Phil Connor posted an excellent story from the Sacramento Bee about the
Elko Cowboy Poetry Festival, from which Ian Tyson has just returned (he's
played at most of them, and was, I believe, the first music artist the
festival ever featured).
The article was succinct in its commentary on the cowboy myth and
the cowboy reality, as is the commentary that Ian provided for the new
record company bio/bumf I've just written. I mentioned in a post yesterday
that I'd send it to anyone who wanted, and while the net has not been
buzzing overtime, there have been a couple of requests.
So, with warnings that it's quite long, and that you have to care
about cowboys and/or Ian Tyson to get much out of it, I'll post it for one
and all.
Comments, etc., always appreciated.
Richard
________________________________________________________
A Stony Plain artist's bio
IAN TYSON
Over the rainbow, there's a world in the
west that's changing. A new Ian Tyson album
- Lost Herd - charts the past and the future
Ian Tyson is back. And, once again, the changing face of the myth and the
reality that is "the West" is the subject of his new songs, and once again
they are a metaphor for the changes we are all facing.
Lost Herd, his seventh album for the Canadian independent "roots
music" label Stony Plain (and released on Vanguard in the United States),
is his first new record in five years. It offers nine new songs, and a
timeless cover of the classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
Tyson's long history as one of Canada's most important songwriters
is old stuff by now, and he's certainly never been one to dwell on it. For
all that, songs like Four Strong Winds, Someday Soon, Navajo Rug and
Springtime in Alberta have all become near-anthems, perfectly resonant of
the place where Tyson makes his home in the foothills south of Calgary.
But songwriting has never been easy - except, perhaps, in his very
early days - and Lost Herd comes after a long "writer's block." "I worked
my way out of it, mostly by reading non-fiction stuff about the West," he
says.
"I have this old stone house on the property I go to write in. Some
of the songs came together from fragments that had been around for a long
time, one goes back three or four years. I left all these pieces floating
around rather longer than I have in the past, having them come together -
or not - in a natural way, rather than forcing them."
RECORDED IN NASHVILLE, TORONTO
The new album (with the exception of a couple of tracks recorded in
Calgary) was recorded in Toronto and Nashville, both spiritually and
geographically about as far away from Tyson's ranch as he cares to go, and
his deep suspicion of both cities is well known.
But the musicians are there, and Tyson knows it. "Obviously, I
wanted the very best players, and that's where they are. If I have a
strength, it's my songwriting, and I'm a believer in the saying that 'less
is more' - I wanted minimal 'production' but really strong instrumental
support for the songs themselves.
"My friend Steve Buckingham (one of Music City's best producers)
helped get me the players I wanted in Nashville; instead of layers of
guitars, we'd use lots of piano. They didn't have to fill in all the
'holes' in the songs, and I think they enjoyed that."
Tyson also discovered, somewhat to his surprise, that he's a lot
better known in Nashville than he imagined. In a song-oriented town, he's
remembered for his hits, and respected for his determination to stick with
what he does best. "They figured me out pretty quick," he recalls. "They
got to the heart of the songs, and they really delivered."
The players in Nashville included Matt Rollings on piano, Eddie
Bayers on drums, Glen Worf on bass, Stuart Duncan on violin and steel
player Paul Franklin; the Toronto sessions were marked by the presence of
jazz saxist Phil Dwyer, neauveau flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook, pianist
John Sheard and a reunion with bassist/cellist George Koller, who had
played on Ian's breakthrough Cowboyography album.
TELLING THE STORY OF TODAY'S 'WEST'
Meanwhile, the songs tell the story of today's "West" - and Tyson watches
the changes with no particular pleasure. Agribusiness gets bigger and
bigger, the giant slaughtering plants are worked by Vietnamese immigrants
for minimal wages, the lifestyle of the little towns that dotted the west
is changing, and, indeed, many of the smaller communities have already
vanished.
Fewer and fewer ranchers work in what Tyson calls "the traditional
horseback way," and, says, "those that do are subsidized by whatever other
means of cash flow we can muster. My songwriting supports my ranching, my
neighbour does brilliant silversmith work to keep up the cash flow.
"The new West has little romance to it, and raising cattle on the
northern plains can be a bleak and ugly experience - not something I'd want
my kids to go into to make a living." Worse, Tyson watches the growth of
eco-tourism, and the sprawling growth of cities like Calgary, with great
concern. "Everyone wants their 20 acres, and we have a very limited supply."
It is, he sums up, the final chapter in terms of the myth that is
the west. "What's going to replace it isn't going to be very romantic."
And even though the wind gets to him now as he rides in the
foothills, he knows he has a good life. "I take a lot of pride in what I
do, I can still ride, I've got a great new knee and a bad ankle, and I
still write relevant songs."
Just as Tyson faces up to reality in his songs about the west, so
he does in the more personal sense. It is, he suggests, a harder life for
most people than it used to be. Not all the changes we deal with - growing
older, facing our limitations and our failed ambitions - are easy to
handle.
But knowing, somehow, that others understand does make it easier.
That, ultimately, is the job for the storyteller and the songwriter. And
Ian Tyson does that better than anyone in this crazy, tired and frantic
world.
-30-
For further information, contact:
Stony Plain Records (403) 468-6423 FAX (403) 465-8941
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Richard Flohil & Associates (416) 351-1323 FAX: (416) 351-1990
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Feb.10/1999
