While many music bands are created by design, others come together through serendipity. Airdrie’s acoustic country duo, Stark Sky, is one such group that formed through luck and timing.
Mark Ferguson and Stacey Fedigan both have Royal Conservatory backgrounds, but were on vastly different paths that were unlikely to cross.
Fedigan lives in Airdrie with her husband and two sons and has loved music since her childhood in Ontario. She took piano and vocal lessons and often performed solo as a classical musician. However, when she graduated university, she chose to pursue a career as an environmental engineer and later as a lawyer (currently in downtown Calgary).
“Music had always been a huge thing for me in high school. I used to play and sing, but was never in a band,” she says.
While visiting family in Ontario a few years ago, Fedigan recalls, there was a lot of singing and the suggestion was made that she should move back home and start a band with them.
“I couldn’t move, but it planted the seed that I should be in a band,” she says.
Ferguson, who lives in Calgary with his partner, began studying piano at five. He added guitar and drums in high school and played in several bands.
“Anything I could put my hands on, I played. Knowing theory from piano helped,” Ferguson says.
However, he says, he never actually wanted to be a musician, but his parents made him do it. He wanted to be an engineer.
“My dad talked me out of it in Grade 12,” Ferguson says. “He said, ‘Mark, I’ve never seen you do much engineering stuff, but you do a lot of music. Maybe you should be a musician.’”
Taking Dad’s advice, Ferguson obtained degrees in music and education at the University of Calgary and eventually became a music teacher at Airdrie Music Lessons, a private music school.
This is where serendipity enters into Stark Sky’s backstory.
Two years ago, Fedigan enrolled at Airdrie Music Lessons. “I knew, if I wanted to start a country band, I needed to play guitar,” she says.
Fedigan also took vocal lessons with Ferguson because she wanted to learn to sing harmony, something she had never done as a classical singer.
“I told Mark, ‘I need to learn how to play this guitar, and I need to learn how to sing harmony, and then I need to find a guy because I’m going to make a country band, and then I’m going to perform,’” she says.
Ferguson and Fedigan began practising songs together, and it wasn’t long before he realized, “Oh, that ‘guy’ is me.”
Having already been part of two bands, The Bandolier Brigade with his brother and best friend and The Galacticas, a group of friends from Calgary, performing with Fedigan seemed like a good opportunity for Ferguson.
“We started playing a couple of gigs before we even had a name,” he says. In July 2023, Stark Sky had their first official gig at Verns, a well-known bar in Calgary.
“It was scary for me,” Fedigan recalls. “I hadn’t performed like that, ever, but Mark has been doing this forever.”
Stark Sky is a mashup of the pair’s names and a nod to Alberta’s big skies. With influences from Alison Krauss to The Chicks, they cover country, folk and pop songs. Their smooth vocals and understated guitar work are easy to listen to. They’ve performed around Airdrie at venues like Atlas Brewing and Good Earth, as well as several Calgary locations, including this summer at the Windows on the West Stage at the Calgary Stampede.
The future of Stark Sky may be as serendipitous as its beginning.
“We’ll see where it takes us,” Ferguson says.
Fedigan agrees: “I’m having a lot of fun.”
For more information, visit www.starksky.ca.
