https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/canadian-folk-legend-ian-tyson-has-died-at-the-age-of-89-former-wife-says-1.6211959

He was 89.

”Sylvia Tyson remembered her ex-husband as a "versatile" and "very serious songwriter."

"He put a lot of time and energy into his songwriting and felt his material very strongly, especially the whole cowboy lifestyle," she told The Canadian Press on Thursday.

Ian Tyson always found himself drawn to the frontier. In fact, he began perfecting his guitar skills when he was forced to recover from injuries sustained in the rodeo.”

Please excuse typo in OP. Sorry

He had a beautiful voice and seemed to sing effortlessly. Ian & Sylvia had an important presence in the folk revival years, though perhaps better known and respected by fellow musicians and less well than they should have been by the general public. I have a pretty complete collection of their recordings and enjoy listening to them regularly. I think Four Strong Winds and Lovin' Sound, both written by Ian, are two of the most beautiful and haunting songs of their genre.

I don't care for country/western music and so I didn't really like much of what he did after he and Sylvia parted ways.

He was a major name in the ranks of Canadian musicians and in the American folk music scene and will be long remembered.

For comparison, as originally recorded by I&S in a folk rather than country style. I'm sure personal preferences will be split between the two.

Elmer, I’m happy that you think his voice is beautiful! I think it is, too.

I remember your critique of him on a supposedly fun FNM thread. Just out of the blue, no reason at all, after his recording was posted, you said.

“I'm no fan of his (as an individual or as a performer) at all. As I recall, he grew up in Western Canada and was drawn toward country music at some point along the way.”

“He became a Canadian cowboy, life style and music wise, and never did anything that approached what they had done together.”

You also commented on his personal life.

I think he was happiest being a Canadian cowboy.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6088724/friday-night-music-the-world-places-in-it#n=48

I think in many cases the writer of a song does not make the best recording of it. I like pretty much every version of an Ian Tyson song sung by Ian Tyson. It seems more personal.

I know you are a fan of Ian and Sylvia. I am too. This might interest you.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/ian-tyson-sylvia-tyson-1.5261986

I'm not sure why you shuffled my comments out of order from how I wrote them and presented them in a way that makes them seem to be part of one continuous post, which they were not.

I'll stick to what I said. He had a terrific voice. I think she had the better voice of the two of them and it makes no sense to me why (as she has said in interviews, as a point of dispute between them) he refused to allow her to sing the lead part on more songs. Her harmonies are sometimes buried too deep in the mixes. There's a YouTube video of a live performance of Lovin' Sound on the Johnny Cash show that can be found by searching for its mislabeling, Loving is Really Living by them. His microphone is too low as the song starts and you can hear and really appreciate her performance of the harmony part. Which, I've found myself, is harder to sing in any song than than melody parts are.

I commented on his personal life because the group I like and admire, Ian & Sylvia, were a duo composed of a married couple that both broke up (the group and the married couple) because Ian couldn't keep his pants on and Sylvia wouldn't put up with that. He was the one that made his personal conduct a relevant topic for those who followed and supported the group.

I'm mildly amused that in that earlier link as in this one, I followed your post of a country-version of Four Strong Winds by Ian alone with the duo's version in its original folk style, which I think is superior.

PS - I have the Lost Tapes CD. I'm not sure what he's carping about in the article you linked to. I think the live performances (of which of them today exist too precious few) are quite good and show an energy and freshness that studio recordings usually lack. I do prefer the first CD (performances of known recorded songs) to the second, which are more unreleased recordings and more country-style.

Oh, gosh Elmer!

There was no reason as to how I quoted you! They are two quotes from one thread that I linked to.

Your comments on that thread stuck with me as to how much you disliked Ian Tyson as a solo singer. I was actually surprised that you commented on his death.

In the link I posted I mentioned Ian and Sylvia fronting The Great Speckled Bird and their TV program in Canada, just in case you hadn’t heard about it and thought it would be of interest to a fan. I thought you might say thank you. Apparently, I was wrong.

I was also wrong in thinking that you would like to see an old interview of Ian and Sylvia. I thought you might say thank you for the link. My mistake for thinking that I could have a normal conversation with you.🙄 There is nothing you don’t know.

I like both versions of the song. The original version of a song quite often is not the best version. Of course it is a preference thing.

I’m happy they didn’t stay together. Sylvia could go on and sing lead to her heart‘s content and Ian could become a rancher and singing cowboy in Canada. Sounds like a win-win situation. They seemed at peace with one another.

Here’s another link to an article just in case anyone is interested

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2022/12/29/cp-newsalert-folk-legend-ian-tyson-known-for-hit-four-strong-winds-dies-at-89.html

also

https://www.cbc.ca/music/beyond-four-strong-winds-5-essential-ian-tyson-songs-1.6699847

Oh, I loved Ian and Sylvia. Still do, I guess, though I haven't listened to their music in years.

roxsol, I'm not sure what's up with your response. We had a normal conversation, one between two people with clearly different perspectives and attitudes.

A know-it all attitude? No, but an informed one. I've followed them for decades. The John Einarson book I read on I&S is 350 pages long. I bought it over 10 years ago, devoured it from cover to cover. I've read and watched numerous interviews with them over time, including on the program Q with the host (of Iranian ancestry?) who was fired for sexual assault charges some years ago. I think Ian made several bad choices in his life and he came to realize it. I think Sylvia realized it too, it showed in her seemingly disappointed but accepting attitude about him in later years.

He's died, he's entitled to be recognized for the good and the bad in the life he led. I respect and appreciate his good choices and wish there had been more of them.

That would be Jian Ghomeshi, Elmer.

I guess you and I are both in the same spot. I’m never quite sure on many of your responses. As I said, I remember your responses on that one particular thread. It came out of nowhere.

Goodness, if we mentioned the misdeeds of every musician on the FNM threads, rather than enjoying the music, it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable thread.

I’m sorry that the breakup of Ian and Sylvia was such a disappointment to a hardcore fan like you. I’ve kept an open mind about Ian Tyson and feel that after leaving Sylvia, or Sylvia leaving him, he found his niche both personally and professionally. I’m not a big fan of CW but I do like what he has done.

I’m also not so sure that our perspectives and attitudes are that far apart.

Elmer, turn on some filters if you know how.

Fair enough, roxsol. I've been passionate about what I'll call rock and popular music since childhood. There are so, so many instances of groups and careers needlessly ending because of particular individuals' inabilities to make good choices or in the extreme, to avoid what became life-ending consequences of poor judgement. Not the more extreme outcome in I&S's case but the consequences had about the same effect on two careers.

They both fell out of the public eye in the US when they split and stayed out. He or both of them may have maintained some degree of careers in Canada (perhaps as bigish fish in a much smaller pond) but they exited attention in the US. As I mentioned I think in the older thread, I saw Sylvia performing solo a few times, in small venues that offered the audiences intimate encounters with her but which had to have been a big come-down from the larger crowds they had performed before earlier in her career. A typical trajectory for many performers as they age though, I get it.

I think you misunderstand. Many Canadians have and will always continue to have success and fame in both countries. Some entertainers are known locally/regionally in both countries, then may have success on a larger scale for a while, then fade back into their geographical roots. It goes both ways. I could name talented performers and groups that became well known and successful in my area that people in other places never heard of. That's what I meant with my bigger fish/smaller pond comment, there was nothing critical of Canada intended or implied.

I can think of an example. I'm in the boomer generation. I'll bet that most Canadians in my age range who enjoy popular music will immediately recognize the name Burton Cummings. He and the Guess Who had a few years in the limelight in the US 50 years ago and faded from view. I know he still actively performs in Canada and I suspect is well known there - not so here.

Back to the start - I'll bet his name is well recognized in Canada. Not so much to the same extent in the US.

Ian and Sylvia were known and had a presence in the US while still performing together. They kind of disappeared from view in the US after breaking up.

I had no idea Ian Tyson recorded so much after the break up with Sylvia, but I started listening. I would not say that his style was Country Western, as most people understand it. To me, it was purely Western, focusing on cowboys and the vanishing lifestyle they represented.

laceyvail, yes he was a cowboy singer storyteller/poet. He wasn’t an urban cowboy, he was a true cowboy rancher.

I think of most of his songs as story telling about the cowboy culture rather than CW.

He was far more successful recording music after his breakup with Sylvia than she. The most important thing though was that he was living the life he wanted in Alberta and she was free to pursue hers. It was a good move for both. In Four Strong Winds you can hear his yearning for Alberta.

I think ranching was far more important to him than recording success, but he managed to achieve both. Good for him!

"In the land of the long roads
High lonesome prairies
Dreaming of the springtime
First crocus in the snow
Coffee in a go cup
Headed for the oil rig
Land of Shining Mountains – Big Alberta Sky

The old man and the castle
Red Deer and the Battle
Rivers in a dry land
Feed the cities of the plains
Nothing last forever
Even on the great divide
Land of Shining Mountains – Big Alberta Sky”

" He was far more successful recording music after his breakup with Sylvia than she. "

According to the wiki entry, none of his 17 solo albums were successful in Canada. Only two reached the Canada Top 100, one peaked at #81, another at #74.

You can continue to push your unsupported views, I'm comfortable (as I was before this silly exchange started) that he'd reached the pinnacle of his career when performing with Sylvia and that his sexual wanderings as a married man effectively ended two careers.

Ian Tyson Wikipedia entry

LOL, Elmer Wiki!

Happy New Year!

We all have our own idea of success.

Sadly, bookkeepers quite often only see what is in the box and if it adds up.

Still chuckling.🤠

If those entries are wrong in suggesting with evidence that the majority of his solo albums bombed in Canada and were commercial failures, then the beauty of Wiki is that any person can correct mistakes. Go for it.

Facts are that as I'd known before, he'd drifted out of the public spotlight in his native land (as well as in the US) and "his music" was not popular or successful in attracting a following. Wishing won't make it otherwise.

Though Ian & Sylvia split in 1975 – both musically and maritally — Tyson went on to release a copious amount of solo music. In 1989, he was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. His most recent album arrived in 2015, Carnero Vaquero, and he continued to perform live. "People buy tickets. It's wonderful. You can't make people buy tickets. They either want to see you or they don't," he said in a mid-2000s interview. "I'm just very grateful. I'm very honored and flattered. So, it's great. But, I don't do nostalgia. I'm a writer and I keep writing. Some people get frustrated, they want to hear nothing but the old stuff, but I have never given them just the old stuff. Never. They gotta listen to new stuff at least half of the evening. If they don't want to listen to it, they don't have to come back again, but they do come back again. So, I guess in the final analysis, the approach I've taken has given me longevity."

Read More: Ian Tyson, Canadian Folk Legend, Dead at 89 | https://ultimateclassicrock.com/ian-tyson-dead/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Elmer, he was very popular here in Canada especially Alberta.

I seem to think that your idea of a successful musician is one who makes the charts. Elmer, he wrote and sang music until he died. People listened to it. He was successful. You seem to be stuck in his Ian and Sylvia days.

Elmer, I would never change a Wiki entry. I couldn’t be bothered.

And still chuckling🤠

I don’t ”wish” that he had a following. I know he has a following. I’ve lived in Alberta my whole life and he is popular here.

https://www.concertarchives.org/bands/ian-tyson

He remained active ranching and making music. He was successful.

Think of Frank Zappa or Beck. They have a following. They were/are successful musicians but not big chart toppers. I consider their careers successful.

https://variety.com/2022/music/obituaries-people-news/ian-tyson-dead-folk-duo-sylvia-cowboy-singer-1235476344/

The Variety article is pretty good. Its first sentence is

" Ian Tyson, a towering figure in Canadian music who found his greatest renown as half of the ’60s folk-singing duo Ian and Sylvia, died Thursday at 89.

I added the bold type

I’m glad you read the article, Elmer.

Of course his greatest renown was when he was part of Ian and Sylvia. I don’t think there is any doubt about that.

After Ian and Sylvia, he still had a career. A successful one. Different, but successful. Renown enough for him.

Renown and success are very different.

I was very successful in my career but not renown.

From the Variety article

”But as he focused on his new solo music, Tyson had little lingering interest in the folk scene, rock ‘n’ roll or even mainstream country music, preferring to focus on music that reflected his passion for wide open spaces.”

“I always wanted to be a cowboy — not a songwriter or a singer, a cowboy. I just got lucky in the music business,” Tyson told the website Cowboy Showcase in 2008.

" I was very successful in my career but not renown. "

Were you in show business or another public limelight job where renown (another word for fame) and success tend to go hand in hand?

Renown/ fame ….not the same as success.

Elmer, have a Happy New Year.

Hopefully, you can catch some Ian and Sylvia old shows or reunions on PBS in the new year. I know you’ll enjoy them.