One of the City’s most talented musicians – Steve Arsenault – is gearing up for a show Sept. 29th at the Golden Circle.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with the concert slated to start at 7 p.m.

Arsenault has been carving out his own musical niche in Central Alberta for several years, and these days, he’s also passing on his extensive knowledge through teaching – something he finds to be a creatively rich experience as well.

Part of his teaching includes offering lessons at the Golden Circle.

“I started doing a program there through Music Centre Canada (in Red Deer) where I work as well – the idea was to offer guitar lessons. We didn’t know how it would turn out, so we thought we’d start with a group of 10 and cap it there,” he explained during a recent chat. “It caught on like wildfire! We ended up with three groups – it was great,” he said.

“So once that six weeks of classes was done, they wanted to keep going and do another six weeks.”

That all launched last spring and wrapped up for the summer.

But Arsenault is prepping for another teaching stint at the Golden Circle, and finds it not only a blast but to be a fulfilling experience as well as he continues to grow in his own journey.

“It’s awesome,” he said of the lessons. “They are very eager to learn, and you can tell when you show them something, it’s so cool. You can see their faces light right up.

“When the classes would be done, they’d we saying, ‘This is so much fun, and we just love this’.

The immensely talented Arsenault, who was born and raised in South Rustico, PEI, has had a passion for music from his early days. He grew up listening to country music and rock and first picked up his sister’s abandoned guitar when he was 17. He had already been singing over the years, and once his guitar playing skills started flourishing, his gifts as a powerful singer surfaced all the more as well.

Ultimately, the married father of two wanted to follow his own path when it came to creating music, writing and performing.

“This past year has been super busy with teaching and working as well. I made the decision to not do the construction work anymore, too. I decided to give it up and try to get more into the music store that I work at.”

That has since come to fruition, and Arsenault couldn’t be happier with the mix of sales, offering private lessons, teaching group lessons at the Golden Circle and of course working on his own career.

”As far as working on new material, I do have some songs that I’ve demoed, and I’ve been working with Duane Steele for a while. So they are kind of ‘in the oven’. They are ready to do something with, I just haven’t pulled the pin and dived back into putting out something new right now,” he said.

But for Arsenault, there’s really no other path he can even imagine being on in terms of a career – and that includes performing, writing but also the fulfillment he finds in seeing people develop their own skills as new guitarists as well.

“It makes me feel good that they are learning an instrument and that I’m the one who is showing them how to do that. Who knows where they can go with it down the road?”

In the broader picture, Arenault remains passionate about pretty much every aspect of music.

And it shows via his tireless teaching, his dynamic performances and his incredible personal talent as a charismatic musician as well.

“You go through different things, and you start to think about why you are doing this,” he said. “What really makes you happy? For me, I just truly love to play, and I love to sing and be onstage. There are those times when you can be playing somewhere and it can be dead – and that can get you down a bit.

“But sometimes, you realize in those times, you might be packing up and you get that one person who comes up to you and says, ‘Wow – you were totally amazing’. You didn’t even know that person was listening.

“So it’s little things like that – it reminds you not to get down about certain things because there is always someone listening, and there is always going to be someone who appreciates what you do.

“For me, it’s about being happy with what I’m doing and appreciating the people that come out to see me, too.”

Meanwhile, tickets for Arsenault’s show at the Golden Circle are available at the front desk.