By Chad Ingram
Published May 23 2017

Country troubadour Zachary Lucky will bring his hearty brand of roots music back to the Haliburton Highlands for a house concert at Wildwood Farm just outside Haliburton Village on May 26.

Lucky says he enjoys the intimacy of a house concert.

“It’s the perfect environment for the kinds of songs I write” he told the paper referring to the narrative nature of many of his tunes.

“At bars and clubs you don’t always get to delve into those songs and the back stories.”

Lucky whose rounded baritone and perfectly plucked guitar work summon the ambiance of Gordon Lightfoot quit his day job for full-time music making back in 2010.

Now seven years later the Saskatoon-based artist has become a successful touring musician performing across Canada the U.S. and U.K.

“I definitely have a strong appreciation for traditional country and western music and I take a lot of cues from that but I also I’m strongly rooted in traditional folk music as well” he told the Minden Times back in 2015 when he played a show at the Dominion Hotel.

Lucky actually shares a family connection with Hugh Taylor and Pamela Marsales who’ll be hosting the show at their log home along the Parish Line.

“We first met Zachary at the shared family beach at our Halls Lake cottage” Marsales told the paper. “Zach and my cousin’s daughter have a little girl named Ida Mae.

Should have been a tip-off to his old-timey brand of storytelling in song.

“The image on his album cover is my grandpa’s log cabin at Halls Lake – which I loved to visit from childhood and was the inspiration for our overly ambitious log house restoration project. He’s touring his new album to great acclaim so we’re happy to host him in the warm acoustics of our log annex bringing inspiration full circle.”

Lucky is looking forward to the intimate evening.

“You get to really hear the music [at a house concert] and hopefully interact with us” he said.

Lucky will be joined by upright bassist Mitch Thomson and Kevin Neal on the pedal steel.

Tickets for the show are $20 each; all proceeds going to the musicians.

The concert is being co-presented by the Haliburton Sculpture Forest and Marsales and Taylor are also hosting the four sculptors involved with the forest’s 150 Years on the Canadian Shield project.

“They are staying at Wildwood Farm for the three weeks” Marsales said. “They’re coming from B.C. Ontario Oregon and Czech Republic. This is an informal opportunity to meet them and learn about the project.”

To reserve tickets call 705-457-4767.