Steel Audrey comes home

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This article was published 05/11/2015 (3093 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the press of a button, Del and Sharon Kehler can hear their son baring his soul.

Derek Kehler sings of his ashes being spread far and wide when he dies, of a woman who is more special than anyone else and an appreciation for his upbringing.

Hearing their son’s voice, in lyrics they can recite, is as close as the Grunthal parents can get to a phone call.

Now, Del and Sharon are following through on the CD release their son could not finish. Derek Ryan Kehler’s passing this June made headlines internationally after he and his girlfriend died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their sleep after bringing in a pot of hot coals into their makeshift cabin to stay warm. Kehler was 32, Curic was 31.

“It feels good, together with his friends, to wrap up a dream of his that he was working on,” said Del Kehler, in advance of a Saturday album release party at The Rustic Wedding Barn east of Steinbach.

Before Steel Audrey made his mark on Vancouver’s roots music scene, Derek grew up in Grunthal. At the age of 10 he attended guitar lessons where he’d run through hockey stats with his instructor as often as they would be strumming. Figuring their son wasn’t enjoying himself, the Kehlers wanted to pull him out of the lessons but Derek insisted he stick around. He kept with his music, always a part of some band in high school.

After graduating from Green Valley, he went to Briercrest College in Saskatchewan to study but it lasted only one semester. “It was too much work. He preferred kind of living for fun,” recalls Del.

Derek settled into a construction job that ceased when a car accident fractured his neck. Aimless for a moment, he re-joined his dad back on the hog farm, now with an attitude change—he was an adult wanting to tie the knot.

He and his wife Rachele moved to Vancouver where after eight years, in 2012, both his marriage and band dissipated.

“When times were happy he didn’t do that much writing. When life was difficult he poured himself out in his music and his songs—that’s when he did most of his songwriting,” said Del.

A solo act now, Derek recommitted himself to his alter ego, Steel Audrey—“Steel” for the steel guitar he played and “Audrey” for his grandfather’s name.

Kehler’s career, now in interactive design, pressed forward. He joined market research firm Vision Critical, which included a branch in Sydney, Australia Helena Curic worked out of.

A night at a Vancouver bar where he was playing and she watched was where they met. Says Derek’s mother Sharon, she thought he was a talented artist, even if the country twang wasn’t her style. “When they asked her how she liked the music, she said the music was not her style but she liked Derek.”

They were smitten, and by early 2014, Derek settled on a temporary arrangement with his bosses—he would work remotely from Sydney, Australia where Curic grew up.

“They had found each other and they were riding off into the sunset,” recalled Del. It seems the arrangement was more than temporary.

In Derek’s last phone conversation with his parents, Kehler and Curic told them about a home they were weeks away from taking possession of—the home where they wanted to raise their family.

When Curic left the phone call, Kehler told his parents he was shopping for a ring.

“We had a very open relationship, every conversation we had. He would share everything with us” said Sharon.

“He had always been a straightforward kind of a guy but after the separation we became close,” said Del. “We talked through a lot of things together, spending hours on the phone.”

Kehler’s CD, From Which I Came, is a mix of folk and a retro country music, all sung from a genuine place where he touches on relationships gone right and gone south. He speaks of his father and one day meeting his maker.

His parents recall a family trip to Cuba in 2013, where their son delved into the deep conversations he was known for, like when he asked his dad what he wanted said on his tombstone. Those dialogues were the genesis for Back to the Earth (From Which I Came).

“When I die, spread my ashes far and wide. Back to the earth from which I came,” Kehler expressed his song, a belief he also shared that trip.

“We were kind of joking but that is what he said,” said Del. “I thought it was useless information because I won’t be there to point it out. Sad to say I was.”

Del and Sharon have laid their son’s ashes in some of his favourite spots.

Last month the Kehlers were the guests as their son’s friends gathered for the posthumous album release in Vancouver. His musician friends played the songs the late artist wrote.

“It was amazing,” said Sharon. “It was bittersweet, that’s really what it was. You’re just blown away by his friends.”

Saturday at 7 p.m. several local musicians will unite east of Steinbach to play Steel Audrey’s music, including some sung by Derek’s sister Mandy who teaches music. Some footage from the Vancouver release party will be shown along with videos of Derek playing. CDs can be purchased and a silent auction held. Limited tickets can be purchased at Grunthal Lumber, by calling Sharon at 204-434-6142 or by email at sharonkehler@gmail.com.

It won’t be a memorial, but a celebration of life, of a young man who had never been happier.

The Kehlers said they would like to thank the community who has helped put this event together, including paying for the flight to Australia for Del, Sharon and Mandy’s family.

“What a testimony, what an example that is, that through a tragedy like this, you have people to support you,” said Sharon.