Sheffield tour date for the acclaimed performer Jeffery Straker is sure to raise the bar high Just After Sunset

Following the recent release of his EP, Just After Sunset, on October 6, 2022 – a five-song acoustic collection of songs from Jeffery’s well received fully-produced 10-song 2021 release “Just Before Sunrise” – Jeffery will be performing at Café 9 in Sheffield this weekend.

Jeffery, a classically trained pianist, was raised by a church organist mother and auctioneer father and swears he was born under the piano on the family grain farm in rural Saskatchewan on the Canadian prairies. While Covid postponed a 2021 tour of England Jeffery looks forward to finally bringing his latest songs to UK listeners in a series of 8 shows. To mark the occasion he’s reimagined 5 songs into an acoustic EP, stripping them down sonically.

The original 10-track release of Just Before Sunrise is a soundtrack of reflection, evolution, and optimism. Produced by Russell Broom (Jann Arden, JJ Shiplett, Johnny Reid), with 2 songs ("Light a Fire" and "Heavy is the Burden") produced by Royal Wood. The album strikes a reflective and optimistic tone, with many of the songs written in the wake of the sudden & unexpected passing of Jeffery’s mother.

“My mom passed away in February 2019 and that sudden and unexpected loss had a profound effect on me. In the months after she died, I wrote like a madman as there was so much I was feeling & so much that needed to be expressed musically"

"Part of my remembering the beautiful person she was - all those great memories - they were almost accompanied by music. Those sounds helped prescribe the folk-roots flavour of the album. These songs represent the questioning, grief, revelation, & resolution in the wake of losing this wonderful soul.”

Several singles were released in the lead up to the launch (while waiting for the pandemic to end), including the upbeat “Light a Fire” (March 2020); an anthem for making positive change.

The pensive ‘Morning Light’ which followed in September 2020 speaks to the life-long need to dream, belong, and matter. Following the positive reception to ‘Morning Light’, ‘Ready to be Brave’ came out in February 2021 and was undoubtedly influenced by Jeffery’s time spent as artist-in-residence at a summer camp for LGBTQ2+ youth and speaks to finding the courage for difficult conversations. Songs from the album have received 160,000+ streams on Spotify — with plenty of plaudits from other outlets too.

Jeffery Straker will be performing at Café 9 on Sunday, 6 November, 2022. You can buy tickets to his performance here: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/547528

Just After Sunset the recently released five-track EP is the acoustic reimagining of some of the songs from Just Before Sunset is out now on all streaming platforms. You can also buy it here on Bandcamp: https://jefferymichaelstraker.bandcamp.com/