MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM — Popular musician Jeffery Straker will be coming to the Moose Jaw area this summer to celebrate his new album and will be performing in grain elevators in the communities he visits.
Straker releases his newest album, “Great Big Sky,” a Prairie-themed, 10-song recording, on Friday, June 7. To celebrate this launch, he will perform seven shows at or in seven grain elevators as part of The Prairie Skyscraper Concert Series.
His tour dates include June 15 at 7 p.m. in Elbow, June 19 at 7 p.m. in Hepburn, June 20 at 7 p.m. in Southey, July 4 at 7 p.m. in Riverhurst, July 5 at 2 p.m. in Horizon as part of the Ogema-based Southern Prairie Railway train tour, July 6 at 7 p.m. in Gravelbourg and July 7 at 2 p.m. at the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum.
“I’m pretty excited,” the folk-roots singer-songwriter-pianist said on Facebook, noting the tour should be a “really unique listening experience.”
One track Straker wrote is titled “More than Two by Fours and Timber,” which pays tribute to “these beautiful, old, vintage grain elevators that are all the way across Saskatchewan and across the Prairies.”
Straker said he’s always loved “these big, majestic structures” — also known as Prairie Sentinels — that dot the fields because, at their peak in Saskatchewan, there were more than 1,800 of them, while today, there are fewer than 275.
Although there are not many remaining, they can still captivate motorists to stop and take photos, he continued. For his song, he sets the scene by imagining the last day of an elevator before its demolition: “It used to mean from a distance you were heading somewhere when heading here … now, more than the last grain elevator was disappearing.”
Straker added that his shows will all be different from each other and should offer a unique experience for listeners.
For more information, visit www.jeffstraker.com.
Carol Peterson, board chair of the Ogema Heritage Railway Association, said Straker called her about performing inside the elevator at Horizon as part of his tour and she readily agreed.
“So that’s totally different (but) we think it’s awesome,” she added. “It’s a perfect setting for it and works well with what we’re doing here.”
There are 13 train trips that passengers can take this year, including heritage rides, kids’ fun trips, morning or afternoon train robbery rides, prairie pitchfork steak fondue train trips, settlers’ supper tours, Texas-style barbecue rides, craft beer, wines, and spirits trips, Harry Potter-themed rides, Pangman open-air market trips, Museum Day tours, Grandparents’ Day rides, Father’s Day trips and Jeffery Straker’s Prairie Skyscraper Concert Series.
For more information, call Southern Prairie Railway at 306-459-7808 or visit www.southernprairierailway.ca.
Gord Ross, board chairman of the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum, thought it was great that Straker wanted to perform at the museum’s 111-year-old elevator.
“We invested a lot of money trying to save the elevator and bring it to the museum, so to have him help us represent our museum, it’s great news for us,” he said.
The elevator was built in 1913 and stood in Mawer — near Central Butte — for nearly a century before the museum bought it in the mid-2000s and moved it. Members then spent time refurbishing it before re-opening it in 2013.
The organization worked for a long time to acquire a grain elevator, while it cost a substantial amount of money to buy one and upgrade it, said Ross. It was important to save an elevator because of its historical importance; the province has designated this structure as a provincial heritage site.
“It’s small by today’s standards, but at the time (it was considered big),” he added.
Visit www.sukanenshipmuseum.ca for more information.
