The Wardens are coming

By Melissa Piche Times Contributor

Mark your calendars as the Strathmore Musical Arts Society and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts present the Rocky Mountain-based band The Wardens, with local opening act Greg Rider, on April 20.

The Wardens is a band made up of, as the name implies, Canadian National parks wardens – the same people who have protected the land collectively for over 50 years. 

Ray Schmidt founded the band in 2009 along with Scott Ward and Scott Duncan who joined the group in 2017. 

“We are excited to be coming to play in Strathmore; we’ve never played there and it’s been on our radar and it’s just never really quite worked out,” said Schmidt. “We’ll be bringing our full performance, which is more than just music. We are music, storytelling and image projections that go along with the songs.

“Scott Duncan is a fiddler from Calgary; he’s been with us since 2017 and Scott Ward – he’s a retired park warden … he worked for 35 years as a park warden in Banff National Park, so he’s spent most of his life on the trail travelling by horse back.” 

Schmidt is still an active park warden working in conservation.

The band has had a lot of success across Canada, and even into Montana, with Schmidt being nominated in 2021 for Traditional Singer of the Year for the Canadian Folk Music Awards. The band was also nominated in 2021 for Folk Recording of the Year at the YYC Music Awards for their album Sold Out at the Ironwood. 

“Our music is focused on being national parks wardens in the Canadian Rockies in Banff and Jasper National Parks,” he said. The band has been touring pretty heavily for the last 10 years. 

Schmidt has been playing music most of his life, but never really got serious with it until his mid 20’s when he really got into playing blue grass music. Scott Ward has been playing guitar most of his life but never really performed until he and Schmidt formed the band and they’ve been playing together ever since. 

“It’s been a great experience; we’re always learning and loving to share new stories and experiences with audiences,” said Schmidt. “We are true music from places where people will have visited. Everyone loves the Rocky Mountains and this gives people a real backstage pass into what it takes to work in a place like that and takes people to the back country. People will be able to connect from Strathmore because from Strathmore on a good day you can see the Rockies very clearly.”

Local show-opener Greg Rider is excited to be able to share his story with the audience. 

“My performance definitely is all about the story telling,” said Rider, who has played in the honky-tonks of Nashville for two years. “I did that life for a couple years and I realized that that wasn’t really the future that I wanted.” 

Rider returned to Alberta and settled in the Strathmore area in 2018. He started his new journey with a motivational school tour where he was able to perform at 90 schools and reached 30,000 students with his inspirational stories and songs. 

Rider will be performing a 20-minute set with familiar favourites and some new songs from his upcoming album that will be launched hopefully next year. Audience members will also be delighted to hear his two new singles releasing this summer, Road Not Taken and Roam.  

The show will take place at the Strathmore Travelodge on Saturday, April 20. Doors open at 6 p.m. for cocktails, dinner is at 7 p.m. and the music starts at 8 p.m. 

More information and tickets can be found at the Strathmore Musical Arts Society webpage (www.strathmorearts.com).