Ian Tyson is the archetypal cowboy poet, an authentic and living fragment of Canadiana whose work captures perfectly the spirit of the ranchland in the foothills of the Rockies where he lives and works. It's more than just the music, though; Tyson's songs make up a rich oral history of the ranching lifestyle in Alberta, and of the tenacity of the people who pull through years of drought only to just barely scrape through another season.
Folk music makes for a funny sort of immortality. A lot of it seems to be by chance, too. If Ian Tyson hadn't gotten hurt in a rodeo accident, and had chosen to continue his fledgling career as a bronc rider, we probably wouldn't even have known what we'd missed.
Tyson was born in 1933 in Victoria, British Columbia; hardly the dry sagebrush and cattle country that he sings about now. He worked as a logger for some years before learning to ride horses and rope cattle, becoming a professional rodeo rider and sometime ranch hand, against the wishes of his father.
The turning point came in 1956 after an accident at a rodeo left him in the hospital with a serious ankle injury. While recovering, he learned to play the guitar; in 1958, when he was twenty-four, wanderlust kicked in and he left British Columbia, hitch-hiking to Toronto to be in the middle of the folk music revival.
There he met a very young Sylvia Fricker, also a folk musician; the two combined their talents to form one of the seminal folk groups of the 1960s, as Ian and Sylvia. They were married in 1964.
Then came the British Invasion, and a new era of country-influenced rock music. Ian and Sylvia along with several other area musicians -- N.D. Smart, Buddy Cage, David Wilcox, and Jim Colegrove -- formed a band they called Great Speckled Bird, which for a time rivalled the Byrds in popularity and inspired decades worth of great artists: Neil Young, Bobby Bare, Judy Collins, and Suzy Bogguss are only some of the artists that successfully covered songs by Great Speckled Bird and Ian and Sylvia.
The 1970s began well enough; Ian and Sylvia were invited to host a Canadian television programme, originally entitled "Nashville North" but later renamed "The Ian Tyson Show". It didn't last for long. Their marriage fell apart, and the folk-music duo image seemed to have grown stale. Tyson quit his show and, disillusioned with his musical career, left for southern Alberta to train horses and ride professionally in rodeos.
Three years of idyllic life and work as a cattle rancher on a piece of land outside Longview with a new wife, Twylla, and a young daughter saw Tyson's interest in traditional country music grow. If you've ever been to Longview, just south of Calgary, you'll know why -- Chinook winds blowing in off the mountains and the gently rolling foothills with a horizon that stretches on forever lend themselves well to being written about.
In 1983, Tyson recorded an album of old country ballads and new ones that he'd written as a Christmas gift for family and close friends. He called it Old Corrals and Sagebrush. Oddly enough, it would prove to be the album that relaunched his career as a performing artist.
A small cattle town in northern Nevada, very much akin to the same sorts of towns in the Alberta foothills, held a cowboy poetry festival that same year. Tyson was invited to bring his guitar and perform for a small crowd of saddle makers, cattle punchers, and small-time country singers; the response was overwhelmingly positive, and encouraged him to write and record more albums in the same vein.
Cowboyography, released in 1986, won a Canadian Country Music Award as the year's best album. 1988's I Outgrew the Wagon met with more critical acclaim. A string of other albums followed, backed up by a touring schedule that took him all over North America, playing bars and festivals. Suddenly, Tyson was a star again; he's still touring and recording albums, though at 71 he's slowed down a bit.
I grew up in the heart of southern Alberta's cattle country, the daughter of a sometime country singer and guitarist. I was raised on Neil Young and Tom Russell, Dave Alvin and the Flying Burrito Brothers, but it is mostly Ian Tyson that I remember.
I saw him for the first time in concert when I was nine in Lethbridge, where I grew up. He was drunk off his feet, charismatic as hell telling unfunny jokes in his slow drawl, the band that backed him was stellar, and it was incredible. Afterward my dad bought me a copy of the album Eighteen Inches of Rain, it was new then, and Tyson signed it for me. I've still got it somewhere.
I saw him again in 2000, at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, where he was one of the headlining acts. It was a Sunday, the last night of the festival, and he was one of the last performers to take the main stage that evening. In Edmonton they have a tradition; one of Tyson's best-known and most haunting songs, "Four Strong Winds", closes off the night every year. I had attended the festival before that, but hearing Tyson singing his song accompanied by eight thousand people sat on the hillside remains one of the most achingly beautiful things I've ever experienced.
A reasonably exhaustive list of awards and accolades given to Ian Tyson over the course of his career:
From the Canadian Country Music Association:
- 1987 - Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1987 - Single of the Year - "Navajo Rug"
- 1987 - Album of the Year - Cowboyography
- 1988 - Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1989 - Induction into Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame
- 1991 - Video of the Year for "Springtime in Alberta"
Juno Awards:
Big Country Awards:
- 1975 - Outstanding Performance (male)
- 1975 - Best Country Album for Ol' Eon
- 1975 - Top Country TV Show for "The Ian Tyson Show"
- 1988 - Artist of the Year
- 1988 - Top Male Vocalist
- 1988 - Best Album - Cowboyography
From the Country Music Association of Calgary:
- 1989 - Alberta Male Vocalist of the Year
- 1989 - Alberta Song of the Year for "Fifty Years Ago"
- 1989 - Alberta Single of the Year for "Fifty Years Ago"
- 1989 - Favourite Calgary and Area Country Entertainer
From the Alberta Recording Industry Association:
- 1987 - Male Performer of the Year
- 1987 - Country Artist of the Year
- 1987 - Song of the Year for "Navajo Rug"
- 1987 - Album of the Year for Cowboyography
- 1988 - Single of the Year for "Navajo Rug"
- 1988 - Best Country Artist on Record
- 1988 - Male Recording Artist of the Year
- 1989 - Composer of the Year
- 1989 - Performer of the Year
Miscellaneous:
Discography:
With Sylvia Tyson:
With Great Speckled Bird:
Solo:
Sources:
"The Legendary Ian Tyson - Biography". http://www.iantyson.com/biography.htm
"The Legendary Ian Tyson - Music Awards". http://www.iantyson.com/music_awards.htm
"Tyson, Ian - Biography". Canadian Communications Foundation. http://www.rcc.ryerson.ca/ccf/personal/hof/tyson_i.html
"The Ian Tyson Show with Great Speckled Bird". http://www.thecoolgroove.com/ian_tyson_show.html
The All Music Guide. http://www.allmusic.com | 
