Great Western Orchestra

Websites:  https://www.cowboyceltic.ca/david-wilkie, http://www.troubleclef.ca/not.htm
Origin: Turner Valley, Alberta, 🇨🇦
Biography:

In 1987, Cindy Church, Nathan Tinkham and David Wilkie teamed up to form the Great Western Orchestra. This trio received national acclaim when they released their self-titled album of contemporary cowboy music. Cindy Church gained much attention with her songs "Train of Life", "Vagabond" and "Spanish is a Loving Tongue".

The Album cover is taken on the Centre Street Bridge in Calgary, the group shot is in front of an old cabin on the D Ranch (south of Longview, Alberta). Photos by Jay Dusard.

Great Western Orchestra members Dave Wilkie (left in both photos), Cindy Church and Nathan Tinkham (middle in 1st photo, right in 2nd. photo) .The album is a mixture of original western songs, swing and Cajun. Jay Dusard says " I love the GWO most when they make the West swing. When they ease into that groove that ties someone between Bob Wills and the Manhattan Transfer, between Maynard Dixon and Maynard Ferguson, between Nanton, Alberta and New Orleans". One of the songs on this album "There Ain't No Cowgirls Down in New Orleans" was a written by Dave Wilkie and one of the guest musicians, Stewart MacDougall.

The Great Western Orchestra album was recorded in Sept-Dec, 1988.

A longtime veteran of the North American music scene, David Wilkie is the founder of Cowboy Celtic. He has been called an elder statesman of Alberta music, and has compiled an impressive list of noteworthy artistic achievements while building his varied career as musician and band leader, songwriter, record producer and broadcaster.

David moved from California to Canada in his teens, eventually settling in the beautiful ranching country in the Rocky Mountain foothills of southern Alberta. He helped out during calving season and at brandings at the historic Tongue Creek Ranch, which was founded and run by the Guinness company out of Ireland. At the same time, Wilkie was always playing music in a band, and for six years, was the music director and radio programmer for a 50,000 watt country radio station in Alberta. There, he was exposed to an extensive repertoire of western music, had his own cowboy radio show, and visited often with country and cowboy music greats, including Roy Rogers. When he left radio to play music full time, he hooked up with Canadian legend Ian Tyson for four years of concert dates and recordings. In 1984 or so, he formed The Great Western Orchestra (GWO) and produced three albums, one released on the Sony label (formerly CBS), and the following two independently released with Stewart MacDougall on Wilkie’s own label, Centerfire Music.

While working on various musical projects over the last ten years, David Wilkie has devoted time to one of his favourite passions – the seeking out of Celtic origins of traditional cowboy music. The result has been the release of seven highly successful Cowboy Celtic CDs. The ‘Celtic and cowboy’ musical marriage on these 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.”

Cowboy Celtic has toured Scotland several times, and has played all over North America and in Ecuador and Peru. Using arrangements done by the incredibly talented Claude Lapalme, they have also peformed with the Red Deer Symphony, the Kamloops Symphony, and the Symphony of the Kootenays in Cranbrook.

Wilkie has produced several albums for other artists, both in Canada and the U.S., and has composed the musical scores for numerous short films and documentaries. He played mandolin and mandocello on Maria Muldaur’s Granny-nominated CD Richland Woman. With his songwriting talents and sense of humour, he became a favourite of national CBC radio fans many years ago, regularly composing amusing songs on current events for various national radio programs. Wilkie is better known and respected as a serious song writer, and his songs “Wind in the Wire” and “Cowboy Boogie,” co-written with GWO partner Stewart MacDougall, were recorded by Ian Tyson and also by Randy Travis on the Warner Western record label. Travis also featured the GWO’s music on his ABC TV special “Wind in the Wire,” and an animated film of the GWO song “Cactus Swing” was produced by Canada’s prestigious National Film Board. The group also performed to sold-out audiences with the world renowned Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his seven Cowboy Celtic CDs and his three Great Western Orchestra CDs, Wilkie has two solo albums to his credit and an acclaimed release with the Cold Club (an off-the-wall group that also includes renowned blues guitarist Amos Garrett, jazz violinist Karl Roth and Chilean guitar wizard Oscar Lopez).

David Wilkie has toured in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, Ireland, Scotland, Ecuador, Peru and all over the United States and Canada.

Stewart MacDougall is a Canadian singer/songwriter. He began his musical journey over fifty years ago in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He ventured west in 1980 and relocated in Edmonton Alberta where he continues to be one of Alberta's most diverse performers. Before pursuing a solo career in 1997 he was best known for his keyboard and vocal work with Laura Vinson, k.d. lang, Ian Tyson, and Great Western Orchestra. His songs have been recorded by all of these artists and a number of others including Sneezy Waters and Randy Travis. A later collaboration with Tyson produced the title song for Ian’s 2008 CD Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories. MacDougall’s discography includes four solo albums: Gathering Time (1999), heresay (2001), Ghost Trains (2003) and Saloons & Chandeliers (2016). The Thorniest Rose, a download single was released in January 2012. He also appears on the Alberta all-star compilation, Sorrow Bound: Hank Williams Re-Examined and The Gift, A Tribute to Ian Tyson, which features performances by various Tyson alumni and admirers. He now winters in Arizona City, Arizona and performs his unique brand of western music throughout the Valley Of The Sun.