SaskMusic

Jeffery Straker’s new 12-song LP “Dirt Road Confessional” launched May 19 and with the album a massive 50-date tour kicked off in Saskatoon May 25 and continues through September, criss-crossing the country from sea to sea. A European tour (Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands) will take Straker across the pond in early September. The album debuted at #5 on the iTunes singer-songwriter chart; several songs have already charted in the top 10 on various college radio stations, CBCmusic.ca has added 4 songs from the album to their “Canadian Songwriter” stream online, and 2 songs have been licensed for sync use. A video to accompany “Beauty in the Grey”, shot on and around a farm in Lumsden, was released in July. Supported by two FACTOR Video grants, official music videos by Sask’s Wavelength Entertainment are supporting the launch of the recording. Thanks goes out to the FACTOR Juried Sound Recording program and Creative Saskatchewan’s Recording program for enabling this album. Jeffery has also written music and lyrics for a new play by Regina playwright Kelley Jo Burke called US. The work has been licensed by Regina’s Globe Theatre for a full main stage production run in March 2018 (www.jefferystraker.com).