It can only be described as a magical evening of western Canadiana, a historical trip through a world that seems old as time but remains much the same as it was.
The Wardens is a musical troupe of storytellers whose roots are planted in the Canadian Rockies. Established by retired Banff National Park Game Warden Scott Ward and active Jasper Park warden Ray Schmidt, the two met about 15 years ago and began to weave their own songs and stories into a performance tapestry. Their show on Tuesday night at the Gallery played to a packed house.
Flanked by Scott Duncan, virtuoso fiddle player, and multi-instrumental wizard Nico Humby, the band mesmerized the audience with 3 and 4 part harmonies of original tunes bringing back memories of the Sons of the Pioneers or the Kingston Trio.
Behind the band was a loop of images and videos evoking campfires, Rocky Mountain vistas, and clear starlit nights. Schmidt likened staring at the stove fire through a glass window as a log channel on television, the premise for the song “Warden TV.”
Every song had a rich, engaging backstory, like the conversion of a war bride to a warden bride when her new husband settled with her in a remote park cabin during her first Canadian winter.
Ray Schmidt’s experience of spending time on the prairie with his pioneer aunt led to “The Half Mile Honeymoon,” a revelation of a newlywed couple’s relationship in the early farming days near Radisson.
Schmidt also talked about the trials the community of Jasper suffered during this summer’s wildfire season. In a dedication to fire fighters, the group performed “Backfire” with a narrative describing the efforts to save forests and homes while trying to usher 20 thousand people to safety. The song featured an ominous drone of a bow draw across the bass strings in a back country epic that registered like Lightfoot’s “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
In the early days of the warden’s service, Ward explained, most of the service was comprised of foothills cowboys. The song “Lonesome Trail” portrayed the cowboy “witching hour” in a haunting refrain, with delicate mandolin work by Humby, and reminiscent of Neil Young.
Fiddler Scott Duncan, a descendant of the Old Time Fiddlers of Maple Creek, took the spotlight with a rollicking version of “Red Wing.” The players shifted instruments throughout the evening, variously picking up the bass, guitar, or mandolin, all proving adept with whatever instrument was in their hands.
The tales wove through a whimsical and humourous look at the search dogs in the service, to the inspiring tales of buffalo returning to Elk Island Park and eventually Banff.
Occasionally, listeners could hear strains of Ian Tyson or even Wilf Carter, but without doubt, the songs were unique creations of the principal writers, Ward and Schmidt, and all spoke of a life that is challenging, inspiring and one can say, distinctly Canadian.