Track Listing

1. Navajo Rug
2. Old Corrals And Sagebrush
3. Desert Motel
4. I Outgrew The Wagon
5. Jerry Ambler
6. Sorta Together
7. Fifty Years Ago
8. Someday Soon
9. Smugglers Cove
10. Casey Tibbs
11. Blue Moon
12. Somewhere In The Rubies
13. M.C. Horses
14. Horsethief Moon
15. Little High Plains Town
16. Bob Fudge
17. Magpie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139835 in Music
• Released on: 2002-02-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Amazon.com
Having enjoyed one career as half of the folk duo Ian & Sylvia in the 1960s, Tyson, a real-life Canadian rancher, branched out into cowboy music in the 1980s, making an authentic contribution to a genre that sees too many silver-screen cowpokes and comedic galoots. While his songs have long been covered by Judy Collins, Jerry Jeff Walker, Suzy Bogguss, and others, his albums, especially the platinum-selling Cowboyography, are prized almost as much as original Bohlin saddles in some circles, both for their artistry and their ability to capture the romance and realism of the ranch and rodeo culture. This album, recorded live over four nights in an Alberta, Canada, community hall, reprises the best of Tyson's repertoire ("Navajo Rug," "Someday Soon," "I Outgrew the Wagon") and introduces four new tunes that stand tall with their elders. At 68, Tyson's vocals may be a bit frayed around the edges, but they're still as warm and cozy as an Indian blanket, and his acoustic-trio framework fits the material as snugly as a favorite pair of pointy-toed boots. Makes for fine listening around the campfire or simply in a saddle of your own imagination. --Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Ian is not retired yet -- A super album
Ian is 68 years old and could rest on his laurels and do a "greatest hits," but this album ignores them with a couple of exceptions (Someday Soon, Navajo Rug) and creatively presents some new and recent songs in the cowboy-western tradition. A couple of these (Little High Plains Town, Bob Fudge) are among his very best ever. The sound is wonderful for a live concert, the arrangements are creative, with effective addition of drums and fiddle on some songs and even a trumpet on one, and his voice is as strong as ever. In an amazingly strong catalog that includes some of the best 60s folk (Ian and Sylvia), early country rock (Great Speckled Bird) as well as the cowboy classics of his later career, this album is one of his very best. It's my favorite of all his solo albums, because of the consistency of the material and the warm feeling of the concert that makes you wish you had been there.

As comfortable as a pair of ostrich skin Nocona's
At 17 tracks it is possible to think of this package as two CD's in one. Live versions of old classics AND more new songs than were included on the excellant compilation 'All The Good Uns' The new twists on the familiar songs are all worth having, Ian's voice is lose and the phrasings relaxed and different enough from the careful studio ones to give the songs new feel and depth. But there's more going on than just vocals; there's a great fiddle break on Casey Tibbs, a new sound to "I Outgrew the Wagon" and a great guitar intro to "Fifty Years Ago" The arrangement of "Old Corrals and Sagebrush" is the third Ian has recorded, and is the best one yet.

The new songs could have come off "18 Inches of Rain" or "I Outgrew the Wagon" Tracks 3,8,12 and 15 have the great sense of melody that Ian stepped away from in favor of a different sound on the "Lost Herd" CD. Fans who didn't care for that CD as much as the earlier ones will welcome the return to classic form. On the other side, tracks 5 and 16 (the later revisiting the Texas to Montana cattle drive theme of 'Banks of the Musselshell') show Ian still evolving and expanding as a songwriter.

Then the last track, Magpie, has been reworked to something I can best describe as calypso vasquero.

All in all a smooth easy broken-in sound and as strong a CD as any Ian has made.

Tyson's Still Got It
I have been listening to Ian Tyson since the 60s. His voice is still as strong as ever. Age has not diminished it at all. This is a wonderful CD for any cowboy folk fan. I especially enjoyed the live recording. I hope he is still writing and recording for a good long time.