WESTLOCK — You'd think helping out on the family farm every summer, earning a degree in Kinesiology and studying to become a teacher would be more than enough of a workload for any single person.
And yet, Travis Dolter still has his sights set on a career in music, with teaching being more of a fallback position than anything.
“It is a great career if it does turn out that way," said Dolter, who hails from the Hay Lakes area.
One could argue he's already achieved that goal, performing on average about 50 shows across western Canada a year, including the 2023 Hamlet Hoedown in Fort Assiniboine.
Another of those shows will take place in Westlock this Friday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m., where Dolter will perform as part of the Westlock Cultural Arts Theatre Society's 2023-2024 concert series.
However, Dolter still has aspirations of making it big as an entertainer, and once he's done with his studies later this spring, he has some plans about how to pursue that goal, such as working on a new album.
When he started out, Dolter said he fell into the trap of thinking he had to constantly put out material to stay at the forefront of peoples' minds. Now, he's taking a "quality over quantity" approach.
"“That’s why I haven't released a lot of stuff in the past half a year or so, because I want to really make sure that my next stuff is my best stuff," he said.
Dolter's career in music started in childhood, when he began performing with the Ukrainian family band. He also started his own band when he was 14 years old.
"I just always loved to perform for people," Dolter said.
Still, Dolter never aimed to be a professional musician until he acted as the master of ceremonies for his graduation. That's when he wrote his first song at the age of 17, which was called 'Good Friends'.
The response he got to that song, which served as a tribute to his schoolmates, pushed him to begin writing more songs. More positive feedback led to him performing in more professional venues, such as the Cook County Saloon in Edmonton.
Dolter's shows usually feature a few songs from greats like Kenny Chesney and Buddy Holly, but he also performs his own original songs, which he describes as modern country to country/rock.
“In the last week, I’ve actually written four songs that I’m pretty happy with, so in this show I might be debuting those," he said.
Like most singers, Dolter's songs are based on real life experiences, and he finds that theatre audiences are usually pretty receptive to hearing the stories behind the music.
“Usually people get a kick out of the stories,” he said. “I don’t even try to make them funny, they just tend to be, because those types of stories that are good to write songs about tend to be that way.”
Dolter said he also encourages those coming out to the show to stick around for a bit afterwards, as he loves to chat with people.
Tickets for the show are $35 for adults and can be purchased through simplytickets.ca or at MTech Printing and Signs in Westlock.
