Meridian Source File Photo
Hang on to your hats, folks, rising star Jake Vaadeland and The Sturgeon River Boys are rolling into town for a performance at the Vic Juba Community Theatre on Feb. 3.
Vaadeland lives in Cut Knife and says fans in Lloydminster are free to hoot and holler.
“They can expect what I like to refer to as the old-time show,” said the 19-year-old.
“I get a lot of my influence from the old Grand Ole Opry footage — something along those lines, but something unique and lots of old-time sounding bluegrass, rockabilly music.”
Vaadeland says their stage presence will also appeal to fans of all ages.
“There’s a lot of entertainment just from what we have on stage and what we wear and stuff like that, so a full-on show,” he said.
All of the band members are from Saskatchewan, including Joel Rohs, electric guitar, Stephen Williams, upright bass and Jaxon Lalonde, banjo.
Vaadeland is fresh from winning the folk artist-of-the-year, along with the band, and album of the year for his newest record, Everybody But Me, at the Saskatchewan Music Awards in December.
He has just signed a new management deal with Johnson Talent Management and Paquin Artists Agency to build on their growing fame.
“With a growing team, he is quickly getting set to launch his career across Canada, and around the world in a very significant way,” said Vaadeland’s manager, Jeremy Johnson.
Fans in Lloydminster might get an inkling of some new songs the group has in the works.
“Until we have it recorded, you’ll be able to get some sneak peeks at our performance in February,” said Vaadeland, who fondly recalls a previous outdoor gig at Vic Juba during a Summertime Concerts series in 2021.
“That sticks in my memory. It was a very fun day, it was nice weather and lots of people showed up— and beautiful stage and we had a lot of fun. I am so happy to come back and play in the theatre this time,” he said.
Vaadeland also calls the local music scene, “absolutely wonderful” from what he experienced during that outing in Lloydminster.
“There were a lot of great acts there the last time I was there and lots of people were there to support everybody and we’re really looking forward to having that support again on the 3rd when we come around again,” he said.
Vaadeland is a singer and self-taught multi-instrumentalist who wrote all the songs on his debut album, Retro Man, which was voted the number-two spot on Best Saskatchewan Albums of 2021.
He also took home four Saskatchewan Country Music Awards in April 2022 for his body of work from the previous year and he continues to live the retro-man lifestyle.
“Every day I dress up in a button-up shirt and tie and pleated pants and a jacket, all the stuff you know,” he said, adding he drives a 2006 Cadillac.
“The home I live in is decorated with vintage antique furniture dating back to the early 1900s up until the 1950s, so my everyday life is living in the retro-man style.”
He comes to it naturally, growing up in a home in the bush near Big River, heated by a wood stove and “all kinds of stuff like that” as he puts it, “so it comes from that as well.”
The old-time guitar and banjo music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys influenced him over the years to write and play his own retro brand of music.
“Well, ever since I was a kid, I just loved the sound, especially of the five-string banjo and the voices the way they would sing. It came from the heart,” said Vaadeland.
“You had to be a good singer to get on a record back then and I really love that good old lonesome sound of the bluegrass music and, of course, Johnny Cash and Elvis get more into the rockabilly scene.”
He said he and his band thought they’d incorporate that too.
“It’s always been a huge influence on our show,” Vaadeland said.
He says when he started, his performances seemed to attract older folks and some young people who heard the music and really liked it, but the audience has changed recently.
“As we’ve gotten a little more diverse incorporating the electric guitar and stuff like that, we seem to have come up with a really unique sound that nobody’s heard before,” he said.
“We seem to get a whole variety of ages, including lots of young people. When they hear it they like to come back and hear more, so we encourage lots of young people to come out and see what we have to play for them.”
