The music
of David Wilkie and Cowboy Celtic has been called a “beautiful
evocation of just how much Celtic music inspired the melodies played
around the campfires in the wild, Wild West.” Over the last ten
years, David Wilkie has devoted much of his time to one of his favorite
passions – the seeking out of Celtic origins of traditional cowboy
music. The result has been the release of three highly successful Cowboy
Celtic CDs, The Drover Road (2001), Cowboy Ceilidh (1997) and Cowboy
Celtic (1995). David Wilkie and Cowboy Celtic are becoming well-known
for the connections they are making between Western (traditional cowboy)
music and the music of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. The “Celtic
and cowboy” musical marriage on their recordings has struck a chord
with music lovers on both sides of the ocean. As one reviewer put it, “This
is more than music. It’s theatre and imagery and history and storytelling
and more, all wrapped up in sagebrush and tartan.”
These musical
and historical connections, and the influence of Celtic music on traditional
cowboy songs, come to light in the group’s
music where they combine old world Celtic instrumentation and music with
cowboy songs. One Celtic melody that has survived the centuries and the
distance across the Atlantic is that of The Cowboy’s Lament (also
called The Streets of Laredo) , popular among cow3boys and fans of Western
music. The melody is that of the old Scottish song The Unfortunate Rake
and the Irish song The Bard of Armagh. The cowboy song’s melody
and theme are the same as the older Celtic songs, but the words differ
in all three songs.
Many more
of the old Celtic songs were refitted with new lyrics by Celtic men
and women and their descendents who made their way West (some to be
cowboys) and told the stories of their new lifestyle through song.
Tunes from home were easier to remember than the words, and hence,
the new lyrics. And so, David Wilkie has taken many of these ‘cowboy’ songs,
and a few of his own and recorded them in the Celtic style. The result – Wilkie’s
own brand of Cowboy Celtic music that
ranges from hauntingly beautiful t foot-stompin’ lively. As one
critic said, it’s “enough to make you shake the trail dust
from your jeans and wash it down with a jug of Irish whiskey.”
Among the successes that David Wilkie has had in his foray into the
Cow-Celt Cosmos is a Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of
Fame in Oklahoma. His Cowboy Ceilidh CD was voted Outstanding Traditional
Western Music Album for 1998 and the award was presented in 1999 in Oklahoma
City.
A 25-year
veteran of the North American music scene, David Wilkie has been called
Canada’s premier mandolin virtuoso, and an elder statesman
of Alberta music. In addition to his Cowboy Celtic CD’s, he has
two solo CD’s to his credit - an acclaimed release with the Cold
Club (an off-the-wall group that also includes renowned blues guitarist
Amos Garrett and Chilean guitar wizard Oscar Lopez), and three with his
former group, the Great Western Orchestra (GWO). Wilkie’s songs
Wind in the Wire and Cowboy Boogie, co-written with Stewart MacDougall,
were recorded by Randy Travis on Warner Western, and Travis also featured
Wilkie’s music on his ABC TV special Wind in the Wire.
David Wilkie
and Cowboy Celtic, based in Turner Valley, Alberta, features the beautiful,
pure voice of Denise Withnell on guitar, Keri Zwicker on vocal and
harp, Scott Ring, of Newfoundland on whistles and Joe Hertz on fiddle.
Cowboy Celtic’s touring includes the cowboy gatherings
of Elko, Nevada, Monterey, California, Santa Clarita, California and
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Celtic Festivals from Denver, Colorado to the
Scottish Highlands and various arts centers in the United States and
Canada. In 2001, David Wilkie and Cowboy Celtic released The Drover Road
for Western Jubilee Recording Company.
Wilkie has
also performed to sold-out audiences with the world renowned Edmonton
Symphony Orchestra. An animated film of his song Cactus Swing was produced
by Canada’s prestigious National Film Board, and in
late 2000, Canada’s national CBC network broadcast a television
documentary on Wilkie, his Cowboy Celtic group, and the connections he
is making between traditional cowboy music and the music of Ireland,
Scotland, Wales and England. David Wilkie has toured in China, Hong Kong,
Macau, Indonesia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, Ireland, Scotland
and all over the United States and Canada. On the western
plains of nineteenth century North America, intoxicating Gaelic melodies
drifted through the evening air at many a cowboy campfire and during
lonely shifts at night guard. These songs were brought over from the
old country and often refitted with lyrics to suit the singer’s
new occupation.
The Celtic origins of cowboy music are well documented. Traditional Irish,
English, Scottish and Welsh folk music served as the foundation and model
for countless cowboy classics. Cowboy Ceilidh melts the rolling hills
of Ireland into the dusty trails of Texas; the rugged Scottish Highlands
into the majestic Alberta Rockies; and the gentle English chalk streams
into the roaring rivers of Montana. |
