 Now in his mid-60s, with a long, glorious catalogue of tunes, plus recognition as the master of modern cowboy songwriting, Ian Tyson could just coast and nobody would get too upset. But while he may be eligible for Social Security (or the Canadian equivalent), Tyson isn't letting his music slide into any comfortable groove. On Lost Herd, his first new release in five years, Tyson's pushing his boundaries like never before, with sophisticated chordings and instrumentations that go deep into jazz and pop.
Take the title tune, for example, in which elliptical lyrics of loss and longing ("the old chant buried in some canyon deep, what would you give to hear that chant again") are interspersed with Phil Dwyer's romantic sax breaks, while George Koller's cello hums underneath. On "Blue Mountains of Mexico," a song of vanished love recalled by an old postcard, Tyson's tenor carries the first verse against Matt Rollings' solo piano, gradually joined by gut string guitar and Paul Franklin's steel, played so high at times it sounds nearly like violin. On "Brahmas and Mustangs" and "Summer's Gone," piano is out front again, setting up the melancholy of love fading with the changing of the seasons.
But the sense of nostalgia is most palpable on "Smugglers Cove," whose melody takes Tyson back to his roots in the folk revival of the early 60s. At a gentle lope, the singer dreams of the British Columbia seashore of his childhood, when his father would hide "pirate gold from the five and dime" in the sand. The dream goes beyond personal experience, however, to a vision worthy of Carlos Castaneda, in which "ancient winds will guide me, down the old dim trails to the buffalo range, the little wolves beside me." Longing for childhood blends uncannily into longing for the West of the mountain men. Tyson goes back even farther on "La Primera," the flamenco accented ballad narrated by the first Spanish horse to reach American shores: "I am a drinker of the wind, I am the one who never tires." Where else can you go when you've headed down all these old dim trails? Why, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," of course, which Tyson covers with acoustic guitar and bass to close out Lost Herd.
What's really inspiring about this project is that Ian Tyson, at an age when people are supposed to settle into mellow acceptance of aging, is instead looking far back and saying, "Damn! Why can't I go there again?"
|
