Scott Roos/Herald Contributor
The E.A. Rawlinson Centre for the Arts “Live & Local” season will be kicking off this Thursday, Oct. 22 with Prince Albert folkster Wade Fehr taking the helm for what promises to be an intimate show filled with storytelling and songs from his new e.p. Of Ghosts and Graveyards.
The last time Fehr graced the Rawlinson stage he was opening for legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Burton Cummings. This time around, Fehr is the focal point.
“As a singer-songwriter, Wade (Fehr) has a story for each piece he performs, and in an intimate setting like this one the stories, followed up by the song that results, makes for a really unique and cozy experience. A nice fit for a storyteller like Wade, and even better for telling ghost stories,” explains EARC marketing and events coordinator Cara Stelmaschuk.
In the last few months, the Rawlinson has been given the all clear to hold scaled down shows with strict safety measures in place for patrons.
The result is a truncated season chock full of predominantly local acts like Fehr and The Bush Pies with other more prominent recording artists like Saskatoon hip hop artist Eekwol and Regina country rocker JJ Voss also slotted in.
With Halloween right around the corner, the darker subject matter of Fehr’s release show for the new e.p. is a natural fit.
Fehr’s debut My Way Back Home was thematically a record about his family; a more wholesome approach. But, in the meantime, Fehr had been sitting on the tunes from Of Ghosts and Graveyards waiting for the right time to release them to the unsuspecting masses.
They are tunes of haunted houses, ghost trains and a search for vengeance to name a few.
“I always liked these darker tunes and I’d had a few sitting around and I had a couple new ones and I thought ‘This is a great theme and a great time of year to come out with it’,” says Fehr.
Some of these tunes Fehr had been performing for several years or just had filed away unfinished.
He’s a preservationist when it comes to his work often squirreling ideas away for future use.
“When I come across something that sparks an interest in me there’s a lot of times where it’s like ‘Oh that’s a song there’ and it might take me couple years even to just find the right melody or the right lyrics to tell the story but I seem to keep coming across a lot of great ideas and I’m just stockpiling these ideas for when the right moment is for the pen to hit the paper,” muses Fehr.
“I’ve got a songwriter’s brain I guess. It’s always on,” Fehr chuckles.
Fehr’s songwriting talents combined with an innate ability to bring in unique instrumental texture to his arrangements bring a “something for everyone approach”.
Fehr is definitely a promising and talented up and comer within the Prince Albert music scene and one worthy of the opportunity he’s been given to headline the Rawlinson stage this Thursday.
The show will get started at 7:30 p.m.
Given the limited seating capacity tickets for this show will likely move very quickly.
You can purchase tickets at the EA Rawlinson Centre box office or at www.earc.ca/events
The concert will also be available via livestream. See the EARC website for details.
