Songs of the real west: Ian Tyson: Raven Singer
Charles Goodnight’s Grave, Rio Colorado, Song in a Dream, Winterkill, The Circle is Through -- the titles of the songs on Ian Tyson’s recording Raven Singer evoke the rugged landscapes of the North American west, and the complex challenges of lives lived out through their mountains and plains.
That perspective is bone deep for Tyson, a man who says music and horses have always been his loves. He is a rancher in Alberta as well as a writer and musician, a man
who has twice risen to legendary status in music, first as half of the duo Ian and Sylvia during the folk revival days and in more recent times as a cowboy poet in song of the real west.
On Raven Singer, Tyson continues that latter role with stories that go back to his early days and early running mates when he first learned guitar, in the song Blackberry Susan, all the way to recovering from a broken relationship in distant lands in Under African Skies. Charles Goodnight’s Graves draws you to the current windswept stillness of the west and to the ghosts of history that play out along its ways, while Rio Colorado heads into the call of landscape and how it might make a space heal old wounds. There’s also a moving revisit to a song from the past with The Circle is Through, which Tyson first recorded twenty years ago in a duet with country singer Suzy Bogguss.
Tyson’s voice is weathered now, the result of a battle a few years ago with a sound
system at a tough outdoor performance and a virus that followed. For a time Tyson thought he might not sing again, but the drive and the poetry remained, and the voice, though changed, works still. It is a weathered voice, indeed, and it suits the songs and stories. Should you need to lean in a bit to hear the words and follow those stories, that’s not a bad thing.
you may also wish to see
from Ian and Sylvia’s folk song revival days, Four Strong Winds
western music from Tish Hinojosa and Robert Mirabal
road trip music: New Mexico
a conversation with Ian Tyson
That perspective is bone deep for Tyson, a man who says music and horses have always been his loves. He is a rancher in Alberta as well as a writer and musician, a man
who has twice risen to legendary status in music, first as half of the duo Ian and Sylvia during the folk revival days and in more recent times as a cowboy poet in song of the real west. On Raven Singer, Tyson continues that latter role with stories that go back to his early days and early running mates when he first learned guitar, in the song Blackberry Susan, all the way to recovering from a broken relationship in distant lands in Under African Skies. Charles Goodnight’s Graves draws you to the current windswept stillness of the west and to the ghosts of history that play out along its ways, while Rio Colorado heads into the call of landscape and how it might make a space heal old wounds. There’s also a moving revisit to a song from the past with The Circle is Through, which Tyson first recorded twenty years ago in a duet with country singer Suzy Bogguss.
Tyson’s voice is weathered now, the result of a battle a few years ago with a sound
system at a tough outdoor performance and a virus that followed. For a time Tyson thought he might not sing again, but the drive and the poetry remained, and the voice, though changed, works still. It is a weathered voice, indeed, and it suits the songs and stories. Should you need to lean in a bit to hear the words and follow those stories, that’s not a bad thing.
you may also wish to see
from Ian and Sylvia’s folk song revival days, Four Strong Winds
western music from Tish Hinojosa and Robert Mirabal
road trip music: New Mexico
a conversation with Ian Tyson
-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.
Labels: alberta, blogsherpa, canada, canada day, canadian music, cowboy music, ian and sylvia, ian tyson, songwriter, western music
a CD reissue of two of her early albums. Check out He Dark the Sun and Life Is Like a Mountain Railway to hear how singing should be done. That's something Ronstadt was still a master at decades later when she returned to her hometown to record an album with long time friend Emmylou Harris. It is called 
that really gets that transition between mountain and city. A gifted songwriter in her own right, Peters recently looked at her western connections through the work of other writers on the album
which comprises songs lively and reflective, in a thoroughly western take on the season.
