For the week of June 13 - June 19, 2001

Real cowboys 
keep getting up

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By ADAM TANOUS
Express Arts Editor

Think of cowboy life and you likely conjure up a romantic image of the rugged individual riding across a wide open space. The reality, of course, is that cowboys are rugged for a reason: the life is filled with hard physical labor, financial struggle and more than a few ornery horses who, more often than not, make their wills known.

Ian Tyson. Courtesy photo

Ian Tyson, working cowboy, singer and songwriter, has no doubt been thrown a few times. But at age 67, he keeps getting up and coming back for more. Tyson will bring his folk and cowboy songs to the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum for a July 4 concert. Ketchum resident and musician Bruce Innes will open the concert for Tyson.

Tyson’s most recent album, his seventh to date, is "Lost Herd." It tells the story of the West today: the changes that have rippled across the Rockies from Colorado up to Tyson’s native Alberta, Canada. These are changes such as the advent of big agribusiness, eco-tourism, sprawling cities and 20-acre "ranchettes."

Tyson has had a long career in music with all of the attendant hardships of life in the arts. Ironically, his interest in music was born of his early experience in the rodeo circuit. Tyson was a teenager on the circuit when he badly injured his ankle, an injury that required surgery and the implantation of three metal pins into his ankle. Sitting in the hospital recovering, Tyson picked up a guitar and started fiddling around. A career took root.

On a trip to Toronto, Tyson subsequently met a young folk musician named Sylvia Fricker. The two formed a musical duo, Ian & Sylvia, and in 1961 ventured to New York City during a folk music boom. Tyson and Fricker, who married in 1964 and divorced in 1975, landed a recording contract with Albert Grossman. Grossman was then also managing Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Though they had some early success, Ian & Sylvia slipped in popularity as the whole folk movement waned and the British Invasion, namely the Beatles, took over the music scene in North America.

After slugging it out for over 15 years, Tyson decided to leave the music industry in 1976. A few years later, however, Neil Young recorded one of Tyson’s songs, "Four Strong Winds." With the new royalty income, Tyson bought a ranch near Calgary. The renewed interest in his music pulled Tyson back into performing. It also, indirectly, led to Tyson meeting his current wife, Twylla.

In 1986, Tyson created the album, "Cowboyography," a release that sold over 100,000 copies. Since then he has brought to the market "I Outgrew the Wagon" (1989), "And Stood There Amazed" (1991), "Eighteen Inches of Rain" (1994) and most recently, "Lost Herd" (1999).

Tyson has been a big draw at the annual Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering, started in 1983.

Tickets for the concert at the nexStage are $20 and available at Sturtevant’s in Ketchum and Hailey, as well as at the door ($25).

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.