Award-winning country music artist Charlie Major is set to rock the stage at the Westlock and District Community Hall this weekend as part of his acoustic tour across the prairies.
He, along with recording artist Victoria Banks, will each perform solo acoustic sets this Friday, Feb. 17, which marks their first visit to Westlock.
“We’ll be performing a solo show, an acoustic show, so it’s a lot more intimate and raw than with a band,” Major said.
The tour is taking the duo to smaller communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan — something Major said he is excited about.
“I think in some of the smaller towns, people are a lot more appreciative,” he said. “They appreciate you coming to them opposed to them having to drive down to the city to see you, so they end up being fairly receptive.”
Major said he wants to connect with the audience and said he will try to do this by playing a mix of past hits and new recordings from his June 2011 release On the Evening Side.
“I expect to be playing older songs but I’ll play a couple off the newer CD too,” he said.
“I’ve been at this for 20 years and in all the 20 years, people have bought a lot of music and listened to a lot of songs of mine and people want to hear those songs when they come to see me. You gotta’ go with the one that brought you to the dance, you know.”
Major has had a wildly successful career in country music so far, winning four Juno Awards and eight Canadian Country Music Association Awards since 1993.
He said over the years, his music hasn’t changed that much, although he always tries to improve his craft — something he said he feels he is doing with each new release.
Major has never worked with Banks before, although he said she is a great singer and songwriter. Banks has penned hit songs for artists like Terri Clark, Doc Walker and Jessica Simpson.
Doors open at 7 p.m., with entertainment starting at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased from the Barrhead and Westlock Bumper to Bumper and the Thorhild Co-op.
