Track Listing

1. Brahmas and Mustangs
2. Lost Herd
3. Summer's Gone
4. Smugglers Cove
5. Blue Mountains of Mexico
6. Roll on Owyhee
7. Legends of Cutting
8. Primera
9. Elko Blues/The Roan Mare
10. Over the Rainbow

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76022 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .19 pounds

Amazon.com
Unlike his cowboy contemporaries Skip Gorman and Don Edwards, Ian Tyson doesn't reach back to the Old West for inspiration. He has been a working rancher since the 1970s, and Tyson's songs make reference to cell phones as well as bay studs. Rather than demand that he not be fenced in, he sings, "I've roamed this world as a free man / One thing I ask of you / Don't let them put no tubes in me." No managed care for Tyson! Lost Herd finds the Canadian range rider mining the kind of big-sky acoustic sounds that first earned him notoriety as one-half of Ian & Sylvia, of "You Were on My Mind" and "Four Strong Winds" acclaim. Alternately virile and sensitive, this cowpoke is comfortable enough with his masculinity to sign off with a Judy Garland tune--"Over the Rainbow." Culled from sessions out of Toronto, Nashville, and Calgary, these songs are as wind-worn and comfortable as a weathered saddle. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

New song from the new west, Tyson at his best.
Lost Herd was recorded in Calgary, Toronto and Nashville. The obvious care and thought given to the selection of musicians and produceres for this album has paid off big time. Ian's voice has never sounded better and the support instumentation is outstanding. This album(sorry I'm giving away how old I am) this cd is thinking man's western music. Some of the songs show Ian's love for jazz, with a strong influence of sazaphone and piano on several tracks, but many of the song are vintage Tyson. Ian, who wrote Four Strong WInd, Someday Soon, and Summer Wages to name a few, has written all the songs on this cd but one, an acoustic version of the Harold Arlen classic Somewhere Over the Rainbow that'll bring tear to your eye. There's been rumblings that this might be Ian's last album, so I recommend you go out and support this legendary artist. You won't be dissapointed!

Sax, Blues, & Roans, It's a whole new side of Tyson
Don't be afraid to experiment and try something new! This album is a superb piece of art, carefully constructed, artistically written, and masterfully produced! As a fan of everything from MC Horses, Navajo Rug, & Eighteen Inches of Rain, I highly reccommend this new album to everyone. It's unlike anything Ian's ever done before, but who said we have to stay within the "lines"? The legends carefully weave into their songs a little piece of themselves. Listen, and you too will hear the true beating of this man's heart. And for those of you who know something about this artist, you will understand where lines like "snow boots way too small... where is the girl with the golden hair?" and "The fax machine that never sleeps" fit into this 'ol cowboy's soul.... (Ian, if you read this, my only disapointment was my wish that it lasted longer!!) Enjoy the ride!!!

Worth the effort
This one was not as immediately accessible as some of his other albums, but after I'd played it seven or eight times I couldn't remember which tracks I thought were weak. It's got a thoughtful, dreamy quality on several tracks (notably "La Primera") and nobody but Ian Tyson would write a pretty waltz tune about the "Legends of Cutting" -- "Buster and Shorty, Matlock and Don/ Mister Pat, he's still horseback, he's still a-keeping on..." And "Roll On Owyhee" contains the sort of singalong rhythm that makes his music fun as well as intelligent. And the references to roan mares and bay studs remind you that his interest in the west and the cowboy lifestyle are not made up, they're an honest part of the man.

Ian Tyson? "Over the Rainbow"? I wasn't sure what I was going to think of that, but he interprets it as a song, not a "standard," and in the process makes it possible for me to hear it with fresh ears.

The more I hear this album the better I like it.