The Canadian duo Ian & Sylvia (Ian & Sylvia Tyson) are recognized as important figures in the North American folk revival of the early 1960s. In Canada, “Four Strong Winds” is still something of a second national anthem. And then the British Invasion happened and folk music either got absorbed into rock, country, or pop music or moved into highly creative but less commercially successful directions.
By the early ‘70s, Ian Tyson was hosting a country music TV show on which Sylvia would regularly perform. A number of never-released recordings were made during this period and quite amazingly Sylvia found them while doing some cleaning around the house. These tracks, 26 in all, country and pop music classics, have now been released under the title The Lost Tapes by Stony Plains Records.
Nicholas Jennings writes:
The Lost Tapes contains classic songs from Ian and Sylvia’s folk period, notable for the duo’s rich, unrivalled harmonies, with the backing of Great Speckled Bird. These include Ian’s evergreen Four Strong Winds, once voted the greatest Canadian song of the 20th century in a CBC listener poll, Four Rode By and Summer Wages, his semi-biographical number about the gamble of seasonal work and romance. But there are also live versions with the band of many of the duo’s traditional repertoire, old ballads drawn from Anglo-Celtic and Appalachian sources: Little Beggarman, When First Unto This Country and Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies.
Fyimusicnews
So much to choose from on this collection, but this traditional song stands out as just the kind Sylvia liked to unearth, showcasing the pair’s always beautiful harmonies.