Career

Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria in 1933, and grew up in Duncan B.C. A rodeo rider in his late teens and early twenties, he took up the guitar while recovering from an injury he sustained in a fall. He has named fellow Canadian country artist Wilf Carter as a musical influence. He made his singing debut at the Heidelberg Café in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1956 and played with a rock and roll band, "The Sensational Stripes." After graduation from the Vancouver School of Art in 1958, Tyson moved to Toronto, Ontario where he commenced a job as a commercial artist. There he performed in local clubs and in 1959 began to sing on occasion with Sylvia Fricker. By early 1959 Tyson and Fricker were performing part-time at the Village Corner as "Ian & Sylvia." The pair became a full-time musical act in 1961 and married four years later. In 1969, they formed and fronted the group The Great Speckled Bird. Residing in southern Alberta, Tyson toured all over the world.

From 1971 to 1975, he hosted a national television program, The Ian Tyson Show, on CTV, based on the 1970-71 season music show Nashville North, later titled Nashville Now.

As of 1980, Tyson became associated with Calgary music manager and producer Neil MacGonigill. Tyson decided to concentrate on country and cowboy music, resulting in the well-received 1983 album, Old Corrals and Sagebrush, released on Columbia Records.

In 1989, Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2005, CBC Radio One listeners chose his song "Four Strong Winds" as the greatest Canadian song of all time on the series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version. There was strong momentum for him to be nominated the Greatest Canadian, but he fell short. He has been a strong influence on many Canadian artists, including Neil Young, who recorded "Four Strong Winds" for Comes a Time (1978). Johnny Cash would also record the same song for American V: A Hundred Highways (2006). Judy Collins recorded a version of his popular song, "Someday Soon", in 1968.

Bob Dylan and the Band recorded his song "One Single River" in Woodstock, NY in 1967. The recording can be found on the unreleased Genuine Basement Tapes, vol. I.

In 2006, Tyson sustained irreversible scarring to his vocal cords as a result of a concert at the Havelock Country Jamboree followed a year later by a virus contracted during a flight to Denver. This resulted in a notable loss of the remarkable quality and range he was known for; he has self-described his new sound as "gravelly". Notwithstanding, he released the album "From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories" in 2008 to high critical praise. He was nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Solo Artist of the Year. The album includes a song about Canadian hockey broadcasting icon Don Cherry and the passing of his wife Rose, a rare Tyson cover written by Toronto songwriter Jay Aymar.

In 2010, Tyson put out his memoir The Long Trail: My Life in the West. Co-written with Calgary journalist Jeremy Klaszus, the book "alternates between autobiography and a broader study of relationship to the 'West' - both as a fading reality and a cultural ideal." CBC's Michael Enright said the book is like Tyson himself - "straightforward, unglazed and honest."

Tyson has also written a book of young-adult fiction about his song "La Primera", called La Primera: The Story of Wild Mustangs.

Personal

Tyson's first marriage, to Sylvia Fricker Tyson, ended in an amicable divorce in 1975. Their son Clay (Clayton Dawson Tyson, born 1966) was also a musical performer, and then moved to a career modifying racing bikes.

Ian Tyson married Twylla Dvorkin in 1986, and their daughter Adelita was born c. 1987. Tyson's second marriage ended in divorce which was made official in early 2008, several years after separating from Dvorkin.

Awards and recognition

Tyson became a Member of the Order of Canada in October 1994, and was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2006. In 2003, Tyson received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award.

Tribute recordings

A tribute CD to Ian Tyson, The Gift, was released in 2007 on Stony Plain Records featuring "Someday Soon" done by Doug Andrew with Buddy Cage on pedal steel guitar (Buddy played in Great Speckled Bird), "Four Strong Winds" recorded by Blue Rodeo, plus another 13 of Tyson's best known songs done by major folk and country artists. The album is titled after a song of Tyson's, which itself is a tribute to Charles M. Russell.

Discography

Albums

The 1987 album Cowboyography contained two songs that were later chosen by the Western Writers of America as among the Top 100 Western Songs of all time: "Navajo Rug" and "Summer Wages".

Year	Title	Chart Positions		CRIA
1973	Ol' Eon		81
1978	One Jump Ahead of the Devil
1983	Old Corrals and Sagebrush
1984	Ian Tyson
1987	Cowboyography			Platinum
1989	I Outgrew the Wagon	12	74	Gold
1991	And Stood There Amazed	16
1994	Eighteen Inches of Rain	9
1996	All the Good 'Uns	21		Gold
1999	Lost Herd
2002	Live at Longview
2005	Songs from the Gravel Road
2008	Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories
2011	Songs from the Stone House
2012	Raven Singer
2013	All the Good 'Uns Vol. 2
2015	Carnero Vaquero

Singles

Year	Title	Peak positions		Album
		CAN Country	CAN AC
1973	"Love Can Bless the Soul of Anyone"	—	46	Ol' Eon
1974	"Great Canadian Tour"	—	13
	"She's My Greatest Blessing"	—	—
	"Some Kind of Fool"	—	—
1979	"Half a Mile of Hell"	26	—	One Jump Ahead of the Devil
1980	"The Moondancer"	19	—	Non-album single
1983	"Alberta's Child"	—	—	Old Corrals and Sagebrush
1984	"Oklahoma Hills"	40	—	Ian Tyson
1987	"Cowboy Pride"	9	—	Cowboyography
	"The Gift"	17	—
1988	"Fifty Years Ago"	8	—
1989	"Irving Berlin (Is 100 Yrs Old Today)"	24	—	I Outgrew the Wagon
	"Cowboys Don't Cry"	25	—
	"Adelita Rose"	23	—
1990	"Casey Tibbs"	29	—
	"Since the Rain"	17	—
	"I Outgrew the Wagon"	33	—
1991	"Springtime in Alberta"	9	—	And Stood There Amazed
	"Black Nights"	35	—
1992	"Lights of Laramie"	9	—
	"Magpie"	43	—
	"You're Not Alone Anymore"	47	—
1993	"Jaquima to Freno"	30	—
1994	"Alcohol in the Bloodstream"	11	—	Eighteen Inches of Rain
	"Eighteen Inches of Rain"	27	—
	"Heartaches Are Stealin'"	39	—
1995	"Horsethief Moon"	68	—
1996	"Barrel Racing Angel"	35	—	All the Good 'uns
1997	"The Wonder of It All"	—	—
1999	"Brahmas and Mustangs"	—	—	Lost Herd
2005	"Land of Shining Mountains"	—	—	Songs from the Gravel Road
	"This Is My Sky"	—	—
2006	"Always Saying Goodbye"	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Notes

• A ^ "Love Can Bless the Soul of Anyone" peaked at number 61 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada.

Videography

Year	Title	Notes
1971-1974	Ian Tyson Show	CTV network
2010	Songs From the Gravel Road	Bravo! Network documentary
2010	Mano A Mano	DVD w/Tom Russell
2010	This is My Sky	DVD set

[ Source: Wikipedia ]