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Ian Tyson, the
iconic Canadian
songwriter and
singer who lives
on a ranch in
Alberta’s Rocky
Mountains, has
had a tough two
years since his
last album,
2005’s
Songs from the
Gravel Road.
Ian Tyson is
perhaps
best-known to
mainstream
audiences for
his success with
the folk duo Ian
and Sylvia in
the 1960s and as
a songwriter,
with tunes such
as “Someday
Soon,” “Navajo
Rug,” and
especially “Four
Strong Winds,”
which has been
covered more
than 100 times
by artists
ranging from
Neil Young,
Johnny Cash and
Bob Dylan to
Judy Collins,
Marianne
Faithfull and
Waylon Jennings.
A
regular
performer at the
Cowboy Poetry
Gathering held
in Elko, Nevada,
Ian Tyson was
honored at the
25th
annual event in
late January,
2009, with the
presentation
from his fans of
a Lifetime
Achievement
Award: a
custom-made,
silver-mounted
saddle created
by the
world-famous
Hamley & Company
of Pendleton,
Oregon.
“Dramatic
change” hardly
comes close to
describing a
difficult
divorce, another
broken love
affair, and his
recent 75th
birthday, which
he faced with a
mixture of
satisfaction and
regret.
Now, with the
release of
Yellowhead to
Yellowstone and
other Love
Stories
on Stony Plain
Records, his
long-time fans
will discover
something else:
Ian Tyson has a
new voice. It’s
his 14th
album for the
Edmonton-based
roots music
label Stony
Plain, and was
produced by
Nashville’s
Harry Stinson,
who’s worked
with a who’s-who
in Music City,
from George
Jones and Marty
Stuart to Rodney
Crowell and
Steve Earle.
Ian Tyson’s “new
voice”
Grainy,
gravelly, and
deeply
emotional, one
of the smoothest
voices in
Canadian music
is now
dramatically
different. What
happened? “Well,
a couple of
years ago,” says
Tyson in a
matter-of-fact
tone, “I played
a big outdoor
show in Ontario.
I fought the
sound system —
and I lost.
“I knew I’d hurt
my voice, and it
was recovering
slowly when I
was hit with a
bad virus, which
seemed to last
forever. My old
voice isn’t
coming back, the
doctors told me,
so I’ve had to
get used to this
new one.”
That has been a
challenge, Tyson
says, but he
says audiences
have warmed to
it. “They seem
to pay more
attention, now,
to the lyrics
and the stories
in the songs.
And while I’ve
lost some of the
bottom end of my
voice, the top
range, oddly
enough, is still
there.”
The title song
of the CD was
co-written by
Tyson with
Stewart
MacDougall, and
tells the story
of a pack of
wolves
transported from
Canada’s
Yellowhead Pass
to America’s
Yellowstone
National Park,
where the
species had
become extinct —
told in the
voice of one of
the wolves who
made the
journey. Another
remarkable song,
contributed by
Toronto
songwriter Jay
Aymar, is about
hockey
commentator Don
Cherry and the
death of his
beloved wife,
Rose.
The eight new
songs by Tyson
(of the album’s
10 total) cover
a range of
emotions and
stories relating
to Alberta’s
cultural
landscape and
the disappearing
cowboy, as well
as his personal
life. The
writer rarely
tells exactly
what they’re
about, but
expects his
listeners to
understand where
the songs are
coming from. |
