Jeffrey Steele to perform at opera house, raise funds for skate park

LANCASTER- Nashville Country Music star Jeffrey Steele's 13-year-old son Alex died in a tragic 2007 accident,  and so did Bryce Buchholz, a 14-year-old Lancaster boy, this past spring.  What they had in common was skateboarding.

 Since Steele will be playing a live, in-person concert at 7:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 26, , at The Lancaster Opera House, the opera house is donating 50 tickets to benefit the Bryce Buchholz Memorial Fund which is creating a skate park here in Lancaster. 

Steele has generously offered to help with the opera house's efforts, because the whole project touched his heart. He will sign a guitar to be raffled off at the concert to benefit the fund.

In 2010, Steele opened the Alex LeVasseur Memorial Skate Park in Brentwood, Tennessee in honor of his son, an avid skateboarder and bicyclist.  In Lancaster, The Bryce Buchholz Memorial Fund was established by Bryce's parents to raise funds for a local, community skate and bike park.  The memorial fund has already raised more than $50,000. 

Steele has been named BMI Songwriter of the Year in 2007 and 2003, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Songwriter of the Year in 2006, 2005 and 2003. CMA has twice awarded him the coveted “Triple Play Award” for three No. 1 songs in a year in 2010 and 2007. Steele’s songs have be recorded by Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Leann Rimes, Rascal Flatts, Diamond Rio and more.

His country and A/C megahits include a string of chart toppers including: “Brand New Girlfriend”, “International Harvester,” “Here,” “My Wish,” “The Cowboy in Me,” “These Days,” “Everyday,” and the groundbreaking “What Hurts The Most,” nominated for Best Country Song at the 2007 Grammy Awards. Additionally, he has won numerous BMI Country and Pop Awards, been named one of Billboard Magazine's top 5 writer's eight years in a row, as well as Music Row Magazine's 2006 Songwriter of the Year award.

 Nashville recording artist and WNY native, Amanda Nagurney, will open the show.  

 Tickets are $20 to$40. The LOH Box Office is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and one hour before curtain on show nights, call 683-1776 for tickets. The box office is located in the Lancaster Opera House, 21 Central Ave., on the second floor of Lancaster’s Town Hall. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.LancOpera.org.