Duane Steele has played his way across North America and back, but small-town shows are still every bit as important to him as headliner gigs in Nashville.
Duane Steele has played his way across North America and back, but small-town shows are still every bit as important to him as headliner gigs in Nashville.
The award-winning country music artist took to the stage at the Lac La Biche Heritage Centre last weekend for an evening of entertainment to bring Seniors Week celebrations to a close.
“I’ ve played here many times over the years,” Steele said during a break in the performance, in between posing for pictures and chatting with the attendees last Saturday night.
The concert resulted in a nearly full house. Deby Flaherty and Connie Zatorski, members of the Heritage Society’ s entertainment committee, say they’ ve been having great success with musical events so far this year.
They decided Steele’ s performance, the fourth concert they’ ve arranged in 2015, would be a notable way to put a cap on Seniors Week, which ran from May 31-June 6.
“We thought we can end Seniors Week with something really special,” said Flaherty.
Steele says the venue, though small, made for a much more intimate show than some of his others. Not every performance gives him as many opportunities to mingle with spectators or take song requests from the audience, he says.
“It’ s more of a personal situation,” Steele told the POST. “We can take the time to communicate with people on a different level. This lends itself well to that closeness.”
Born and raised in Hines Creek, Alberta, Steele still does much of his performing in this province.
Coming from musical roots, his professional career was launched in 1984 with the band Rock ‘N’ Horse. After moving to Nashville and later returning to Canada in the late 1990s, Steele was named Independent Male Vocalist of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association in 2001.
He says the music industry has transformed since he first took to the stage all those years ago. People’ s expectations are different now, he says.
“It’ s changed quite a bit,” he said. “It’ s a different world in terms of people’ s musical tastes.”
Despite radio and the Internet changing the way people consume music, there’ s something about live performances-like the one in Lac La Biche last weekend-that never seems to get old, he says.
Steele’ s next concerts are scheduled for Whitecourt later this month and the Calgary Stampede in July.
