Show #168

Week of March 17 | Special Guest Ian Tyson | Playlist

Ian Tyson

Canada's walking legend talks with us about the deep ties between ranching, horses and songwriting. Tom Russell has a cameo with a story about the day in Greenwich Village when Ian & Sylvia heard Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" for the first time.

Tyson has long been one of Canada’s most respected singer-songwriters. A pioneer who began his career in the early days of the first folk boom in the '60s, he was one of the first Canadians to break into the American popular music market. In the years that followed he hosted his own TV show, recorded some of the best “folk” albums ever made, quit the music business and became — after years of backbreaking work — a rodeo rider and a successful rancher. [visit Ian's website]

Listen to the entire show | 59:00

But with his songs covered by Neil Young, Judy Collins, Suzy Bogguss, Gordon Lightfoot, Bobby Bare and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, among many others, he returned to music with a vengeance in the mid-’80s. He found himself able to combine his two separate lives in new songs that explained the reality of "western culture" and the mindset of a cowboy in a sometimes-alien world. Tyson's list of honours — from the Order of Canada to platinum records, Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Awards — is too lengthy to repeat. He tours constantly across Canada and throughout the United States. Ian Tyson is not a prolific songwriter. There are times when he despairs that he won’t write another song — but then they come to him, often as he walks along the gravel road. "I guess 80 per cent of my songs come on that walk," he says.

Creativity Corner | 4:26 | with Don Richmond

Don asks the question, "What am I doing to myself right now?" and comes up with some surprising clues about creativity.

Song Analyst | 8:43 | with Michael Shorr

Michael gives a contemporary music history lesson and looks at Bob Dylan's classic "Blowin' in the Wind."