Search - Artist/Band: Ian Tyson

Artist Info

  • Name: Ian Tyson
  • Birthday: 09/25/1933
  • Birth Place: Victoria, British Columbia, Canad
  • Decades Active: 1960,1970,1980,1990,2000
  • Genre: Country
  • Styles: Contemporary Folk, Cowboy, Americana
  • Moods: Amiable/Good-Natured, Gentle, Whimsical, Bittersweet, Intimate, Light, Wistful, Earnest, Reflective, Yearning, Earthy, Plaintive, Restrained, Sweet, Warm

Albums

Green links represent an available CD.
Red links represent a CD that is not currently available.
Title Release
  • Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories WA
  • 12/16/2008
  • Songs from the Gravel Road WA
  • 04/12/2005
  • Lost Herd WA
  • 03/23/1999
  • All the Good 'uns WA
  • 1996
  • Eighteen Inches of Rain WA
  • 1994
  • And Stood There Amazed WA
  • 02/1991
  • I Outgrew the Wagon WA
  • 1989
  • Cowboyography WA
  • 1987
  • Old Corrals & Sagebrush & Other Cowboy Culture Classics WA
  • 1983
  • One Jump Ahead of the Devil
  • 1978
  • Ol' Eon WA
  • 1973

    Individual Bio

    Half of the early-'60s folk group Ian & Sylvia, Ian Tyson retreated from performing and recording after the duo disbanded in the mid-'70s to become a rancher in the foothills of Southern Alberta, Canada. He quietly returned to music-making in the 1980s, releasing a series of albums that focused on detailed songs about the concerns of the working cowboy.

    Tyson was born in Victoria, British Columbia. As a child he was involved in rodeo, not music -- he didn't learn to play the guitar until he was recovering from rodeo-related injuries. In the late '50s, he began performing as a folk singer. In 1961, he met singer/songwriter Sylvia Fricker and the two musicians began performing together; they also married three years later. Ian & Sylvia and their band, Great Speckled Bird, became popular on the folk scene and released their self-titled debut album in 1962. In 1963, they released Four Strong Winds; the title track, written by Tyson, became a folk standard. Ian & Sylvia successfully recorded together through the mid-'70s. The duo also began hosting a television show, Nashville North, which became the Ian Tyson Show when the couple split up in the middle of the decade.

    After Ian & Sylvia's break-up, Tyson recorded Ol'Eon. He temporarily retired from recording in 1979 to work his ranch, but returned with Old Corrals and Sagebrush in 1983. In 1984, he toured with Ricky Skaggs and also released an eponymous album. Tyson released a third album, Cowboyography, two years later, and in 1991, he released another popular Canadian album, And Stood There Amazed, which contained the hits "Springtime in Alberta" and "Black Nights." Subsequent releases include 1994's Eighteen Inches of Rain, 1996's All the Good 'Uns and 1999's Lost Herd. Tyson released Live at Longview in 2002, followed by Songs from the Gravel Road in 2005. ~ Sandra Brennan and Michael McCall, All Music Guide