Ian Tyson CM AOE (born Ian Dawson Tyson in Victoria, British Columbia, on 2… Read Full Bio ↴Ian Tyson CM AOE (born Ian Dawson Tyson in Victoria, British Columbia, on 25 September 1933; died 29 December 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who performed with partner Sylvia Tyson as the folk duo Ian & Sylvia and wrote several notable songs including "Four Strong Winds" and "Someday Soon".
Tyson and his then-wife Sylvia Fricker constituted one of the most popular folk duos of the 1960s, Ian & Sylvia. In 1969, they formed and fronted the pioneering country-rock group Great Speckled Bird.
Tyson gradually shifted to the cowboy way while still with Sylvia, accentuating the western life through song. Residing on a ranch in southern Alberta, Tyson toured all over the west.
In 1989, Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. His next albums were cowboy music: I Outgrew the Wagon (1989), And Stood There Amazed (1991), and Eighteen Inches of Rain (1994).
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 that same song for American V: A Hundred Highways (2006).
In 2006, Tyson was afflicted with a throat virus resulting in damaged vocal cords and a major change in the texture of his once mellifluous voice into a far hoarser quality. Nevertheless he cut the album, "From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories" in 2008.
Tyson and his then-wife Sylvia Fricker constituted one of the most popular folk duos of the 1960s, Ian & Sylvia. In 1969, they formed and fronted the pioneering country-rock group Great Speckled Bird.
Tyson gradually shifted to the cowboy way while still with Sylvia, accentuating the western life through song. Residing on a ranch in southern Alberta, Tyson toured all over the west.
In 1989, Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. His next albums were cowboy music: I Outgrew the Wagon (1989), And Stood There Amazed (1991), and Eighteen Inches of Rain (1994).
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 that same song for American V: A Hundred Highways (2006).
In 2006, Tyson was afflicted with a throat virus resulting in damaged vocal cords and a major change in the texture of his once mellifluous voice into a far hoarser quality. Nevertheless he cut the album, "From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories" in 2008.
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Eighteen Inches of Rain
Ian Tyson Lyrics
Alcohol in the Bloodstream I came home to find you were gone On a…
Eighteen Inches of Rain A’not a broke horse on the place, My pickup truck won’t…
M.C. Horses We were having a drink at Stockman's, Listenin' to the guit…
Les Niedbalski
on Road to Las Cruces
Does the wind still blow
in New Mexico?
Do the silver candelabras yet shine?
Is Kathrine still queen of El Paso?
Never to be yours, never to be mine.
Out of reach like the pale moon that shines, on the road to Las Cruces.
On a high plateau, out off Antone she goes.
I see the dust of a herd moving through.
The dream and the lights softly fading,
The horses will not stay, they wish to go with her.
Riding for Alex Corone, on the road to Las Vegas.
The line of desire, seven strands of barbed wire
will hold back the on rushing tide.
Many dreams have been brought to the border,
down in the canyons, down in the culverts.
They pray for safe passage tonight, on the trail to Albuquerque.
I crossed over a toll, I stood there alone, looking in to the heart of the night.
Across that dark plain to El Paso,
Where Kathrine sleeps, Kathrine dreams.
Out of reach like the pale moon that shines, on the road to Las Cruces.
Alex Marcin
on The Wonder of It All
I think it is "where the rimrock meets the sky"