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Station Master · 02-08-2005, 10:04 AM

that should be interesting...also wonder if Gordon will be attending any of the shows at Hugh's Room this week, would sure love to go but don't think it will happen (what a rare treat that would be, great venue for his CD release

)

also wonder if JJ Cale will be there tonight with 'his' clones... is that why his touring band is using the name The Guess Who (because nobody knows who the other guys are, lol) instead of Burton and Randy?

TORONTO STAR

GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

At 71, and having realized a greater proportion of his boyhood dreams than most men ever will, Ian Tyson should be a happy, satisfied soul.

The singer/songwriter's compositions "Four Strong Winds," "Someday Soon" and "Summer Wages" earned him a spot in the pantheon of Canada's great musical poets almost four decades ago. Then he walked away from music to reinvent himself as a cattle rancher in the Alberta high plains featured so vividly in those songs.

In recent years, Tyson re-emerged as a writer and performer of magically realistic working-cowboy songs, producing a series of memorable albums that, late in life, have made him a cultural legend.

Not that Tyson likes to hear that kind of talk. He knows good and bad go hand in hand, that every victory is tainted by loss, and that icons crumble and rust away. Having just completed an album he considers one of his finest — Songs From the Gravel Road — and the first sold-out tour of his career, through Nevada, Colorado, Utah and Alberta, he's back home contemplating the ruins of his 20-year marriage.

"It's divorce hell, as acrimonious as these things get," Tyson sighs. "Still, we'll get through it, even if it means giving up half the ranch. Time will take care of the rest."

A special guest at tonight's second annual Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame Awards — he'll be performing with his first wife, Sylvia Tyson, and her group Quartette — at the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Tyson is unusually happy about making the trip to Toronto, a city he generally finds easy to ignore, for the distraction it will offer.

He's not among this year's inductees, though he'll be singing two songs — Winnipeg singer and Hollywood movie cowboy Bob Nolan's "Cool Water" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" — that are being added to the Hall Of Fame's roster.

"There's talk about being inducted next year," he says flatly. "I don't pay much attention to awards ... they look nice up on a shelf. I can't really connect with them. I'm leery of them. I don't like spin. And awards don't relate to the gravel road on my ranch, where I do all my walking and make up my songs.

"If I do get one, I hope it isn't posthumous."

At tonight's event, Guess Who songwriters Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings and native roots artist Buffy Sainte-Marie will join Nolan as inductees to the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame along with Quebec's Claude Leveillée, Raymond Lévesque and Serge Deyglun, and Amherstburg, Ont. pianist and composer Shelton Brooks.

Among Canadian songs to be honoured at the gala, which will air live tonight at 8 p.m. on CBC Radio One, are "American Woman," by Bachman and Cummings; folk singer Ed McCurdy's "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"; the national anthem, "O Canada," written by Calixa Lavallée and Adolphe-Basile Routhier; the traditional ballads "I's the B'y" and "A Huron Carol" and "When You and I Were Young, Maggie," by George W. Johnson and James Butterfield.

Tickets are available at Ticket Master, 416-870-8000, and online at http://www.ticketmaster.ca.

Tyson is also performing tomorrow through Friday at Hugh's Room on Dundas St. W.

Half of the folk/country duo Ian & Sylvia, Tyson emerged in the 1960s as a formidable songwriter whose talent and career would soon be shaped by New York entrepreneur Albert Grossman, Bob Dylan's manager. Tyson and Sylvia Fricke married in 1964 and recorded 13 albums together before calling it quits in 1975, when Tyson headed for the Alberta Rockies.

But in 1983, with Old Corrals and Sagebrush, he came to the attention of organizers of the first National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., and the album was picked up for national release. Since then Tyson has recorded seven cowboy albums.

Songs From the Gravel Road came quickly, if not easily, he says.

"Hank Williams got it right. Heartache doesn't hurt your songwriting any. Most of the songs on this album came right in the middle of the worst of it.

"Divorce and pain created these songs. They're not the kinds of songs I thought I'd be writing at this time of my life. But as bad as I feel, I know it will all be resolved."

(i'd love to send my folks to Hugh's Room to see Ian, but there's no way they'd make it down those stairs to the washrooms!

)

02-08-2005, 10:04 AM	#1
Station Master Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: New York City Posts: 455	that should be interesting...also wonder if Gordon will be attending any of the shows at Hugh's Room this week, would sure love to go but don't think it will happen (what a rare treat that would be, great venue for his CD release ) also wonder if JJ Cale will be there tonight with 'his' clones... is that why his touring band is using the name The Guess Who (because nobody knows who the other guys are, lol) instead of Burton and Randy? TORONTO STAR GREG QUILL ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST At 71, and having realized a greater proportion of his boyhood dreams than most men ever will, Ian Tyson should be a happy, satisfied soul. The singer/songwriter's compositions "Four Strong Winds," "Someday Soon" and "Summer Wages" earned him a spot in the pantheon of Canada's great musical poets almost four decades ago. Then he walked away from music to reinvent himself as a cattle rancher in the Alberta high plains featured so vividly in those songs. In recent years, Tyson re-emerged as a writer and performer of magically realistic working-cowboy songs, producing a series of memorable albums that, late in life, have made him a cultural legend. Not that Tyson likes to hear that kind of talk. He knows good and bad go hand in hand, that every victory is tainted by loss, and that icons crumble and rust away. Having just completed an album he considers one of his finest — Songs From the Gravel Road — and the first sold-out tour of his career, through Nevada, Colorado, Utah and Alberta, he's back home contemplating the ruins of his 20-year marriage. "It's divorce hell, as acrimonious as these things get," Tyson sighs. "Still, we'll get through it, even if it means giving up half the ranch. Time will take care of the rest." A special guest at tonight's second annual Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame Awards — he'll be performing with his first wife, Sylvia Tyson, and her group Quartette — at the John Bassett Theatre in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Tyson is unusually happy about making the trip to Toronto, a city he generally finds easy to ignore, for the distraction it will offer. He's not among this year's inductees, though he'll be singing two songs — Winnipeg singer and Hollywood movie cowboy Bob Nolan's "Cool Water" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" — that are being added to the Hall Of Fame's roster. "There's talk about being inducted next year," he says flatly. "I don't pay much attention to awards ... they look nice up on a shelf. I can't really connect with them. I'm leery of them. I don't like spin. And awards don't relate to the gravel road on my ranch, where I do all my walking and make up my songs. "If I do get one, I hope it isn't posthumous." At tonight's event, Guess Who songwriters Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings and native roots artist Buffy Sainte-Marie will join Nolan as inductees to the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame along with Quebec's Claude Leveillée, Raymond Lévesque and Serge Deyglun, and Amherstburg, Ont. pianist and composer Shelton Brooks. Among Canadian songs to be honoured at the gala, which will air live tonight at 8 p.m. on CBC Radio One, are "American Woman," by Bachman and Cummings; folk singer Ed McCurdy's "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"; the national anthem, "O Canada," written by Calixa Lavallée and Adolphe-Basile Routhier; the traditional ballads "I's the B'y" and "A Huron Carol" and "When You and I Were Young, Maggie," by George W. Johnson and James Butterfield. Tickets are available at Ticket Master, 416-870-8000, and online at http://www.ticketmaster.ca. Tyson is also performing tomorrow through Friday at Hugh's Room on Dundas St. W. Half of the folk/country duo Ian & Sylvia, Tyson emerged in the 1960s as a formidable songwriter whose talent and career would soon be shaped by New York entrepreneur Albert Grossman, Bob Dylan's manager. Tyson and Sylvia Fricke married in 1964 and recorded 13 albums together before calling it quits in 1975, when Tyson headed for the Alberta Rockies. But in 1983, with Old Corrals and Sagebrush, he came to the attention of organizers of the first National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev., and the album was picked up for national release. Since then Tyson has recorded seven cowboy albums. Songs From the Gravel Road came quickly, if not easily, he says. "Hank Williams got it right. Heartache doesn't hurt your songwriting any. Most of the songs on this album came right in the middle of the worst of it. "Divorce and pain created these songs. They're not the kinds of songs I thought I'd be writing at this time of my life. But as bad as I feel, I know it will all be resolved." (i'd love to send my folks to Hugh's Room to see Ian, but there's no way they'd make it down those stairs to the washrooms! )