TORONTO
Canadian folk legend Ian Tyson, best known as one half of Ian & Sylvia for the single “Four Strong Winds,” has died at the age of 89.
The Victorian native died Thursday at his ranch in southern Alberta as a result of a series of ongoing health complications, according to his manager Paul Mascioli.
Tyson began his musical career in the late 1950s, first hitchhiking across the country from Vancouver to Toronto and then being drawn into the city’s burgeoning folk movement in the bohemian Yorkville district.
There he met a kindred spirit named Sylvia Fricker and they began a relationship – on and off stage – that would eventually lead to their groundbreaking second album Four Strong Winds in 1964.
They released music together for years, but when their careers faltered in the ’70s, the couple separated and divorced in 1975.
Tyson built a solo career as a country singer in the years that followed, and his self-released 1987 album Cowboyography became a surprise word-of-mouth hit, earning him a Juno Award.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on December 29, 2022.
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