Working cowboy musician, Ian Tyson

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

By Aaron Davis

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The first time I saw Canadian singer-songwriter Ian Tyson was in the rockumentary film Festival Express, about the 1970 cross-Canada rock-and-roll train tour with The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and many more. His folk duo through the 60s and early 70s, Ian and Sylvia, were a part of country-rock group Great Speckled Bird and a great version of “CC Rider” with Jerry Garcia was featured in the film. 

Tyson’s 50-year career as a folk, country and Western music performer and recording artist has always been closely associated with his life as a rancher in the foothills of Southern Alberta. His lyrical content since the 80s has focused on the concerns of the working cowboy.

Tyson is most widely known for his folk classic “Four Strong Winds.” The tune is based on the life of transient farm workers, and has been recorded by many artists including Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, Hank Snow, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and Waylon Jennings. In 2005, CBC Radio One listeners chose this song as the greatest Canadian song of all time.

The folk and country legend has played Jackson numerous times since his first concert at the Wort Hotel in 1986. And not only will he roll into town with a new album, Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories (Stony Plain Music/2008), and a new children’s book based upon his song “La Primera”—Tyson also has a new voice.

“It’s almost been like starting over again,” said Tyson, who permanently damaged his voice two years ago at a big outdoor show in Ontario. “When I walked out on stage for the first time, I wasn’t really sure what was going to come out. It’s been interesting. I still have a good high register and people have not only accepted it, but many think that my new voice makes the stories more dramatic, and say it has a vulnerable quality.”

Once firm and deep, smooth and full of range, his new voice is gravelly, labored, and breathy—reminiscent to Johnny Cash’s vocal timbre on his last album, American Recordings, but not as dark and emotional. He’s had to change keys for just about all of his songs. This new vocal quality works great on the title track of his recent album, which tells the story of a pack of wolves transported from Yellowhead Pass in Canada to Yellowstone Park, where the species had become extinct. The narrative is told in the first person, from the perspective of one of the wolves that made the journey.

“The West without wolves is not the West,” said Tyson as we began discussing the controversy concerning the reintroduction of the species. “People in Montana get hysterical about it, and when you get hysterical you don’t think logically. We haven’t had problems with them up here [in Canada], and I know that ranchers get reimbursed, but it causes stress to cattle and there still has to be a balance.”
On the heels of a difficult divorce, another broken love affair, and his recent 75th birthday, Tyson’s latest effort is his 14th album for the Edmonton-based roots music label Stony Plain, and it has been well received by critics.  PJH

Bassist Gord Maxwell and guitarist Gord Matthews will join Ian Tyson at 7 p.m., Sunday at the Center Theater. Tickets are $44 and $38.50 (plus tax), available at the Center Box Office, 265 S. Cache St., 733-4900 or online at www.JHCenterForTheArts.org.

Courtesy photo
Ian Tyson is a voice of the West.

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Working cowboy musician, Ian Tyson | Planet JH News Article: Music Box

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