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The Wardens and McQuaid deliver Winter Ale Feb. 13
Cranbrook and area music lovers are in for a phenomenal treat on Wednesday, February 13 when Kimberley’s Oliver McQuaid opens the second sold out show of five Winter Ale Concerts.
THE Wardens (from Banff) headline the event on Key City Theatre’s Gallery Stage. This is the fourth year that the Fisher Peak Performing Artists Society has partnered with the Key City Theatre to further the development of local performing artists by pairing them with a seasoned touring entertainer.
Catering by The Heid Out Restaurant and Fisher Peak Brewing Company makes these events one of the best places in Cranbrook to enjoy a night out. The enthusiastic response of audiences has been reflected through 2019 ticket sales. January and February shows were sold out and purchases of series ticket packages more than doubled the 2018 total, reserving 44% of available seating per event.
February’s featured performers are well known throughout Western Canada.
The Wardens don’t just sing about the land, they’re part of it. With haunting three-part harmonies and chilling tales, The Wardens’ mountain music rises from land they’ve protected as rangers in the Rocky Mountain national parks.
Wrangling grizzly bears, rescuing stranded hikers and lonely nights on the pack trail. It’s “the quintessential mountain-culture concert experience.”
Recent honours for the band include being nominated last year for Folk Recording of the Year (‘Across the River’) – YYC Music Awards and for Album of the Year (Sleeping Buffalo) – Association of Country Musicians of Alberta. They were also nominated in 2017 as Touring Artist of the Year by the British Columbia Touring Council.
Oliver McQuaid is a singer/songwriter from Whistler, now living in the Kootenays. He grew up in a musical family where members who didn’t play music were left in cloth bundles at orphanages never to be seen or heard from again. Oliver just made the cut.
He has performed with his cousin in Whistler for years as “The McQuaids” but since moving to the Kootenays has found himself the only McQuaid for miles, and thus performs his unique mix of lyrical originals and interpretive covers throughout the area with nothing but an acoustic guitar, a suitcase, and a kick pedal to hit it with.
Still to come in the Winter Ale Concert series:
Wednesday, March 27 – SLOCAN RAMBLERS (Nelson) currently nominated for a JUNO Award; opened by CONNOR FOOTE (Cranbrook).
Wednesday, April 17 – HOLLY HYATT BAND (Slocan Valley); opened by PYPER STANDING (Cranbrook).
Tuesday, May 14 – THE LOVEBULLIES (Calgary); opened by THE HURRICANES (Cranbrook/Kimberley).
Remaining Winter Ale Concert tickets can be purchased at the Key City Theatre box office or online. All events start at 7:30 p.m.
The Fisher Peak Performing Artists Society is a local non-profit volunteer organization with a mission to advocate, promote and support local performers. They are the same dedicated group that brings the exceptional Summer Sounds concerts, Dancing in the Park program and the ‘PEAK’ Music Festival to Cranbrook’s Rotary Park each year.
Photo: The Wardens
Photo: Oliver McQuaid
Submitted
