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| The
Cast Of The Gift |
| John
Wort Hannam, Tracey Miller, Gord Matthews, Thom Moom, Myran Szott,
Stewart MacDolugall, Ian Oscar , Julian Kerr |
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| Apr 13, 2023 | with The Gift | Vic
Juba Community Theatre |
Lloydminster, AB, Canada |
| Apr 14, 2023 | with The Gift | Horizon Stage |
Spruce Grove, AB, Canada |
| Apr 15, 2023 | with The Gift | Elks Hall | Red Deer, AB, Canada |
| Apr 16, 2023 | with The Gift | Ranchman's | Calgary, AB, Canada |
| Jun 3 & 4, 2023 | with Bruce Miller |
Song
Writing Workshop @ Danlyn
Studios |
Sherwood Park, AB Canada |
| Jul 29, 2023 | with The Gift | Vermilion
Fair Grandstand |
Vermillion, AB Canada |
| Jul 30, 2023 | with The Gift | Diamond Valley Ian Tyson Festival |
Black Diamond, AB Canad |
| Aug 5, 2023 | Blueberry Bluegrass Festival | Stony Plain, AB, Canada | |
| Aug 6, 2023 | with The Gift | Blueberry Bluegrass Festival |
Stony Plain, AB, Canada |
| Sep 20, 2023 | with The Gift | Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre | Medicine Hat, AB, Canada |
| Sep 21, 2023 | with The Gift | Moosejaw Cultural Centre | Moosejaw, SK, Canada |
| Sep 22, 2023 | with The Gift | The Roxy Music Hall | Saskatoon SK, Canada |
| Sep 23, 2023 | with The Gift | The Arden Theatre |
St. Albert, AB, Canada |
 SPCD 1339 Genre: Country Release Date: November 11, 2008 $ 20.98 CD Ian Tyson Yellowhead to Yellowstone and other Love Stories Tyson’s new songs reflect two difficult years as Canada's most iconic songwriter faces the prospect of his senior years. “Growing old is not for wimps,” he says—and his legion of fans will understand and fight the future with him. Emphasis tracks: “My Cherry Coloured Rose,” about Don Cherry and written by Jay Almar and the ballad “Yellowhead To Yellowstone,” co-written with Stewart MacDougall. 1. Yellowhead To Yellowstone (6:01) 2. Fiddler Must Be Paid (3:45) 3. Lioness (3:24) 4. Ross Knox (2:44) 5. Blaino's Song (4:17) 6. Estrangement (3:29) 7. My Cherry Coloured Rose (3:41) 8. Bill Kane (3:55) 9. Go This Far (3:48) 10. Love Never Comes At All (4:54) Click on the images for links to Stony Plain Records.com |
At 75, Ian
Tyson still has great stories to sing about
 Iconic Canadian songwriter and singer Ian
Tyson has had a tough two years since his last album, Songs from the
Gravel Road . Among his woes: a difficult divorce followed by another
broken love affair, and more recently a 75th birthday which he faced
with
a mixture of satisfaction and regret.Now, with release of a new album - Yellowhead to Yellowstone and other Love Stories on Nov. 10 - long-time fans will discover something else: Ian Tyson has a new voice. Grainy, gravelly, and deeply emotional today, one of the smoothest voices in Canadian music is now dramatically different. What happened? “Well, a couple of years ago,” says Tyson in a matter-of-fact tone, “I played the Havelock Jamboree, a big outdoor show in Ontario. I fought the sound system — and I lost. “I knew I’d hurt my voice, and it was recovering slowly when I was hit with a bad virus, which seemed to last forever. My old voice isn’t coming back, the doctors told me, so I’ve had to get used to this new one.” That has been a challenge, Tyson says, but he says audiences have warmed to it. “They seem to pay more attention, now, to the lyrics and the stories in the songs. And while I’ve lost some of the bottom end of my voice, the top range, oddly enough, is still there.” The title song of the CD was co-written by Tyson with Stewart MacDougall, and tells the story of a pack of wolves transported from the Yellowhead Pass to Yellowstone Park, where the species had become extinct — told in the voice of one of the wolves who made the journey. Another remarkable song, contributed by Toronto songwriter Jay Aymar, is about hockey commentator Don Cherry and the death of his beloved wife, Rose. The eight new songs by Tyson cover a range of emotions and stories relating to Alberta’s cultural landscape and the disappearing cowboy, as well as his personal life. The writer rarely tells exactly what they’re about, but expects his listeners to understand where the songs are coming from. It’s Tyson’s 14th album for the Edmonton-based roots music label Stony Plain, and was produced by Nashville’s Harry Stinson, who did three CDs for the label with Corb Lund, and who’s worked in recent times with George Jones, Mary Stuart, Rodney Crowell and Steve Earle. |
| Ian Tyson's
second CD in 10 years is 'a gem'C7 Wilfred Langmaid On the record Ian Tyson: Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories - Stony Plain Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories is only the second album from Canadian legend Ian Tyson in the past 10 years. His career began in the 60s as part of the husband-and-wife team Ian and Sylvia and took a country-rock turn at the end of that decade with The Great Speckled Bird. He has been a solo artist since the 1970s. Album number 11 in a span of 25 years, Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories again gives good witness to a austere and authentic cowboy-country sound that is uniquely Tyson. This is despite a really tragic loss. As recently as two years ago at age 73, his rich tenor was still molasses smooth and instantly recognizable. That is gone now as a result of straining his voice in an outdoor show and then contracting a virus. However, his voice is still tuneful, oddly distinctive and appealing. More significantly, his lyrical tales and song structures are still drawn from traditional western culture - both western Canada and the western United States - an era of roots cowboy life that transcends borders and time. Lyrically, the tales are of the same calibre and style as such roots triumphs as 1983's Old Corrals and Sagebrush and 1987's multi-platinum triumph Cowboyography. They are tuneful, understated melodies which serve as vehicles for tales of three basic categories: the life of the rancher which has been Tyson's own life for over three decades; tales of the land told from the perspective of animals who dwell in that land; and tales of love gained or lost. Ranch-hand songs are sincere and authentic in Tyson's hand, and this album includes such gems as the two-step Blaino's Song and the epitaphs Ross Knox and Bill Kane. The love songs are poignant and raw, which makes sense when one considers that Tyson went through a divorce earlier this decade and a more recent relationship dissolution. However, there is equal beauty in the tales of love lost (Fiddler Must Be Paid and Estrangement) as in the rejoicings of love fulfilled (Go This Far, Love Never Comes At All). That said, the standouts on this particular album are two tales told from the perspective of animals who have lived their lives with strength and dignity on the land. There is the relative pop sheen of Lioness, and there is the album's crowning glory from whence the album title comes, the lead track Yellowhead To Yellowstone. It is an epic tale of wolves transported from the Yellowhead Pass to Yellowstone Park, where they had become extinct. Told in the voice of the male wolf who made the journey and lived a life now ending as the alpha male, it is cowritten by Tyson and Fredericton-born Stewart MacDougall. To many music fans across Canada, MacDougall is an Edmonton singer-songwriter best known as the penner of material for everyone from k.d. lang and Randy Travis to Tyson and Laura Vinson. They might also remember him as the keyboardist from stints with lang's 1980s band The Reclines and with the Great Western Orchestra. However, he remains etched in the minds of Fredericton music buffs for his work here as a native son with the '70s bar band Freight Liners and a subsequent stint with the country rockers Buckshot. This cowrite is an album highlight, but the album's one misstep is a well-intentioned tribute to Don Cherry's wife Rose Cherry called Cherry Coloured Rose. With all due respect to Toronto songwriter Jay Aymar, he is shown to be way out of his league on an album with nine songs written by one of Canada's most unique and gifted lyricists. If, as is very likely, this is Tyson's final studio album, he has given us a gem. Source - The Daily Gleaner ,
Fredericton New Brunswick, Published Saturday February 21st, 2009
Fredericton-based freelance writer Wilfred
Langmaid has reviewed albums in The Daily Gleaner since 1981, and is a
past judge for both the Junos and the East Coast Music Awards.
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FRIDAY Sept 12 Stewart McKelvey Hoodoo House 560 King St. The Electric Boogie: Freightliner Re-Union 11:30PM |
 The
reunion of these five
Fredericton-bred musicians might be better described as the
continuation of a collaboration that began in the seventies. Originally billed as Vince Packard and the Freightliners, Tom Blizzard (drums), Peter Palmer (bass and vocal), David Palmer (guitar and pedal steel) and Rollie Waddingham (lead vocal), all veterans of the Fredericton rock scene, got into country and began playing local taverns, initially employing Cedric Bidlake (steel) before recruiting Stewart MacDougall (keyboards and vocal) as the fifth piece. The “Freightliner” incarnation with vocalist Ted Tweedie was still well down the road. Tom, Pete, Dave, Rollie and Stew had the longest run, packing ‘em in with a set list that veered from Frank Zappa to Merle Haggard and back to Little Feat, and have remained committed to the vocation that first brought them together over thirty years ago. Big wheels rollin’. Movin’ on. click here for photos and more details |
| Available from Stony Plain Records |
SPCD 1322 Genre: Country Released: June 2007 $ 20.98 CDN Click on the images for links to Stony Plain Records.com Click these links for reviews: Legacy Country Music News |
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The Gift - A
Tribute To Ian Tyson (Various Artists) Four Strong Winds - Blue Rodeo M.C. Horses - Corb Lund Blue Mountains Of Mexico - Jennifer Warnes What Does She See - Chris Hillman Red Velvet - Gordon Lightfoot The Gift - David Rea Range Delivery - Cindy Church Smuggler’s Cove - The McDades Some Kind Of Fool - Amos Garrett Old Cheyenne - Tom Russell Someday Soon - The Circus In Flames with Buddy Cage Will James - Ramblin’ Jack Elliott You're Not Alone Anymore - Stewart MacDougall Summer Wages - The Good Brothers Moondancer - Jeff Bradshaw Bonus Track - Interview with Ramblin' Jack Elliott & Buddy Cage |
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with
Amos Garrett and Holger Petersen at Homestead Recorders, Edmonton, AB,
March 7, 2007
celebrating completion of sessions for our
contributions to "The Gift", a
compilation tribute to Ian Tyson just relaesed by
Stony Plain Records.  |
 with
Amos and Peter North, co-producer of the
project. The recordings made on this session were
engineered by
Barry Allen and also featured Jeff Bradshaw, Thom Moon, Mike Lent, and David Wilkie. |
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| Winter 2007
Recorded Music Page 51 |
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The Gift: A Tribute to Ian Tyson Various Artists Stony Plain Records 2007 reviewed by Ron Chalmers |
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| Throughout
his epic career, Ian Tyson has always tightly integrated the words,
music and performance of each song into one fully unified piece. Given
such definitive treatments of his own works, one might expect other
performers would hesitate to follow his act with their own versions.
But many of Tyson’s songs, including Someday Soon, Summer Wages, and
Four Strong Winds - voted the all-time greatest Canadian song in a
recent CBC Radio poll - have been widely covered, the last by The
Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, and the Tragically Hip. The Gift, with cuts by 15 different artists and groups, goes far beyond the effect of all previous, isolated re-interpretations. It proves the fundamental strength of Tyson’s compositions and the poetry of his lyrics, in older and newer songs, across a range of presentations. Blue Rodeo on Four Strong Winds, Gordon Lightfoot on Red Velvet, and The Good Brothers on Summer Wages exploit the melodic strength of those pieces by adapting them to folk-rock styles. Jennifer Warnes expressively caresses the Blue Mountains of Mexico. Similarly, Chris Hillman and Stewart MacDougall, respectively, take unabashedly romantic turns in What Does She See, and You’re Not Alone Anymore. Corb Lund, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Cindy Church, Tom Russell, and David Rea, among others, effectively apply their distinctive voices to otherwise-traditional versions of Tyson songs. Producers Peter North and Holger Petersen, with an outstanding lineup of artists, have created a first-rate compilation that further reveals the fertility of the words and music created by western Canada’s greatest singer-songwriter. |
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August,
2007
Page 11 |
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| The
Voice Of
Country Music In Canada |
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| CD
Review - Various Artists - "The Gift - A Tribute To Ian Tyson" Stony Plain Records – SPCD1322 Produced by: (Various) Executive Producers: Peter North and Holger Petersen (15 Selections – Playing Time 60:10) Four Strong Winds (Blue Rodeo) / M.C. Horses (Corb Lund) / Blue Mountains Of Mexico (Jennifer Warnes) / What Does She See (Chris Hillman) / Red Velvet (Gordon Lightfoot) / The Gift (David Rea) / Range Delivery (Cindy Church) / Smuggler’s Cove (The McDades) / Some Kind Of Fool (Amos Garrett) / Old Cheyenne (Tom Russell) / Someday Soon (The Circus In Flames with Buddy Cage) / Will James (Ramblin’ Jack Elliott) / You’re Not Alone Anymore (Stewart MacDougall) / Summer Wages (The Good Brothers) / Moondancer (Jeff Bradshaw) |
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| Ian
Tyson has been in the
Canadian music spotlight for over four decades, initially as part of
the classic folk duo Ian & Sylvia, which evolved into The Great
Speckled Bird, the forerunnerto the country/rock movement; then as a
solo artist, first in a pure country role, and later intohis
award-winning ‘Cowboyography’ mode. His work has brought him to
legendary status, particularly his songwriting, with many of his more
popular songs (Four Strong Winds / Someday Soon / Summer Wages, etc.)
covered by dozens of folk and country artists worldwide. The
Alberta-based horse rancher has received countless awards and
merits…but “The Gift: A Tribute To Ian Tyson”, may be the most
rewarding recognition yet. The Gift: A Tribute To Ian Tyson features 15 performances of his classic and some lesser known works, recorded by various artists from all musical genres, many of whom have had close ties to Tyson during his years on stage and in the studio. The material these artists choose to perform in tribute to Tyson, covers all eras of his songwriting catalog – theFolk Years, The Country Years and the Cowboyography Years. The album opens with country/rockers Blue Rodeo doing a rather sedate version of the Ian & Sylvia folk classic Four Strong Winds. The Blue Rodeo entry has the honour of being the first single pulled from this album. While Four Strong Winds is recognized chiefly as a ‘folk’ tune, Bobby Bare had a #3 hit with it on the Country charts in 1965, and it has been covered by countless country acts ranging from Hank Snow, George Hamilton IV to Waylon Jennings, and of course by Canadian folk/rocker Neil Young. Other items here out of the “folk” years include keyboardist Stewart MacDougall’s update on the haunting You’re Not Alone Anymore (MacDougall played in Tyson’s latter year Chinook Arch Riders band); while Tyson’s fellow-Canuck legend Gordon Lightfoot, contributes a very tasty rendition of Red Velvet, which is made even tastier here with Doug Johnson’s steel and dobro touches. Chris Hillman (of Flying Burrito Brothers / Desert Rose band, etc. fame) is one of the few non-Canadians (alongside Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jennifer Warnes, Tom Russell) contributing to this ‘tribute’, and he performs an exquisite reading of the Tyson weeper, What Does She See. Ian Tyson’s classic ‘country’ songs have certainly stood the test of time, with Someday Soon becoming a staple item, recorded through the years by Judy Collins, Lynn Anderson, Tanya Tucker, Crystal Gayle, Glen Campbell, Chris LeDoux and charted three times, Suzy Bogguss (#12 - 1991); Moe Bandy (#21 – 1982) and Kathy Barnes (#39 – 1976)…here it is given a whole new treatment by Doug Andrew of the Vancouver-based Circus In Flames, with special guest Buddy Cage (of Great Speckled Bird alumni) adding his steel guitar work to the piece. An equal to the longevity status of Someday Soon, is Ian Tyson’s Summer Wages, a major hit in Canada during the 70’s by Gary Buck; and also cut by George Hamilton IV, Bobby Bare, Nanci Griffith and bluegrasser’s J.D. Crowe and Tony Rice. On this “tribute” recent Hall of Fame inductees The Good Brothers get the chance to put their stamp on the tune. Some Kind Of Fool, another of Ian Tyson’s standout ‘country’ compositions (recorded through the years by Colin Butler, Joyce Seamone, Marg Osburne, etc.) is handled with great passion here by bluesman Amos Garrett, who also cut his early career musical teeth as a member of The Great Speckled Bird band. Ian Tyson’s ‘Cowboyography’ work is well represented in this tribute with Corb Lund (M.C. Horses), Tom Russell (Old Cheyenne), Jennifer Warnes (Blue Mountains Of Mexico), Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (Will James); and The McDades putting a Celtic feel to Smuggler’s Cove. Cindy Church (of Quartette), a frequent participant in Ian Tyson projects, delivers another standout entry here with Range Delivery. It seems fitting to have Ian & Sylvia’s first guitar player, David Rea do the honours in performing the album’s title track, The Gift. The tribute closes musically with steel player Jeff Bradshaw (and members of the Chinook Arch Riders) performing an adventurous version of Moondancer; one of Ian Tyson’s more romantic pieces, but essentially a collector’s item today, since it was only available as a Boot Records single release by Ian Tyson in the late 1970’s. The song has since been covered by Canadian indie artist Jim Cronk, but otherwise a virtual gem left practically unheard for the past 30 years. There’s also a bonus track featuring interview reminisces by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Buddy Cage, of life on the road with Ian Tyson. It pretty much puts everything into perspective. Disappointments… not really; but it would perhaps have been more appropriate to have Tom Russell’s entry be Navajo Rug, the award-winning Song Of the Year that he and Tyson collaborated on… and how delightful would it have been to have the Tyson songs Fifty Years Ago, Half Mile Of Hell and Claude Dallas included here. Aah… all ‘possibles’ for a "Volume II". |
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