History buffs rejoice! This weekend, Banff National Park will celebrate 125 years of national parks in Canada, which is actually incredibly important to the development of the West in general and Calgary in particular — but before your eyes glaze over and start searching for anything that isn’t Canadian history, well, there will be music. Specifically, there will be glam-folk-pop alchemist Hawksley Workman, relentlessly consistent folkie Matthew Barber and much-loved trad-folk party band Spirit of the West. The whole thing goes down on Saturday, July 3 at Cascade Gardens, which is certainly a more-than-decent place to spend your Canada Day long weekend.

If you can’t make it out of town, the obvious thing to do this week is Sled Island, but if you’re looking to avoid all that indie-rock brouhaha, there are a couple of other considerations. On Friday, July 2, The Ironwood will be hosting Toronto roots-rock band The Warped 45s, which has been earning accolades across the country on the strength of 10 Day Poem for Saskatchewan. Although the band travels the same musical terrain as The Band, mixing soul, gospel and folk into its country-tinged ballads, that’s nothing to be ashamed of — those grounds are still mighty fertile. Ontario singer-songwriter Roger Marin will open.

If Sled Island just wasn’t crazy enough for you, try heading down to Soda on Wednesday, July 7. Saskatoon electronic artist Holzkopf has made some concessions to pop accessibility in recent years, but that just means that destroying your brain has been bumped down to a secondary goal. Dark, punishing beats, impossibly rumbling bass and bizarre synth squelches are still par for the course, but now you can dance to it. Also on the bill: vaguely industrial Calgary DJ Mind Kontrol Ultra and Lodestar Supernumerary, who has a surprisingly good remix of the Price is Right theme on his MySpace.

On the more organic side, B.C.’s Joey Only Outlaw Band will be heading through Vern’s Tavern and plying its brand of broken-down honky-tonk country, also on July 7. Vancouver’s The Epitomees will rough up the bill with feedback-drenched dirges about date rape, and Epidemic rounds out the lineup.

Lastly, Thursday, July 8 is the start of that other giant Calgary festival — the one with all the cowboys and such. So, decide how you feel about that and act accordingly.