REVIEW: Ian Tyson, Lost Herd (Vanguard)
- Jon Steltenpohl
The prevailing notion of just what a cowboy should be is ingrained deep in the lore of the Americas. We have images of black and white heroes fighting off Indians, and ruffians shooting it out at high noon. So, when one is presented with the honest-to-god real thing, it sets you back for a moment of reflection. Ian Tyson doesn't try to sell an image as the last of a breed; he embodies it. While "Cowboy Poets" have littered our cultural landscape with quirky poems and aw-shucks witticisms doled out with requisite mustache and drawl, Ian Tyson has lived quietly up in Canada and looked down upon it all.
Tyson's view of the world isn't revisionist or sappy. He simply tells it like it is. The plains are rapidly being divided into 20 acre pre-fab ranches and corporate megafarms. The modern conveniences of cell phones and faxes may not seem like key points of the cowboy's prose, but Tyson works them in among tales of wild rivers and untamed horses. Yet Tyson is a modern cowboy who, while yearning for the past, certainly doesn't pretend he's in the middle of a different century. These are the songs of a 20th century cowboy.
Wait... cowboy music? In an alternative music publication? Well, yes.
Tyson is about as far from New Country as a cowboy can get. This is mellow music set at a slow pace. Lap steel guitar is set alongside a slightly jazzy saxophone that might as well be lifted from a Sting song. There's a rustic quality to Tyson's voice, but it's set against a smooth background. Take the lounge out of k. d. lang's Ingenue, and you've got the idea. Shades of Chris Isaak come out now and then, but the Roy Orbison falsetto and the rockabilly side never show. The echo on Tyson's voice is set on "a little to strong," but that's about the only blemish to the excellent sonic production.
Ian Tyson's Lost Herd certainly won't be showing up in MTV's Buzz Bin, but it's expertly crafted music for its genre. Even the crowd pleasing version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" seems like it was written for a man on a horse. Alternative country fans will probably know Tyson from his extensive back catalog, but there's undoubtedly a large audience who've never come across this gentleman. If you've ever enjoyed some of Willie Nelson's work, like "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," you'll certainly enjoy Lost Herd.
For more information, visit http://www.vanguardrecords.com/tyson
