It doesn’t get any more local than this.
On July 17 Ray Elliott, who was born and raised in Jasper, returned home to play the first of six shows over six days.
Blending folk and Canadiana a lot of Elliott’s song are about long time locals, such as George Hartley and Rob Klettl, as well as experiences he’s had over the years exploring the mountains in Jasper National Park.
“They are stories about people I know and people in Jasper know and a lot of those stories are things you’d never read about in a Jasper history book or hear about in a museum,” said Elliott, who has lived in Saskatoon for the past 14 years.
“For the most part a lot of the stories are real and actually happened.”
More recently he’s written songs such as ‘Buffalo Prairie’ about a guy named Matt who he knew from his early 20s that moved to Ontario.
“A lot of people will come to Jasper and spend a good chunk of time here and end up moving away or back home,” said Elliott. “It’s a common story.”
Another song called ‘Joshua’s Canyon’ is about finding a framed photo in Two Valley Canyon, known locally as Bullshit Canyon.
According to Elliott he was exploring the canyon with his kids when he came across the photo.
“It was picture of a little boy and it said ‘daddy I miss you, I’ve been a good boy xoxo,’” said Elliott.
After explaining the letter to his kids, he did some research and found an old news article from the Jasper Booster that reported a man had accidentally slipped and fell to into the canyon earlier that year.
To mark his passing Elliott said the family must have returned to the canyon in the winter to place a picture of his son, Joshua, in the father’s memory.
“What I thought was neat about it was there were probably very few people that had actually seen that picture in the frame because come spring time the water melts and it would be gone,” said Elliott.
Gillian Synider, who plays accordion and Peter Abonyi, who plays standup bass, also joined him on stage.
The band’s first show was held at Pine Bungalows followed by two shows at Habitat for the Arts on July 18 and 19. The band will continue its local tour with two shows at the Astoria Hotel on July 20 and 21 before returning to Pine Bungalows for its final show on July 22.
“I’m just really excited to be home,” said Elliott.
Paul Clarke
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