A Foothills country music legend has passed.
On Dec. 29, Canadian country musician Ian Tyson passed away at the age of 89 at his ranch, following ongoing health complications.
Born to British immigrants in Victoria, Tyson grew up in Duncan, B.C., becoming a rough stock rider in his teens and twenties. It was while recovering from a rodeo injury that he picked up the guitar.
Hitchhiking from Vancouver Island to Toronto, he met small-town Ontario singer Sylvia Fricker. As a duo the two were swept up by the ‘60s folk boom, marrying in 1964.
They created nearly a dozen albums and songs like Ian’s Four Strong Winds and Someday Soon, and Sylvia’s You Were on My Mind, covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Judy Collins.
The couple mentored another up-and-coming singer of the day, Gordon Lightfoot.
Tyson returned west after hosting a national Canadian television show from 1970-75. His marriage and creative partnership with Fricker ended, he spent time training horses in southern Alberta.
Three years later though, he stepped back up to the mic and recorded the cowboy album Old Corrals & Sagebrush.
“It was a kind of a musical Christmas card for my friends” recalled Tyson, as cited in an Eric Alper press release. “We weren’t looking for a ‘hit’ or radio play or anything like that.”
He was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1987 and in 2005, Four Strong Winds was named as the greatest Canadian Song of all time by CBC Radio One listeners on the series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version.
There have been some bumps on the trail though, and in 2006 after a performance at an outdoor country music festival, Tyson seriously damaged his voice.
“I fought the sound system and I lost,” he said afterwards.
Following a months-long battle with a virus soon after, and the resultant loss of his smooth voice, Tyson began to work with his new, rougher voice to the delight of his dedicated fans.
His most recent single You Should Have Known was released in 2017 on Stony Plain Records, a homage to the hard-living, hard-drinking, and hard-loving cowboy life celebrated throughout his body of work.
The family will hold a closed service and have requested privacy at this time.
Donations in Ian’s memory can be made to The Ian Tyson Legacy Fund - https://www.westernfolklife.org/donate
