23913 posts 12/9/2013 8:42 am
Last Read:
12/9/2013 1:37 pm
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Got any
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Famous singers from your area??
Ian Tyson figures he has one more album in him. At the age of 80, the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter is still living on his ranch in Alberta, riding horses, doing chores and keeping an eye on the weather.
What’s more, the man who wrote the classic slice of Canadiana, Four Strong Winds, almost 50 years ago, still releases albums regularly, and performs a smattering of concert dates each year. His voice is in great shape again, and he’s energized by a collaboration with a fellow Alberta singer-songwriter of the younger generation: Corb Lund.
And yes, the aging cowboy has also been doing some songwriting for what he says is likely to be a farewell album.
“I’m trying to write,” Tyson said in a recent phone interview. “They don’t come easy. I’ve got a couple of good songs. I’d like to do one more record but it’s going to take a while. It will probably take the best part of a year to get done, I would think.”
Although Tyson refers to writing as a challenge, he hasn’t had much of a dry spell. This year’s greatest hits collection, volume 2, features songs from his last five albums, including 2012’s Raven Singer and 2008’s Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories.
On those albums, Tyson’s voice sounds ravaged and worn. It was damaged six years ago by the strain of singing, a condition further complicated by a virus, and Tyson was forced to deal with what he thought was a permanent change in his voice.
But last year a Calgary specialist, Dr. Tom Gillis, performed polyp surgery, and Tyson underwent followup vocal training with therapist Katherine Ardo.
“It was a miracle,” Tyson says of the surgery that reclaimed his famous voice.
He’s in top form for the current tour, which brings Tyson, Lund and their acoustic cowboy fare together as performers.
The two former rodeo riders first crossed paths when Lund participated in the Tyson tribute album, The Gift. Tyson liked Lund’s version of M.C. Horses, went to see his show and invited him to the ranch.
The cowboys found themselves digging into the history of the Stampede and its influence on Western culture. They bonded while sharing songs and stories, and devised a show that ran for five nights last year in a Calgary theatre. As a musician, Tyson first made his mark when he drifted to Toronto in the late 1950s and became immersed in the coffee house scene, soon forming a duo with a dark-haired singer named Sylvia.
“I got swept up in that and met this lovely young lady and became successful for a couple of years,” he says, with characteristic understatement. “But after the folk thing went away, and gave in to the Beatles, we diverged amicably. I was just wanting to be back in the west again and fritter all my money away on horses and cows, which I’ve been very successful at, by the way.”
It wasn’t a straight path. Tyson was headed to Texas but couldn’t get across the border because of legal issues.
“It was the best thing that happened to me,” he says now. “If I went down to Texas, I’d be a cowboy or a trader or whatever. But I ended up coming to Alberta again.
“I missed the life, and the land especially. I got to know the Rockies before I left, and I started up there wrangling horses, and never lost that feeling. It draws you back, magnetic.”
Thanks to Neil Young, who recorded Four Strong Winds and generated royalties for Tyson, he was able to buy a ranch with his second wife. “It’s much smaller now because of the divorces and so on, but yeah, I’ve been here 32 years.”
He’s starting to think, however, about watching the sun set in a warmer climate. Arizona used to be where Alberta cowboys went to retire but Tyson doesn’t want to live in the United States. It rains too much in Victoria, he adds, but hints that Spain might be an option.
“The whole cowboy culture comes from Spain, and it’s all based on horses,” he points out. “You take away the from the equation and you don’t have cowboys or nothing. You don’t want to miss that.”
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
I bet most of you have not even heard of him. He is a great guy I have had drinks with him.
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This is not meant to offend any one in any way.
 
  
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50414 posts 12/9/2013 1:37 pm |
Quoting BusterTheMaster:
He knows the secret: Never give up! Never quit what you love!
This is not meant to offend any one in any way.
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4709 posts 12/9/2013 12:48 pm |
He knows the secret: Never give up! Never quit what you love!
Buster The Master
Second star to the right and then straight ahead until morning...
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50414 posts 12/9/2013 9:16 am |
he is for sure. One of my heroes.
This is not meant to offend any one in any way.
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50414 posts 12/9/2013 9:15 am |
That is great
This is not meant to offend any one in any way.
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45446 posts 12/9/2013 8:58 am |
He gotta be an ok guy 
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---------------------Dennis US ARMY (RETIRED) AND YOUR FRIEND 
