Photo Caption: Juno award winner, David Francey will take centre stage next week at the Vic Juba.
By Katie Ryan
It’s a new year and that means a new lineup of entertainment at the Vic Juba Community Theatre.
Juno winner, David Francey will take the spotlight next week in the Border City.
The Scottish born singer, songwriter said he was looking forward to kicking off 2010 in the prairies.
“I love the vistas, I love the views of the openness, the open sky and all of that. That’s never left me, I’ve always had an affinity for it, so it’s nice to get back to play,” he said. “It’s a rare thing, I think in all the years that I’ve gone full time in touring, six years I think, I have played Saskatchewan exactly twice, both in Saskatoon. It’s a favourite province of mine, I see why people love it, I can tell you that. It’s very land locked, but it has it’s own charms.”
Since leaving carpentry to record his first album in 1999, Francey has been turning heads and connecting with audiences across the country, all while scooping up three Junos and several Folk Music Awards.
Francey, accompanied by musician Craig Werth, will perform in Lloydminster on Jan. 13, sharing a wide range of medleys with the audience, including material from a unique album – The Laker Music Project.
The album consists of seaway-based songs, created by Francey and Mike Ford during their two week residency on the M.V. Algoville in 2005.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to sail along the St. Lawrence and through the Great Lakes on one of those big war carriers and it’s a very difficult thing to arrange, as you can well imagine. They’re just like working boats and my wife is one of those people who if she has a telephone, it’s likely to get done,” said Francey of how the project started.
Following approval from the St. Lawrence Seaway and Canada Council, Ford and Francey set sail alongside the professionals.
“They were so thrilled to talk to us because nobody had ever asked them what they thought about what they did so it turned into a very informative time and a wonderful passage up to the lake head and back. A lot of nice songs came out of it so we put it together into the seaway album.”
The Laker repertoire celebrates a number of seaway elements, including the engineering splendours of the locks, the lives of the sailors and all the different ports.
Francey said his love of the water can be traced back to his arrival in Canada. The Francey family immigrated from Ayrshire, Scotland to Toronto when Francey was 12.
“We came by ocean liner, yeah I’m that old,” he chuckled “As did everybody at that time, you emigrated and got your steamer trunk and away you went. We sailed up the St. Lawrence into Montreal and that was my first view.
“I’ve been captivated by ships my entire life and there’s no more beautiful river than the St. Lawrence, I just love it. I guess I’ve just absorbed the lore of the place.”
After high school Francey did his best to climb on board a ship, however, timing was not in his favour.
“They just laughed at me cause at that time crew cuts were huge and the whole industry was in flux, nobody was hiring anybody. So they just said go away. Had I got on, I think I would still be on one to this day,” mused Francey.
Thankfully for Francey fans, he sailed into the music industry instead.
Following his two shows in Saskatchewan this month, Francey plans to hit the road for a longer tour in February while he works on new songs for an upcoming album. Catch Francey at the Vic Juba next week.