Jeffery Straker grew up taking piano lessons in small-town Saskatchewan and has gone on to perform over 100 shows per year across Canada, Europe and Latin America. The rootsy-storytelling of his songs has the power to transport a listener – out onto a lake in Canada’s North or to the main street of a prairie town. A clever lyricist with an energetic piano style, his song writing has drawn critical comparisons to the likes of Harry Chapin, Kris Kristofferson & Billy Joel, while maintaining a style distinctly his own. He’s recorded his ROOTS/FOLK music for CBC radio’s ‘Canada Live’, has seen his songs used in film, TV and theatrical productions and in 2019 won a Western Canadian Music Award. Recently he was awarded “Roots/Folk Artists of the Year” at the 2020 Saskatchewan Music Awards.
A musical vagabond, he’s toured internationally as far as The Netherlands, Mexico and Nunavut with tour stops ranging from intimate house concerts to theatre shows as well as festivals. Never one to let ‘genre’ constrain him he’s also taken the stage in sold-out concerts performing his songs with symphony orchestras. In 2014, an international career boost came from winning the prestigious Vina del Mar (Chile) International Song Festival, representing Canada. Performing to a live crowd of 20,000 people and to a TV audience of 100,000,000 viewers across the Spanish-speaking world, he gained a fan following in Latin America.
Jeffery’s last full-length recording, “Dirt Road Confessional” (2017) revealed a sonic evolution in a roots direction, accompanying his personal storytelling style. The 12-song album debuted at #5 on the iTunes Canada singer-songwriter charts and played on CBC Radio and college/community radio across the country. Listeners and critics took note. The Chicago Free Press has written, “Rufus Wainwright, as well as k.d. lang are among the Canadians making essential and beautiful music. Add the name Jeffery Straker to that list”. The Calgary Herald added praise saying, “traces of some of the best piano-based singer-songwriters of the past 40 years, couched in his inimitable and effervescent style”. Straker grew up listening to country music on his parents Saskatchewan grain farm at the same time he was studying classical music and performing full sonatas and concertos by composers such as Beethoven and Grieg. Eventually, the work of fellow Saskatchewan native Joni Mitchell prompted him to begin writing his own material, and Straker’s focus shifted to poetry and hooks. This recording sounds, wonderfully, like his influences.
His most recent musical offerings are a series of singles from his forthcoming May 2021 full-length release.
“Light a Fire” (March 2020) was co-written with Royal Wood (who also produced) – the song is an uplifting & upbeat anthem for making positive change. The production hints at the folk-roots flavor the album will present. ‘Morning Light’ (Sept 2020) speaks to the life-long need to dream, belong, and matter and is a song of reflection written in the wake of the sudden & unexpected passing of Jeffery’s mom. Production was by Russell Broom (Calgary AB). ‘Ready to be Brave’ (Feb 2021) was sparked from time spent as artist-in-residence at a summer camp for LGBTQ2+ youth. The song speaks to finding strength and courage for difficult conversations. The reflection & longing of the single ‘Play that Song Again’ meets listeners ears April 8, with the full album (‘Just Before Sunrise’) following on May 7 2021.
The album that helped Straker hit the radar of many in Canada was his 2012 critically acclaimed recording, “Vagabond”, produced by Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Danny Michel. It was a thrill to record it on Glenn Gould’s grand piano at the CBC studios in Toronto. The Toronto Star gave it 4 (out of 4) stars calling it “one of the most faultlessly conceived and meticulously executed albums in any genre to come out of Canada in a long time”. ‘Vagabond’ debuted in the top 20 on the iTunes singer-songwriter charts and hit the top 10 on several college radio stations across Canada. Xtra! (Toronto) said of the album: “like the unexpected yet surprisingly down-to-earth lovechild of Neil Young and Elton John”.
Jeffery is a classically trained pianist raised by a church-organist mother and auctioneer father. He swears he was born under the piano on the family grain farm in rural Saskatchewan. All this might explain his incredible ability to share songs with audiences. He was a student of the Royal Conservatory of Music and received his licentiate diploma in piano performance from Trinity College, London when he was only 19. Straker has showcased at major events including Canadian Music Week, NXNE, the Western Canadian Music Awards, & JunoFest.
