The Barrhead Arts Council is due to deliver another evening of entertainment, this time an intimate, acoustic show on Valentine’s Day.
Barrhead will welcome award winning country singer-songwriter Duane Steele, who has released five studio albums and one greatest hits album. The artist has also charted multiple singles on the Canadian country singles charts, including his number one hit, “Anita Got Married” in 1996.
Steele has most recently been playing smaller, laid back shows across Alberta, and is eager to perform in Barrhead for the first time.
“I want to welcome everybody out,” said Steele. “I’m looking forward to playing in Barrhead. It has been a long time coming.”
After performing so many acoustic sets, Steele said he had a lot of requests for his music in that context. Thus, his newest album Dirt and Dreams was born.
The musician is working on finishing up the album this month. It will feature acoustic guitars, mandolin, and stand up base, he said, bringing a very stripped down sound.
The last album Steele released was Gas and Time in 2010, so he said he is quite excited to be releasing something this year.
Steele has been playing music professionally for over 30 years, and journey that began when he picked up the guitar in his teens.
Born and raised in the small Alberta Peace Country town of Hines Creek, Steele formed a band with his cousins in high school. The music bug hit him, and he has been playing ever since.
“I fell in love with music. A lot of my aunts and uncles played music when I was growing up,” he said. “ I enjoyed it so much that I decided at a young age this was pretty much what I was going to do. That’s all I have ever done.”
Music has taken Steele on a journey to a number of places, touring across Canada, and to far off places like Bosnia and Afghanistan. He also had the opportunity to film his first music video in Costa Rica.
For almost six years in the mid 90s, Steele lived in Nashville where he worked for Warner/Chappell Music, the global music publishing company of Warner Music Group.
Steele also had some radio hits during the 90s, which he said some country fans may be familiar with.
Though he mostly plays traditional country, something he felt himself drawn towards while growing up in Northern Alberta, Steele’s influences have come from all different kinds of music.
“Through the decades of music I have not only enjoyed country music. I’m a fan of all different styles of music,” said Steele. “Rock, jazz, classical, even a little bit of hip hop. Whatever moves me really.”
Steele was particularly inspired by singer-songwriters such as Rodney Crowell, Steve Earl, Kris Kristofferson, and Merle Haggard. However he also grew up playing top 40 hits in clubs, so groups like the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Alabama, and Restless Heart were also a significant influence.
Music has given him the chance to travel and meet a wide range of interesting people. Now his musical road leads him to Barrhead, though the show will be slightly different than his tours used to be.
“It’s a stripped down version of the Duane Steele show in the 90s, where I used to tour across Canada with a full band and a whole entourage of people,” said Steele. “This show is a lot more of an intimate show. I talk about the songs and where they come from.”
Steele will take to the stage with only a percussionist and a second guitarist, and will play an intimate, acoustic show.
As someone who has been releasing singles and records since 1996, the country singer has a wide variety of music to choose from when it comes to playing shows. Steele plans to throw in some of his new tunes, as well as a few standard songs that people may recognize.
As for the possibility of love songs for Valentine’s Day?
“I’ve got a few of those,” laughed Steele.
