Ian Tyson (Photo courtesy of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame)
Ian Tyson Passes Away
Ian Tyson, the Canadian folk legend turned cowboy storyteller who penned “Four Strong Winds” as one half of Ian & Sylvia, has died at age 89.
The Canadian Press says the Victoria native died Thursday at his ranch near Longview, Alberta.
Ian’s manager, Paul Mascioli, said he passed following a series of ongoing health complications.
He was a part of the influential folk movement in Toronto with his first wife, Sylvia Tyson.
But Ian divided much of his life and career between two passions largely unrelated to his folkie past: living on his southern Alberta ranch and pursuing songs about the cowboy life.
In 1987, he won a Juno Award for country male vocalist of the year and five years later he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame alongside Sylvia Tyson. He won a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in 2003, and has been named to the Order of Canada and the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
