After a 16 month break from performing, Rob Shapiro and Darren Gunowsky of JayWalker returned to the stage with a vengeance culminating with some fun performances at the Calgary Stampede.
The live music industry has been in a rut due to COVID-19, but there was a respite when things began to reopen. JayWalker has taken full advantage.
“Our new band JayWalker played the Nashville North tent on the grounds and the King Eddy, which is part of the National Music Center on 9th ave, what an amazing place,” Shapiro tells the Mail. “So not surprisingly, the 16-month break from stages was the worst, so to get back playing in front of live audiences was what we all needed and made us all appreciate what we do. We soaked it all in, and it was over too quick but there are more shows to come.”
While they weren’t on stage, they weren’t resting on their laurels either. JayWalker released “Kicking Back on a Sunday” before the pandemic struck, and a couple of months ago followed it up with “Drawing a Blank.”
“Yes, we have a bunch of new JayWalker music. The current single is called “Drawing a Blank,” it’s on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube. There is an EP we are working through now. Darren, lead vocals and guitar just sent me a new song he was working on, so we will work through that one this week,” he said.
They will be shooting a video this summer for “Drawing a Blank,” and it should be released shortly.
Through COVID, they kept working on their music, but it wasn’t the same.
“We did manage to write songs during the break but truly did not care for the break from touring as we could not be in the same room to write songs as we usually do. We did it virtually however on Zoom and Teams and made do but there is no substitute for writing in the same room, call me old-fashioned,” he said.
Even if he is admittedly old-fashioned, they have embraced social media.
“It’s quite a commitment keeping them up to date, but we have a schedule, and we try to keep on it with new content on what we are up to, we just did a cooking show which was pretty funny, it’s on our YouTube, and other socials. Search JayWalkerCountry and watch us make authentic Italian pizza from Rome Italy when we were touring a few years back, it’s spectacular,” Shapiro said.
“That is important to us as we want people to be able to hear and see us online as much as live, so we can’t wait to get that done and share it on our socials.”
JayWalker just signed with the Sakamoto Agency who is the CCMA agency and talent buyer of the year. Their roster includes Aaron Goodvin, Washboard Union, Nice Horse, and Now JayWalker.

After enduring years of slowdown in the energy sector, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the HyGrade Industrial Park is beginning to see a rebound.
The Industrial area was booming just a few short years ago, however as oil and gas prices dropped, there was an understandable exodus from the area. It appears that is turning around.
One bright sign is the former Baker Hughes shop has been purchased by Flomax Compression. Baker Hughes pulled out of Drumheller in the spring of 2014.
“We think it is a good area and community to grow in, and we do work all over the province out of Drumheller,” said Dennis Sax of Flomax Compression.

Flomax is locally owned and has operated in Drumheller since 2003. They started in Munson, and now have an office in the Hygrade Industrial Park and now the former Baker Hughes facility. They employ about 40 locally and also have an office in Drayton Valley.
“We have loyal customers who support us locally and around the province,” said Sax.
He says the company is diversifying and has branched into power generation, and the new facility will support this.
“We do power generation for gas plants, industrial and commercial products. We supply co-gen units. We just sold one to a chicken processing plant, and we have sold quite a few generators for Bitcoin, data processing centres,” explains Sax. “As oil and gas gets tougher, we have diversified into other areas, but oil and gas is still our bread and butter.”
Bob Sheddy of Century 21 Power Realty said the area saw as high as a 21 per cent vacancy after the oil and gas crash. Today, it is back to about 5 per cent vacancy with a variety of different businesses taking up stakes in the industrial area.
“There have been four significant deals in the industrial park in the last three months,” said Sheddy. “We have sold buildings to farmers, and for automotive uses, and of course light manufacturing and the industrial park is now quite full. You’ll still see some blank signs out there, but that is just because the occupant isn’t open for retail traffic.”
Drumheller CAO Darryl Drohomerski is encouraged by the turnaround.
“We are super happy with what we are seeing in the industrial park. We are seeing a lot more vacancies being filled and we are also seeing land being sold in the Rosedale industrial area,” said Drohomerski.