piano and his set list of roots- and folk-influenced songs on the road as far away as Mexico and Chile and played for audiences numbering in the tens of thousands, but he says small audiences and intimate venues allow for a special connection. He will be trying to make that connection with an audience at the Owlhead Creek Bed and Breakfast in Sicamous on April 18.
Straker played at Owlhead Creek in August of last year, early into the tour, supporting his most recent album Dirt Road Confessional and said he really enjoyed the venue and the audience.
“They’re a really interesting place because they’re kind of a house concert but they’re also open to the public,” he said.
Straker is no stranger to house concerts and small private shows. Of 120 shows a year, about 20 are house concerts.
Straker said many of Canada’s prominent singer-songwriters are gravitating towards smaller venues.
“A couple things happen – one is obviously you’re all in the same close quarters before the show, at the break of the show and after the show, so you get up close and you get to meet everyone,” Straker said.
He added he enjoys meeting and answering questions from audience members. The personal interaction found at a house concert is something that is more difficult to achieve at a larger, more distraction-filled venue such as a bar or nightclub Straker said.
“At a house concert it’s all about the music.”
Straker said he thinks his best and most robust fans are the ones who first saw him at a small venue where more interaction is possible and a closer relationship between performer and audience can form.
Straker added that when he announced he would be touring Western Canada, he received a message from the owners of the bed and breakfast saying they would love to have him back and had received a lot of positive feedback and requests for a repeat performance.
“I’m pretty sure there will be some repeat offenders in the audience, if you will.”
Straker hopes that word of mouth has spread about his last show and there will be a mix of familiar and new faces in attendance when he comes to town in April.
Straker hails from Saskatchewan, and tours extensively in Canada and abroad. He described his sound as folk-roots-pop and critics have compared him to early Elton John, Chris Christopherson and Billy Joel.
“You certainly don’t consciously sit around trying to make a sound come out of you. You listen to certain things and have certain life experiences and it all goes inside you, bumbles around in your head and your heart and it ends up coming out in a certain way in your songs,” Straker said about the comparison to the legendary singer-songwriters of the ’70s.
On this tour, Straker is bringing Danny Jones along for the ride to play double bass and add backing vocals.
Straker described the two-man show as a malleable arrangement that can be easily adapted for theatres and clubs as well as small venues.
Straker also plays shows alongside symphony orchestras in which he plays the same material in his smaller shows, but in a very different setting.
“As a singer songwriter you get to present your songs in so many different ways.”
The settings do not get more different and exotic for Straker than the shows he plays on his tours of Latin America. He began cultivating a following in Mexico as well as Central and South America following an appearance at the The Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile in 2014.
At the festival, Straker performed live for 20,000 people at an outdoor amphitheatre. According to Straker the performance was also broadcast to an audience of millions across the Spanish-speaking world.
“It was really crazy,” he said.
The greater recognition led Straker to book a tour of Mexico. He was enjoying the 28 degree sunny weather when he spoke to the Eagle Valley News.
He will be returning to Canada to play several dates across B.C. Alberta and Saskatchewan before he takes the stage in Sicamous.