 [Larger view] | Ian Tyson - Songs from the Gravel Road
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 GAVE IT A CHANCE - STILL LACKING | |
| I've listened to this cd a bunch. If you want to have one of every Tyson cd (as I did), buy it. If you thought Ol' Eon was a sparkling gem, buy it. If you like Barry Manilow and disco music, buy it. If you like mushy gazillion track recording where Ian's voice, delivery and pacing get lost in the production, buy it. What's gone here (whether intentionally or through fatigue) is the crispness, the voice, the delivery, the picturesque imagery, and the pacing that makes Ian Tyson unique in ANY music, let alone western or folk music. If you've heard of Ian and want to get acquainted with what made him great, try any album but this one and Ol'Eon. Ian Tyson songs elsewhere have lyrics that command attention and prompted Wally McRae to write "Give Us a Song, Ian Tyson". To others this may be an example of "artist's growth" but to me it's a wart. | |
 five decades on | |
| In his fifth decade of recording, Ian Tyson has created a body of modern roots music that impresses, moves, and continues to grow. The style hasn't changed much -- the folk ballad is the template; he is not, whatever else Amazon's designated reviewer would have you believe, a "country" singer -- though over time he has experimented with different instruments and textures behind his acoustic guitar. On Songs from the Gravel Road, it is the much-hyped addition of jazz horns on a few cuts. As it turns out, their presence neither adds nor subtracts much, perhaps signifying no more than Tyson's boredom after all this time with standard Western-music arrangements. They do, however, underscore the point that Tyson made the correct decision when he chose not to cut the jazz recording he was envisioning a few years ago.
In any event, this is -- of course -- a worthwhile album. Tyson cuts no other kind. If hardly his finest (in other words, no Cowboyography or Lost Herd), it still has its share of shining moments. They include a spare, appealing reading of the Anglo-Celtic traditional "One Morning in May," long a favorite of the Irish folk musicians for whom Tyson has an affinity; authentic 19th-Century cowboy songs usually borrowed Irish melodies, after all. There is also a simple, touching, but unsappy song about the passing of a beloved dog, "Casey's Gone." "Range Delivery" and "Always Saying Goodbye," on the other hand, sound listless and uninspired, in both conception and execution. There is, it apparently needs stressing, nothing "anti-American" here, just a passing expression of displeasure with the America of George W. Bush, not to be confused with a rejection of America itself. Tyson's view is shared by the 51% of Americans -- all of them patriotic, I have no doubt -- who, according to a recent CBS News poll, dislike Bush's leadership. In any event, Tyson is not a preacher or a shouter, and the line, which appears in the splendid opening song "This Is My Sky," works perfectly in context, as one of the meandering, spoken-aloud thoughts of a worried, far-from-young man, presumably Tyson himself, reflecting on life and circumstance. One hopes, of course, that life and circumstance lead him to yet more music. | |
 Give it a chance - it really grows on you! | |
| Sorry, I completely disagree with the previous reviewer - this is some of Ian's best work.
Having had this CD since it's Canadian release a couple of months back, I remember not knowing quite what to make of it until the first few listens, but I now think it holds together as a really cohesive piece of work that reflects a time of transition in Tyson's life following the break up of his 20 year marriage. Ironically, the best track on the CD, 'The Ambler Saddle' (listen a few times before judging) is one of the few with no obvious link to the 'relationship break down' theme that pervades. I doubt many songs have been written from the perspective of a bucking-horse saddle before this one! 'This is my Sky' is the opener and another stand out track. "Sweet America coming off the rails, that's what lies and money do" must be the line that offends the previous reviewer, as there are no other arguably anti-US references to be found here. Fairly innocuous and anyway, as Tyson says on the very next line, "who the hell am I to talk". Other highlights on this CD (and there are many) include 'Land Of Shining Mountains', a melodic tribute to Tyson's adopted homeland of Alberta, 'The Road To Las Cruces' and a great adaptation of the folk song 'One Morning in May' that at first seems out of place, but actually fits with the CDs general theme of relationship traumas and barriers. I heartily recommend this CD and hope this is not Ian's last. |
