Sometimes a moment of epiphany arrives for a musician when they are on tour, in the studio or simply near a piano or guitar. In the case of Saskatchewan singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker, it was after slipping and falling while hitting an icy patch running in Regina. That fall was the seed for "Carry on with Grace," the latest single out now from Straker's new full-length album Great Big Sky.

With modernization and urbanization comes big changes – and inevitable sadness and nostalgia. Regina, SK-based folk artist Jeffery Straker captures a loss of rural identity in his new single “More Than Two by Fours and Timber,” in which he describes a grain elevator being bulldozed in a small farming town. Check it out on YouTube here:

 It was so much more than two by fours and timber
That last grain elevator was comin’ down today
Under their breath people said good-bye
They tried their best to take it all in stride
They just got used to doin’ it that way

Life’s highest highs often accompany its lowest lows. Regina, Saskatchewan pianist and singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker knows this well. He’s opening up about some of the lessons he’s recently learned on his new single, “The Time You’ve Got,” out everywhere now. Check it out on YouTube here:

 “In the past five years I’ve watche both of my parents pass away,” Straker shares. “I’ve also found love in my partner of four years, Michael. Losing my parents has made me reflect on where it is that I was born, then decided to leave, and then felt drawn back to in recent years. All throughout this I’ve become cognizant of time: how precious it is and how important it is to use it wisely.”