Ian Tyson

Ian Dawson Tyson CM AOE (born 25 September 1933) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, best known for having written the songs “Four Strong Winds” and “Someday Soon”, performed with partner Sylvia Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia.

Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria, and grew up in Duncan B.C.[1] A rodeo rider in his late teens and early twenties, he took up the guitar while recovering from an injury he sustained in a fall. He has named fellow Canadian country artist Wilf Carter as a musical influence.[2] He made his singing debut at the Heidelberg Café in Vancouver in 1956 and played with a rock and roll band, The Sensational Stripes. He graduated from the Vancouver School of Art in 1958.

After graduation, Tyson moved to Toronto where he began a job as a commercial artist. There he performed in local clubs and in 1959 began to sing on occasion with Sylvia Fricker. By early 1959 Tyson and Fricker were performing part-time at the Village Corner as Ian & Sylvia. The pair became a full-time musical act in 1961 and married three years later. In 1969, they formed and fronted the group The Great Speckled Bird. Residing in southern Alberta, the Tysons toured all over the world. During their years together, the pair released 13 albums of folk and country music.[3]