OLDS — He’s a good ole’ boy who says he’s lived quite a life, working with horses, bronc riding with the best in the business and playing in the Grand Ole Opry with some of country music’s greatest stars of the '70s and '80s.
Now Cowboy Ted Scott splits much of his time between his home in Calgary and – when he can -- playing at Tracks Pub in Olds during its open mic nights.
On Oct. 6, Cowboy Ted kicked off the Thanksgiving weekend by fronting a three-piece band for a concert at Tracks.
He hit the stage doing some of the big country hits from the '70s and '80s like Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics of Love), and Streets of Bakersfield.
Cowboy Ted was born and raised in rural Ontario, northeast of Toronto.
When he was five or six years old, he pined for a horse. Eventually, his dad bought him a pony. He took to riding right away, and as a result, his parents gave him the name Cowboy Ted.
He says he just naturally took to horses.
“There’s just something (that) happened; I don’t know what it was, from universe or something like that, I understood horses, right from that moment in time,” he said during an interview with the Albertan.
“I’ve spent my whole life training, horses, been a professional horseman, world champion several times and trained horses all over the world.
“They’ve always been kind of my cornerstone to keep me going through all the other things I’ve done in my life. Horses have always been there.”
Cowboy Ted’s dad bought him his first guitar when he was 10 years old.
“He took me down into town, bought me this little guitar; $18, whatever and this book of chords and a couple of old Hank Williams records. That’s how I learned to play,” Scott said. “That’s what really got me hooked on it, just doing that.
“Then I’d watch the old Tommy Hunter show way back when it was (on) Saturday nights. I’d just watch to see where their hands went, because I had no idea.”
Cowboy Ted said when he turned 16, he took his saddle and guitar and drove down to the U.S. to learn how to ride broncs from world champion Casey Tibbs.
He said he then travelled down to Texas, playing his guitar and riding horses, before eventually ending up logging on Vancouver Island.
Cowboy Ted said that’s where he got the break that eventually led him to the big time in Nashville.
In the early 1980s, after getting injured logging, he said he began playing in bars in the Tofino area and put together a bluegrass band.
Cowboy Ted said that band was so good that it impressed Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music, who invited the band to play at his festival in Beanblossom, Indiana.
Performances there led to an invitation to play in the Grand Ole Opry.
“I worked with the greats,” he said, adding he played with country stars like Waylon Jennings, George Jones and Tom T. Hall.
The band toured huge festivals across Europe.
Cowboy Ted said one festival in Roskilde, Denmark attracted about 40,000 people.
“There were all kinds of people there. There was, like, a gamut of people. You think, about the 80s, so there was everything from the Sex Pistols to Johnny Winter rock ‘n roll, DOA, just a whole gamut there,” he said.
Later, he ended up back in B.C. in a new career path, running a big ranch and hotel business with his wife for nearly 30 years “still being a professional cowboy and trainer and singer and all that.”
Eventually he got hurt very badly while working with horses and ended up in hospital in Alberta. He said while in Alberta he met some “really great, great people” and was newly divorced anyway, so decided to stay in the province.
He had stopped playing music for a while but was persuaded to take it up again last New Year’s Eve.
Cowboy Ted heard about the open mics at Tracks from a friend and decided to give it a shot last summer. He’s played at several open mic sessions since then.
However, because the limit is three songs per musician, Cowboy Ted lobbied for a chance to play longer sets, and that led to the Oct. 6 performance.
Scott and Brittney van de Pypekamp own and operate Tracks Pub.
Scott remembers the first time Cowboy Ted came into the pub for an open mic session this past summer.
“He just walked in with his old guitar, and you could tell right away that the guy has played lots of music,” van de Pypekamp said during an interview.
“And then he's got some real pals who he's played with in the past. He's played for (former prime minister) Brian Mulroney.
“He gave me a folder and it's unreal who he's all played for.”
After his three songs were over, Cowboy Ted would wander out to the patio and participate in jam sessions.
“He had a whole bunch of musicians outside and they would jam around the fire,” van de Pypekamp said.
“He mentioned he wanted to do a full show, and he's definitely got the talent.”
Van de Pypekamp said it’s not certain when Cowboy Ted will play at Tracks Pub next because he’s doing some work elsewhere, but he’s welcome to come back.
