"Mr. Tyson... began his music career as half of the folk-era duo Ian and Sylvia and went on to become a revered figure in his home country.... [His] song 'Four Strong Winds' in 2005 was voted the most essential Canadian piece of music by the listeners of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation public radio network...."
"In 1962, they moved to New York and became mainstays in the emergent American folk scene, and friends with Bob Dylan and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo, who described Mr. Tyson as 'movie-star handsome' and 'the best looking of all the cowboy dudes in Greenwich Village' in her 2008 memoir, 'A Freewheelin’ Time.'...
"A 2008 profile in The Globe and Mail when he was nearing 75 captured some of the details of it at his T-Bar-Y ranch: The 6 a.m.-to-6 p.m. work schedule. The Monday washing (five pairs of Wranglers to get him through the week). The 'mean, garlicky' buffalo he cooked... 'I became a historian, a chronicler of this way of life... and this way of life is just about over. The cowboys are all gone.' It was a theme he often came back to. 'People tell me, Tyson, you’re always longing for the old days... And they’re right, that’s true — I live in the past. And it was way better.'"
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From Wikipedia:
"Like the subject of "Someday Soon", Tyson had been a rodeo rider in his youth, an on-the-job injury ending Tyson's career in his mid-20s (that injury led to Tyson's interest in music: while hospitalized he learned to play the guitar to pass the time). Tyson had written the song at the Lower East Side apartment of Sylvia Fricker, his musical partner in Ian & Sylvia: (Ian Tyson quote:) "I don't know where I got the idea for [writing] a song from a girl's perspective. I stole the first line of ['Someday Soon'] from an old Stanley Brothers...bluegrass song. But I don't know where I got that plotline."
Because it's "from a girl's perspective," we tend to falsely believe that Judy Collins wrote it.
Sorry to see him go. I have several Ian and Sylvia albums on my phone. Also on CD, cassette and vinyl. Probably the only ones besides some van Morrison I have in all formats.
Rip, Ian.
I also like mitch and mickey. A bit windy at times but still good.
John Henry
'People tell me, Tyson, you’re always longing for the old days... And they’re right, that’s true — I live in the past. And it was way better.'"
... until you get sick and need some modern health care.
My mom always included Ian and Sylvia in her mix, back in the days when she stacked albums on the turntable. Loved their harmonies and their slightly Celtic tone. They didn't write ear worm music, though, so I couldn't sing anything to you.
When you Get Right Down To It... Duluth is pretty much Canada too
It is not too much to say that Ian Tyson shaped my life in profound ways, including the name of my first son.
Growing up in small-town New England, I was drawn towards a version of rural life quite different and yet much the same as the cows and clams I knew. Having attended several Ian & Sylvia concerts at Middlebury and Yale, I became so intrigued by western Canada that I hitch-hiked from New Haven to Vancouver, where I set up a secret camp and lived in Stanley Park for several weeks. Alberta, both southern and northern, grabbed me in particular. The following year I worked for a summer in Montana, right in the region of the recent 'Yellowstone' series, but Alberta kept calling, and Tyson's songs kept reminding me.
The following year I was accepted into the the University of Alberta doctoral program (Geology) in Edmonton and iacta alea est. In the event, it happened that the Ag department shared the building with Geology and Soils wooed me away into my ultimate career of Agronomy and farming. After decades in Canada, eventually I returned the my native US, where I now farm in Kansas, with cattle and wheat and rodeos all over the place.
I was listening to some Ian and Sylvia just last week, and remarking to myself how much they influenced and shaped my understanding that I was destined to spend my life, happily, out here ... Beyond the Sidewalks.
My favorite Ian and Sylvia song is the almost-impossible to sing V'la l'bon vent.
Someday Soon is a great song. A little too much range for me to sing well, dammit. The good ones are always like that.
So much talent from Canada.
He'll pass and be forgotten like the rest. Still he led an absolutely worthy life and some music that will be passed on for another one or two generations.
"... until you get sick and need some modern health care."
Um, we're talking Canada here. Now they just kill you.
I just read Bart Hall's appreciation. Well good for Bart to pick up on what was best in Ian's music. I'm listening to one of his albums now. His music seems healthy and optimistic. Much better to have been under his influence than that of, say, Lou Reed.... It's rare that you encounter someone whose life was changed by music other than that of the Beatle's, Dylan, or Coltrane.
I'm genuinely perplexed by the direction Canada has gone as a country. Same with Australia. I always had a romanticized view of these two countries. I thought the extreme weather and the difficult terrain would maintain them as bastions of individualism and common sense. Now they're worse than America. Where are we supposed to escape to? Iceland?
Have followed Ian Tyson through his folk years with Sylvia, through their brief flirtation/transition with country-rock as "Great Speckled Bird", on the Festival Express" train tour of Canada with the Dead, Joplin, the Band and many others) and his post Sylvia cowboy/western years. Wonderful storyteller ("La Primera", "Claude Dallas", "Summer Wages") and even better voice. Sad to hear of his passing, but his recordings allow the musical, emotional journey to carry on.
Ah, John Henry. Can anyone appreciate Mitch and Mickey without knowing Ian and Sylvia? Yes, but the wind tastes more delicious when you do.
I heard the names, but don't know Ian and Sylvia from Paul and Paula.
Somebody I never heard of before, just for you:
How Canada’s Bob Dylan Ended up a Taxi Driver
Poet and songwriter Bill Hawkins rubbed elbows with Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, and other stars. Why didn’t he become one himself?
We have Canada to thank for folk singers, professional wrestlers and toothless hockey players.
So what happened? I mean Justin Trudeau? Seriously?
Very interesting comment from Bart Hall.
Maynard,
Don't forget that Trudeau was not elected by anyone.
His party suggested him to Queen Elizabeth's appointed governor general. The GG, with Queen Liz' approval one assumes, appointed him to be Queen Elizabeth's (not Canada's) Prime Minister for Canada.
John Henry
John Henry--I see what you did there.
I have a playlist of their work on Spotify, but I also hear them through covers by C & W singers, particularly Bobby Bare doing "Early Morning Rain." When I started college at WVU in 1965 there was a "coffee shop" called The Last Resort in Morgantown, West Virginia. There was a lot of bad talent (one of the things I'll always hold against the sixties was the proliferation of bad guitar players) but there were three or four talented and skillful performers who specialized in covering Dylan, Collins,
Phil Ochs and a lot of Ian and Sylvia.
The Last Resort was actually open just on Friday and Saturday evenings, served all the free coffee and peanuts you wanted, and
was funded by the local Presbyterian Church as an alternative to the more common alcohol laden venues for
students to be entertained. Remember this was 1965 when 3.2 % ABV beer was available to 18 year olds. It was a
few years later that the drinking age was raised to 21 and the voting age lowered to 18. A turning point in the collapse of civilization?
I recall that era somewhat. This article reminds me of the theme of "moving". Going someplace. Leaving. Distance. Saw an interview with one folkie trying to make it, remarked he didn't feel comfortable until he was five hundred miles out of town. Had to say it. Was in the air.
The idea of folk music with its vague hints of C&W, space, rural, in Greenwich Village always made me wonder.
I can't carry a tune in a Hefty bag. Been invited not to sing in a number of venues, including Army marching songs. Can't read music. So...wonder if the melodies go back to...some old hymn traditions. A guy in his thirties, say, living in the rat race of NYC moderated by being in Greenwich Village, from a suburb someplace, writes a tune which sounds...old. Not copies but....some conventions, maybe?
>>... until you get sick and need some modern health care.
Ha (and the followup). I call that 'pastopianism' (I'm an archaeologist, btw). If you really were dropped back into the 1850s you'd find it to be dirty, smelly, violent, and unhealthy.
Never heard of these two m'self (I'm not much of a folkie), although I have a fondness for Lightfoot. He's got a documentary floating around on him and it took me several minutes to realize the scrawny old guy talking was really him.
Well I’ll call my dog and take the truck
and I’ll drive on in to town,
for the nights to come are long
and slow to go.
But ... but ... HANK SNOW!!!!
How soon they forget.
Here is the real Canadian folk artist singing Squid Jigging Ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyHJ7XU5eLE
The greatest Canadian folk singer was Stan Rogers, but then, what do I know. Hank Snow is a close runner up, but he lived longer and was less visibly Canadian.
If you want some entertainment listen to Hank’s recording of Robert W. Service.
Sister and I were big Ian & Sylvia fans. Got about 6 of their records. Ian Tyson had a great ranging voice. Saw them several times at the Troubadour in LA. You'd find him at the bar between sets. Four Rode By (think John Herald flat-picked) and Play One More were my two favorite songs. Real deal, him.
"I'm genuinely perplexed by the direction Canada has gone as a country. Same with Australia. I always had a romanticized view of these two countries. I thought the extreme weather and the difficult terrain would maintain them as bastions of individualism and common sense. Now they're worse than America. Where are we supposed to escape to? Iceland?
Worse than America in what respects?"
I have never heard of Ian and Sylvia before, but reading this post and the comments immediately reminded me of the folk duo from Christopher Guest's A Mighty Wind. Sure enough, Mitch & Mickey (played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) were supposed to be based on Ian and Sylvia. Guess they really nailed the parody.
Worse than America in what respects?"
Canada is actually much better than America. They have evolved to the point where freedom is irrelevant.
IOW, they live on a higher plane of existence.
Robert Cook
Start with their horrible healthcare system. Free but often unavailable. Good for euthanasia, however.
"until you get sick and need some modern health care."
Ha (and the followup). I call that 'pastopianism' (I'm an archaeologist, btw). If you really were dropped back into the 1850s you'd find it to be dirty, smelly, violent, and unhealthy.
I often remarked to my friends that I would have been very happy, and maybe happier, to have lived in some past era. But I would have had an early death two or three times over so...
I could not have identified Ian Tyson by name but some of the songs are familar since I was alive in that past era. I'm glad that he, and Sylvia, made it--so many exceptionally talented musicians never do, as suggested by another above. Tenacity counts for a lot but certainly in that world, luck can make or break.
It's a good life, if you don't weaken.
"If you have to ask,you'll never know." - Louis Armstrong
Listen to Ian sing: "The Mighty MC" and then read Wm. Kittredge's (executive producer of "A River Runs Through", beloved U. of Montana English professor, and brilliant writer) stunning memoir: "A Hole in the Sky". Ian Tyson has influenced my life choices more than any other musician and his entire catalog is well worth listening to.
I regularly want on my uke playing "You Were On My Mind," written by Ian & Sylvia, popularized by Wee Five. What a tune! Made my tenth year on the planet pretty groovy.
Canada was supposed to be the anti-America, Britain's loyal son, devoted to order and good government, rather than to liberty or equality. Whether or not they are that well-governed, Canadians are obedient, well-behaved, and well-controlled. Australia came of age later, when socialism was already a potent idea. Their way of rebelling against Britain, took a very different form from ours. They didn't throw off the crown. but they've been acting out against British ideas of hierarchy ever since.
Bart Hall wins the thread. A great appreciation.
Early morning rain….never gets old, never fails to well up in my eyes. RIP.
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