Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Rick Stavely back with a vengeance

After lying low awhile, Prince George's country outlaw is set to shake like a rattler through the holiday season.
EXTRArick-stavely.15_121220.jpg
Country rockers Rick Stavely & Western Front perform on Feb. 13 at Canada Games Plaza as part of the Prince George Winter Festival Plaza Party.

After lying low awhile, Prince George's country outlaw is set to shake like a rattler through the holiday season.

Rick Stavely, a performing and recording artist with years of longevity on his resume, hasn't ever gone into hiding, but he has been seen on local stages only intermittently in the past couple of years.

He's back with a vengeance. He has a country dance at the Cowboy Ranch on Saturday, a concert at The Legion on Dec. 23, and he headlines the New Year's Eve party at Fore Bistro on Dec. 31.

He has to make up for lost time, but not lost energy. He's been busy writing and recording during his recent slower period. He is also involved in the careers of several others in the Canadian country music industry, as a career consultant and a co-writer.

One of his favourite collaborators was the late Larry Wayne Clark. Clark wrote singles for the likes of The Statler Brothers and Lee Greenwood, and he gave a notable hand to up-and-comers like Lisa Brokop, Chris Young, Farewell Angelina member Lauren Lucas, and B.C. interior talents like Andrea Pearson, Jesse Mast and Stavely.

Clark was inducted into the B.C. Country Music Hall of Fame in 2011, so he was great company for Stavely to be keeping. He just wished it was for a little longer. The two met in Nashville on one of Stavely's trips to the country music capital.

"I was recording my You Got Country CD in Nashville. I found out he was going to be at a songwriters cafe, so my producer and myself went down to catch the show," said Stavely.

The two hit it off, but didn't meet up again in person until they planned some sessions together in Calgary.

"We had been MySpace friends and then over Skype we co-wrote four songs, but we'd never met face to face again until Calgary," Stavely said. "He wanted to produce the songs, too, so that's what we were doing there, we booked ourselves into MCC Recording Studio because it's the best in Canada for country music, we both thought, and we got three of them done but then he passed away shortly after that. I was pretty lucky to hook up with him."

It was in mid-2013 that Clark passed away. Since then, Stavely has been working on gathering new material to go along with the sessions he and Clark completed.

"My brother (Gary) is the drummer in our band and he is also a trained sound engineer," said Stavely. "He's updating himself on all the new digital tools, he's doing more courses right now, and the plan is to do more recordings in 2017 with him producing."

Despite his years of experience, the albums he has put out into the market, the singles on the radio, and so on, Stavely said it is still a difficult industry to get a read on. He sees the so-call "bro country" movement still going strong, but some outlaw country is starting to punch its way back into the conversation after being shut out for many years. Writing a song and producing an album are efforts in guess-work, as every artist tries to divine what sounds they might have that would get noticed amongst the trends.

He knows it's an idealistic view, but his motto in the business is "just keep plugging away and hope someone hears you," he said.

He and his bandmates have day jobs to pay the bills, meet the family obligations, and invest in the next music project. The days are over of long stints onstage at a bar, then on to the next town to do the same. Now, he said, a live country band is lucky to get three nights at a watering hole, and only one original song per set is all many of these places will allow a band to do.

Stavely's second-favourite passion is writing new songs, so that kind of arrangement slams his composition career up against a brick wall.

His first favourite thing to do almost makes up for the creative oppression.

"I like the performing," he said. "I've been asked to move down to Nashville and just write. But that's hard to do, up and move there, and that would kill all the singing time. But I enjoy the whole process of making music."

You can share the joy three times in the next couple of weeks, and get some hints as to the new album on the way.