Upcoming Shows

Fellow Pynins is an award winning contemporary folk duo with a keen and bucolic sense of vocal harmony and song craft. The live performance is a whimsically emotional escapade through the chasms of our, yes, feelings.. Dashed with spontaneous and clever banter, mirth and woe, you will probably cry and quite possibly laugh, a lot. Wielding claw-hammer banjo, Irish bouzouki, mandolin, and acoustic guitar the duo sings predominantly original music as well as reworked traditional ballads gathered from their travels.

Original music & stories from the Canadian Rockies

http://thewardensmusic.com/about.php

BRADLEY BISCHOFF

Vocals, lead and rhythm guitar

Stationed in the rugged South Boundary region of Jasper National Park, Bradley began his national park warden lifestyle in 1981.

Assigned alone to the backcountry with a handful of horses for seventeen days at a time, Bradley penned many songs by the dim cabin lights and the dusky summers spent in the high alpine ranges.

Bradley was a founding member of the popular Alberta Swing/Rockabilly band The Free Rangers. With The Wardens, he combines his melodic vocals and smooth lead licks with his mountain roots.

RAY SCHMIDT

Vocals, upright bass, mandolin

Currently posted in Rogers Pass, British Columbia, Ray works with grizzly bears in the interior rainforest of Glacier National Park.

Ray founded The Wardens in 2009 with Scott Ward during the national park warden centennial after discovering the rich depth of music and stories within this region of Canada.

Translating the high lonesome sound of the Kentucky hills to those of the Rocky Mountains, Ray’s vocals amplify the spirit of The Wardens’ Mountain music.

SCOTT WARD

Vocals, fingerstyle guitar

A national park warden for over 30 years in Banff National Park, Scott’s music stems from a life lived in the deep wilderness of the Canadian Rockies as a horseman, search-and-rescue dog handler and technical alpine specialist.

Evoking the haunting fingerstyle guitar of Gordon Lightfoot with the mystique and presence of Ian Tyson, Scott’s music embodies Canadian authenticity.

In 2001, Scott was awarded the Governor General’ s Award for Exemplary Service as a Peace Officer.

Join us Saturday, March 7 for the Old Time Revue, an evening house concert featuring a host of performances from some fine Montana old time string bands. Musicians will play short sets, showcasing the best of their talent and skill on fiddle, banjo, and guitar. Performances run from 7 to 9:30 p.m. with a short intermission and a post-event open old time jam.

Tickets to this event are at the door. Suggested donation is $10 or $20 per family. All proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to support the Fourth Annual Old Time Social, an all-ages celebration of old time music and dance with three days of workshops, concerts, jams, square dances, and a grand cakewalk.

For over twenty years, Philadelphia’s Seamus Egan blazed a new trail for Irish music in America. At the head of the supergroup Solas, he toured the world and pushed the music in new directions, incorporating complex arrangements, stunning virtuosity, and elements of global and Americana music. His work defined Irish music for multiple generations and set a benchmark that still hasn’t been matched. As a composer, Egan put his stamp on film soundtracks, symphonic collaborations, and, most famously, co-wrote Sarah McLachlan’s smash hit, “I Will Remember You.” But what happens when a trailblazer needs to take a step back? Egan found himself asking that question when confronted with two major life changes: his band Solas went on hiatus, opening up more time for his own music making, and he moved from his long-time home in Philadelphia to rural Vermont. “Both things coalesced not by design,” Egan says, “but they came together at the same time. I liked the symmetry of it.” Holed up in his Vermont cabin, Egan finally had time to go through tunes and melodies he’d composed over the years. Inspired by this time alone with his music, he enlisted close friends and collaborators to make a new album of entirely instrumental music, Early Bright, to be released January 17, 2020. Throughout, the goal of Egan’s new work was to reweave the threads of the Irish roots music he knows so well with a more compositional perspective, drawing from classical influences like Bach, Segovia, Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, and modern composers like Meredith Monk and Philip Glass.

Early Bright marks Seamus Egan’s first solo album in twenty-three years, following on the heels of his groundbreaking 1996 instrumental album When Juniper Sleeps. Much has changed since then, back when he was known for the blazing pyrotechnics and jaw dropping virtuosity of his first incarnation as a precocious child prodigy in the tradition. “What does virtuosity mean now?” he asks. “I think the most important thing to me is the musicality of something. That’s always been important, but it’s the conveyance of understanding and hopefully a little bit of wisdom in the note chosen and the space that’s left between notes. When you’re younger, you’re bursting with energy and you want to get the notes out! I think that as time goes on, you start to pull back a little and you realize you can say the same thing without as many notes. It can be just as impressive, just in a different way.” Egan was always known for his abilities on a wide variety of instruments, winning multiple All-Ireland Championships while still a teenager, and Early Bright sees him shining on these many instruments again, playing tenor banjo, nylon string guitar, low whistles, mandolin, keyboard, and percussion. And though he’s got a wiser outlook on the music now, his whistle playing “Tournesol” and his nylon string guitar on “B Bump Bounce” still race effortlessly around hairpin musical turns that would trip up any other musician.

From the first, delicate opening notes through to the melancholic, yet hopeful, closing track, Early Bright, showcases the virtuosity Egan has become renowned for, while also bringing his superb original compositions to the fore. He has written music inspired by childhood memories and ruminations on our yearning to connect and our need to be heard. The new album gave him a space to dive into his own vision of the music, unencumbered by a large band. “I had a strong notion of where I saw the arrangements going,” he says. “After making so many albums with the band you get in a sort of pattern. There’s a comfort in that, but sometimes you can fall into a rut as well.” With Egan returning to a focus on composition and arranging, the cohesiveness behind each track is all the more impressive since he doesn’t read or write music. Having learned entirely by ear as a traditional art, he brings a more organic view to composition than most classical composers. Joining Egan on Early Bright are renowned guitarist Kyle Sanna, New England bouzouki player Owen Marshall, vocalist/accordionist Moira Smiley, bassist Joe Phillips, and Juno award-winners The Fretless String Quartet, with string arrangements by Scottish harpist Maeve Gilchrist. Each of these musicians intimately understands Egan’s vision: to focus is on the melody first, and to make each arrangement an exercise in subtlety and restraint. It makes for a rich listening experience, and for Egan a chance to step away from the pressures and intensity of leading one of the most respected Irish bands in the world. “The whirlwind of band existence,” he says, “can take you away from the reasons you were doing it all in the first place: to play and write music.” With Early Bright, Seamus Egan was able to slow down, to focus inwardly on his own creative muse, and to fall back in love with the subtle melodies of the music.

Clinton Fearon

is a composer, songwriter, singer and player of instruments since his early teens.

Born in Jamaica, Clinton became the bassist, vocalist and lyricist of the mythic Gladiators at the age of 19. He was also a session musician for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s at Black Ark in the 70s, two of the main producers on the island at this time. There Clinton composed some everlasting bass lines for wellbknown artists like Yabby You, Jimmy Riley, Max Romeo, Junior Byles and many others. After leaving Jamaica in 1987, Clinton Fearon started a new career in Seattle. Him and some of the musicians of The Gladiators took advantage of the extra time remaining on their visa, at the end of the US tour, to started a band in the Northwest: The Defnders. The band built a nice following in the area but split after five years. Clinton Fearon finally formed his own band in the mid 90s in Seattle with local musicians: Boogie Brown Band.

Clinton Fearon recorded eight albums with Boogie Brown Band and tour with them in the Pacific

Northwest and Europe intensively, but also other places in the US and South America.Since 2005 and the release of Mi An Mi Guitar. Clinton is also giving magical performances in solo acoustic. In

2012, he released his second acoustic opus: Heart And Soul, which gathers 16 songs wrote between 1969-1984, while he was a strong member of the mythic Gladiators in Jamaica.

With just vocaland guitar, Clinton is playing his music all over the world, in clubs, theaters, festivals and other cultural centers.

Each song of Clinton Fearon is a strong message coming from the heart of a man who is dedicating his life to help a better world to come. With chiselled music and poetic lyrics, he opens reggae to a wider audience who simply loves his beautiful songs.

The Timber Rattlers are an energetic bluegrass quartet from Missoula, MT. They pull inspiration from their traditional roots, but continue to push their boundaries in the realm of acoustic music. Each member has spent extensive time touring and in the studio. From the west coast to parts of Europe.

MEMBERS:

Jesse Brown – A violinist who has genre hopped many bands and instruments. He is most known for his years spent with “The Lil’ Smokies” both touring and writing music. You can also catch him playing with legendary Montana band “Mission Mountain Wood Band”.

Jamie Drysdale – A class act guitarist with on-point bluegrass runs. Naturally entertaining the crowd with his quick, witty humor. He is always writing unique and ear-catching originals. Also known for his touring/songwriting with the Jackson Hole band “The Random Canyon Growlers”

Dillon Johns – A recent graduate of the music program at The University of Montana. He now teaches elementary school music, passing on his extensive knowledge of music to the next generation. You can also catch him playing his groovy bass lines in the band “The Letter B”.

Caleb Dostal – A prodigy in the field of contemporary banjo. Caleb has been playing since he was 11. He first heard the banjo on some old CD’s around the house and fell in love with the sound, and from then on has had an almost inhuman drive to improve his ability and discover more of the possibilities that the banjo holds.