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Steele taking Playhouse stage for George Jones tribute

Duane Steele has a pretty hefty reputation of his own, so if he's going to pay someone tribute it has to be one of the true greats. It has to be George Jones.

Duane Steele has a pretty hefty reputation of his own, so if he's going to pay someone tribute it has to be one of the true greats. It has to be George Jones.

The Canadian country music star is heralded for hit songs like Anita Got Married, the award-winning Lisa Brokop duet Two Names On An Overpass, Stuck On Your Love, The Trouble With Love, Tell The Girl, Little Black Dress, Better Man, Two People In A Room with Stacie Roper, and Waste Of Good Whiskey with Sean Hogan.

He had an introductory hit (Real Good Love) with the short lived band Rock 'N' Horse (they earned a 1993 Juno Award nomination) before his solo career took off. Shirley Myers had a hit with the co-written Steele song Forever In Love.

Yet his past year has been soaring on a new wind, a hot weather system named for one of country music's most powerful forces of nature. When Steele plays the songs of George Jones, the audience leans right in to soak it all up.

It's not the first time Steele has caught popularity sparks in a bottle of interpretation. His version of Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind was popular enough to make it onto his greatest hits album entitled Set List.

What Steele is doing now, though, is something different. It's a whole show of anecdotes, photos, impressions and of course songs by Jones all woven into a shared experience between Steele and the audience co-appreciating a legend. It could perhaps be called a concermentary.(Bioformance? Historigig? Docuconcert?)

It wasn't his idea, and he was initially reluctant until he was confident it wasn't an impersonation or a personified tribute. This would be one star's tip of the cowboy hat to a superstar. Only there would be no cowboy hat. Neither Jones nor Steele ever had that as part of their stage presence. Both are vocal-focused and lyric-focused balladeers.

"We're still digging up stuff and tweaking the show as we go along," said Steele, who now finds himself with an ear to the ground for George Jones biographical material. It isn't hard to find. "The guy was a living story of heartache and laughter and the real deal."

Country music is famous for it's strong connection between artist and audience, and even strong connection between peers. Steele was well established on TV and radio when Jones was still adding latter hits to his legacy, then passing away a giant of American culture in 2013. Did he ever cross paths with Jones?

"I have not. I have not," said Steele. "I went to see him here in Red Deer (he lives there now, after growing up in Hines Creek north of Grande Prairie) what's gotta be 12 or 13 years ago now, so I got to see him concert but I didn't get to meet him. I lived in Nashville for six or seven years but I never saw him around. I wish I would have. I'll bet he was quite an interesting person to have a chat with."

Being that this Jones-centric show isn't an imitation event, Steele performs some of his own original material in amongst the legendary stuff. It connects to how Jones and his peers cut the trail for modern artists like himself, and now he is holding open the door for still newer artists.

"I once thought maybe I should follow the trends but it's not the way to go," Steele said. "You have to be true to who you are. As a 55-year-old artist now, I can't see myself singing some of the country music that gets played today. But there are some songs that kind of peek through (he considers Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley to be modern allies of the country music descended directly from Jones), and the Canadian artists seem a little more country right now than the Nashville guys - a lot more country. So as an artist I need to make sure, when my music comes out, it's the closest representation of me, myself, and where I'm at."

He does have new music brewing, and almost released some of it in recent times but then thought better of it. He still feels he has better material on the tip of his songwriter's pen and wants to lead with that.

First, he will take a step into a different spotlight, a traditional spotlight, one illuminated by a superstar.

The Legend Of George Jones featuring Duane Steele covers the range of Jones classics, from the 1950s hits White Lightning and Why Baby Why through the mega-classics like Golden Ring and He Stopped Loving Her Today.

Along with Steele comes a multimedia presentation on a large screen, and a crack band that includes John Thiel on guitar, Joe McIntyre on drums, Phil Hall on bass, Rob Shapiro on keyboards, Mark Whitehead on various strings, and Andrew House on backup vocals and Tammy Wynette duets.

The show happens in Williams Lake on June 5 at the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex, on June 6 in Quesnel at the Senior' Society Centre then in Prince George on June 7 at the P.G. Playhouse.

Tickets are on sale at the Central Interior Tickets website or at the door while supplies last.