Carlyle will be the first towns in the province to experience the "Back to our Roots" tour come next month.
Oct. 1 will see three Saskatchewan based artists performing in Carlyle to raise money for the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS). Lorri Solomon-Matthewson, Larry Krause and Blake Berglund will take the stage at the Cornerstone Theatre in town for the cause. The event is an initiative by Matthewson and throughout October the singers will visit six other cities and towns in Saskatchewan to further promote the cause. Matthewson hopes to raise funds and awareness for STARS while supporting Saskatchewan songwriters.
"The reason I wanted to organize and do a tour is that STARS has the potential to serve all of us. We need them. Next year we will tour Saskatchewan and Alberta, the year after that we will add Manitoba," she said.
"My dream is to have nine different musicians in three provinces raise a million dollars a year for the cause."
STARS have been rescuing the critically injured for more than 25 years and the helicopter air ambulance service relies on volunteer work to keep the organization running. Flight and air medical crews along with communications specialists work in together to make sure patients receive best care possible in the shortest period. This is an important service in Western Canada, where getting to a hospital quickly means hours for many people. The service resonates with farmers, workers in the oil industry and others who may be at risk because of their occupation. It also serves the general populous and the "Back to our Roots" tour is one of the many ways people over the years have aided a service that has been vital to Western Canada.
Matthewson said the artists will be going onstage as singer songwriters without a band. This she said would help keep costs down and also work with the theme of the tour.
"Back to our roots refers to raw roots music played on one instrument. Simply performing them raw as they were written," she said.
Tickets are also available at the Skyline Motor Inn for $25 and the show is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. Before the show everyone is invited for a turkey dinner buffet at the Skyline Motor Inn at 5:00pm. Proceeds from the dinner will also be donated to STARS. There will be STARS representatives at Carlyle and at all the other performances and Matthewson urges all businesses in town to show their support and promote the show. The Carlyle Lube Centre is a sponsor of the show and is offering two tickets as a give-away to their customers. Cal-Tur Consulting, Safe-Tee Management, Crescent Point Energy and the Carlyle Lions club have also joined forces with Matthewson to make the show a success.
For those unable to attend the show, denotations can be made via their website www.tourforstars.com.
