THE BATTLEFORDS - It is an exciting time for a North Battleford-based musical artist who is releasing her first album this week.
The work is titled Look for the Little Things and is the debut album for Jackie Kroczynski, or Jackie K. for short.
The EP is being released Nov. 26 with a performance and launch event at SHE-NANIGANS, 792- 108th St. in North Battleford. Tickets for that show are $20 and available at https://www.she-nanigans.net.
The album launch comes on the heels of Kroczynski’s two singles released in 2021. Those included Nurse Jane and also Night at the Opry, with the latter reaching Number Four on the Canadian Indie Top 100 Country Countdown.
For the album Look for the Little Things, Jackie K. teamed with her son, producer Sean Davis Newton of Grade School Records, to put together three new songs: Dandelions Everywhere (co-written with Evelyn Saungikar), Green Heals Me and In My Oasis. Her hit single Night at the Opry is also included.
The songs are about “outside and summertime and the things we are lucky to have here,” said Kroczynski. The single Dandelions Everywhere was already released last Friday, Nov. 19.
The album truly was a family affair for Jackie K., who performed vocals, keys and guitar.
According to her promotional material, her husband Tom Kroczynski performed bass, Sean Davis Newton the guitar and percussion, her other son Connor Newton plays the sax, Phil Rodda the drums, and Patrick Whelan the fiddle.
Her entire family has a very music-oriented background. Both Jackie and Tom are music teachers in the Battlefords. Jackie has herself spent many years on North Battleford's music scene as a music and band teacher at North Battleford Comprehensive High School. She also led the North Battleford City Kinsmen Band for four years.
“We teach music all day, and my other two sons, I mean that’s what they do. And the younger two kids play music, too,” Kroczynski said.
Her four kids have also all been involved in some way, with Sean producing in Edmonton while Connor is a professional musician. Her son Ned was scheduled to be the opening act at SHE-NANIGANS and their daughter Jill was to join them there as well.
Jackie has also been a live performer and most recently performed with Big Baby T at the Rotary Club's gala event at the Dekker Centre with Chris Hadfield.
Having a strong musical background was one inspiration for doing an album, but there was also a sense that it was finally time to take on a project of that magnitude.
“Maybe it was partly attributable to COVID(-19) as well, but having the time thinking about it, it was kind of time to do something like that because it was something that I wanted to do — to perform more and make a recording. I feel really kind of grateful that I was able to do this and to write the music, and then be able to include my family in it as well.”
The release culminates a musical project that Kroczynski has been something she had been working on for the past year. The cover was a silkscreen artwork Kroczynski had made years ago.
“It was kind of nice to use that artwork that I had done a long time ago and incorporate that into the whole sort of package.”
For more information on the EP, go to jackiekroczynski.com.
