Jackie Kroczynski. (submitted photo/Jackie Kroczynski)

By Angela Brown

Tribute to her late father

North Battleford high school music teacher’s song climbing chart in Canadian Indie Country Countdown

Feb 5, 2021 | 6:49 PM

A North Battleford high school music teacher’s original song is currently climbing the chart in the Canadian Indie Country Countdown.

Jackie Kroczynski’s piece, called Night at the Opry, made it to No. 13 last week, after entering the top 100 just a couple of months ago.

Each week fans vote on their favourite song. Then, every Saturday morning Canadian Indie Country plays the top 50 songs with the most votes. Fans listen to the countdown, then vote for their favourite artists from across the country.

“Last weekend it was up to number 13, so I am hoping it can go up to number one,” Kroczynski said.

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The educator and musician wrote the song in April 2020 after returning home from a trip to Nashville and Memphis the month prior, before COVID-19 hit. She said she wrote the song as a tribute to her father, Jake, who passed away in March of 2019.

The director of the school band, Kroczynski, joined about 30 band students and chaperones on the trip in early March 2020.

The band played outside the Grand Ole Opry as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville during their visit.

North Battleford Comprehensive High School band at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame in early March in 2020, before COVID-19 hit. (submitted photo/Jackie Kroczynski)

Seeing a show at the Grand Ole Opry with the band members was a highlight for Kroczynski. But on a personal note, during the show she thought about how her father would have enjoyed seeing the Opry if he were still alive, as he loved old time country music and its traditions.

“My dad had died almost a year before [in 2019],” she said. “He had been a big country music fan, and he had never got the opportunity to go and visit the Opry himself. So that is something that was on my mind a lot. Then, of course, we came home on the 10^th of March [2020]. School shut down very shortly thereafter, because of COVID.”

“So I started writing some music and wrote that one for my dad. It was all about our time there [at the Opry], and him, and so on,” Kroczynski said.

Her recording is also a family affair. Kroczynski sings and plays the piano, accompanied by her husband, Tom Kroczynski, the music teacher at Bready School, on bass, and their sons Connor on saxophone and Sean Newton on guitar. Musical friend Patrick Whelan joined them on fiddle and guitar.

Kroczynski mentioned Night at the Opry is also her first recorded song, so she is excited about the possibilities for the future, given how well it is being received.

She is now working on a six-song EP she hopes to have released by the end of the summer.

Night at the Opry is available on Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Music.

Kroczynski encourages people to give it a listen, and vote on the Canadian Indie Country Countdown on Facebook.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW