Denise Withnell

Denise Withnell started playing guitar and singing with Cowboy Celtic in January 1996.

Denise was raised on the Alberta prairie in cattle ranching, farming and rodeo country. Her mother raised chickens and sold eggs to make the extra money that put all six of her children through years of classical piano lessons.

Denise’s family is a musical one — her father played the sax all of his life, and two of Denise’s siblings are professional musicians. Her love for Celtic music and songs comes naturally, as her mother, whose roots are Irish, and her Scottish-born grandmother taught her and her brothers and sisters traditional Scottish and Irish songs and rhymes as they were growing up. As for the interest in cowboy music, her uncle “Spud” knew all the old traditional cowboy songs, but it was really David Wilkie’s passion for the history of “things musical, cowboy and Celtic” that sparked her interest the most.

Denise has a solo CD called Rose Petal Pie, which is a combination of swing, jazz and Paris bistro-style music. It features five songs written by David Wilkie, one of which was co-written with Montana poet extraordinaire Paul Zarzyski.