David Wilkie

During America's frontier era in the 1800s, settlers from Europe carried their native folk traditions across the Atlantic, shaping the sound that crystallized as country & western by the 1920s and 1930s. Roughly fifty years afterward, mandolinist Dave Wilkie sought to restore genuine Celtic melodies to the cowboy repertoire they had originally helped shape, an effort documented on his Celtic Cowboy album. He took up the mandolin in 1970 close to his residence in Victoria, British Columbia. His debut release, 1977's The Mandolin Player, contained none of the country/Celtic blend that would later define his work and instead followed a pure country swing direction, a path continued on 1985's Shoebox. Beyond those occasional solo projects, Wilkie performed throughout the 1980s alongside Ian Tyson, Amos Garrett, Maria Muldaur, and Jethro Burns.

Wilkie established the Great Western Orchestra in 1989 alongside vocalist Cindy Church plus guitarists Nathan Tinkham and Stewart MacDougall. The ensemble supported Katy Moffatt, issued four recordings under its own name, and joined Moffatt for a 1993 tour of Great Britain. Noticing parallels between British folk material and the country & western catalog he already knew, Wilkie chose to pursue a country project infused with Celtic elements. Teaming with the Edmonton Celtic band the McDades for the sessions, he issued Celtic Cowboy in 1996.