Canadian singer/songwriter Ian Tyson has become a voice for the West, living and working on a ranch and singing songs about and for cowboys and others who share the love of the West and a vision of cowboy life.

Tyson was born September 25, 1933, in Vancouver, Canada; he grew up reading books by Will James, entering rodeos and loving cowboys. He attended the Vancouver School of Art but continued to ride in rodeos; he learned to play the guitar when he broke his ankle and found himself laid up in the hospital.

Influenced by Elvis, Tyson joined a rockabilly band then began his musical career as a folk singer in the early 1960s. He married Sylvia Fricker, and they formed “Ian & Sylvia,” a popular rock duo who began performing together in 1959 in Toronto. In 1961 they moved to New York where they signed with legendary manager Albert Grossman, who later managed Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul & Mary. Grossman them a recording contract with Vanguard and booked them into folk clubs and the college circuit. During the 1960s, he wrote two classic songs, “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon.”

He first entered the cattle business when he bought a ranch from royalties of those two songs near Toronto; he hosted TV shows in Canada then struck out on his own as a solo act. The British Invasion, led by The Beatles, had ended the folk movement so the career of Ian & Sylvia declined. The duo attempted to record country music, but Ian’s professional and personal lives were in a downward spiral. During the early 1970s, Tyson hosed a country music show on TV in Canada but quit in 1975, recorded an album, Ol’ Eon, and began a solo career. He divorced Sylvia, sold his ranch in Toronto and wanted to move to Nashville or Texas but couldn’t because of immigration law; so he moved to Alberta where he worked as a cowboy and bought a ranch.

Ian Tyson discovered cowboy music in Elko and began writing and recording cowboy music in earnest. He had already recorded an album, Old Corrals and Sagebrush, for Columbia. His breakthrough album was Cowboyography and from this point forward, Tyson found his voice as a writer and performer. He dedicated himself to living the cowboy life and singing about the Western lifestyle. He emerged as one of the premier singers and songwriters of cowboy and Western music during the 1980s and remains one of the top draws in the field of Western entertainment.
O.J. Sikes

Awards:

• 2008 Hall of Fame Inductees