BANFF – Banjo and mandolin plucking, fiddle-playing hillbillies are coming out of the Yukon bush to entertain Banff.
The Lucky Ones will be rocking The Storm Cellar in Banff on Thursday (July 18) at 7 p.m. as part of their tour for their latest EP, A Nickle For The Fiddler.
Unknowingly, when the band hit the studio built into an old farmhouse to record their latest songs they stepped into band member Ryan West’s great grandfather’s old Ontario home.
“Just the atmosphere in there, and the fact of using all these antique equipment, it really felt like I was playing with the ghost of some of my family,” said West. “Everything had kind of been left as it has since way back in the day.”
West said the band is looking forward to performing in the mountain town for the first time.
“We’ve actually been kind of circling around you guys in Alberta,” he said. “We’re really excited to play Banff. It’s a beautiful, beautiful spot.”
The Lucky One’s newest release is a “tip of hat” to musicians who have inspired their bluegrass sound. One personal favourite is Yukon local legend Joe Loutchan who held down Whitehorse’s watering hole, the ‘98 Hotel since 1982.
“Sadly, we lost him a couple years ago, and so we took over his residency for a little while, but now we’re taking it out on the road and just adding a lot more fiddle tunes to our repertoire in honour and homage of our friends here,” said West.
West said the band’s used their music to hold the tradition of fiddle and country music in Canada’s north.
“There’s a long-standing tradition of country music, of traditional music, of fiddle tunes that is unique to northern Canada and the Yukon and Northwest Territories,” said West. “I don’t think people are quite aware of that, or maybe it doesn’t get as much notice as it could. And so we’re trying to keep that tradition alive and keep people dancing.”
The crew will be following their mountain town show with performances around the province, like in Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat, among others, before they return north to close out the tour.
“If the local folks from Banff want to get away in tourist season, they can come see us at the old ‘98 Hotel at Whitehorse someday,” said West.
