The Best of Ian & Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Columbia G32516
1973
Is this really the best of Ian and Sylvia? Of course not, anyone who is even a casual fan of the duo knows that the best of Ian and Sylvia was recorded for Vanguard Records. If you read the fine print on the back cover you will see that this double record set repackages Ian and Sylvia's two albums for Columbia Records, "Ian & Sylvia" and "You Were On My Mind." Neither album sold many copies, so presumably some weasel at the record company decided to recoup the losses by deceptively marketing the albums as a greatest hits package. Being a huge fan of Ian and Sylvia, I knew this was a rip-off when I bought it, heck that is part of the reason I bought it. I like to collect examples of the major record labels' greed and evil chicanery. Mostly I bought it because it was really cheap and when I found it in a Pasadena record store many years ago, I had yet to acquire a copy of "You Were On My Mind." I figured I would buy it and then discard it when I finally did acquire a copy of "You Were On My Mind." However when that finally happened, I found that I didn't want to part with it, just one of those irrational collector things. The album is not entirely without value to someone who has the two Columbia albums already. Bob Palmer's lengthy liner notes are quite good and you get a bunch of leftover photos from the photo session for "Ian & Sylvia," but really I just keep it because I'm a completist. I've already blogged about the two Columbia albums, so I won't rehash them here, but even though this music is marginal compared to the classic Vanguard albums, it is still worth having, especially if you like country rock. If I was making up a double record set of Ian and Sylvia's best recordings, I'd probably try to squeeze on a few of the Columbia tracks, in particular the remake of "Summer Wages," "Barney," "Bill (Won't You Please Take Me Home)," and especially "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye." Recommended to Ian and Sylvia fans who can't find copies of "Ian & Sylvia" or "You Were On My Mind."
You Were On My Mind
Ian and Sylvia and The Great Speckled Bird
Columbia KC 31337
1972
The end of the road for Ian and Sylvia Tyson after a long and wonderful journey. Appropriately their final album was recorded at Toronto Sound in Toronto the city where they first met and began their career together. They revived the name of their country-rock group, the Great Speckled Bird, for this album but only drummer N. D. Smart remained from the line up that recorded "The Great Speckled Bird" album. The record gets off to a rousing start with a cover of Robbie Robertson's "Get Up Jake." The Band recorded it for their album "The Band" but left it off the record and it was later a B-side on one of their singles. Ian and Sylvia always had excellent taste in their choice of outside music to cover and this is no exception. They give it a rollicking country-rock treatment with Ian delivering a thunderous lead vocal and Sylvia providing the sweet harmony vocal for the chorus. I greatly prefer their version to the version by the Band. Ian's "Old Cheyenne" is an evocative rodeo song, the sort of song Ian has always excelled at. It is country-folk until the chorus where Peter Ecklund's trumpet kicks in, giving it more of a pop feel. Sylvia sings lead on the joint Ian and Sylvia composition "Antelope" which is indeed about antelopes. I find her plaintive vibrato-laden vocal very touching as she delivers her ecology-themed lyrics. Sylvia also sings lead on her song "Miriam" which is one of the more unusual songs in the Ian and Sylvia catalog. She is accompanied solely by a piano and a quartet of cellos giving the song a chamber pop sound as she sings about her lost friendship with the title character. The traditional gospel song "Lonesome Valley" gets a funky country rock treatment notable for Jim Colegrove's big bass groove and some slinky guitar riffs from David Wilcox and Ben Keith. The Tysons trade lead vocals on the verses and sing the chorus together backed up by harmonies from the band for a very energized and vigorous sound. Side two opens with a new version of Sylvia's famous song "You Were On My Mind" which the duo first recorded on their classic 1964 album "Northern Journey." The new version is a bouncy country rock version punctuated with some piercing steel guitar lines from Ben Keith and trumpet riffs from Peter Ecklund. I can't say I prefer it to the original but it is definitely more lively. Sylvia's "Joshua" is a traditional style folk song, although with Sylvia playing harpsichord and chimes it has a chamber pop feel to it. Ian's "You're Not Alone Anymore" returns the album to country music. Ian delivers a very robust and romantic vocal for this love song. Ian also wrote "Salmon In the Sea" which is another ecology-minded ode to nature akin to "Antelope." It is a folk song with a lovely combined vocal from the Tysons. The joint composition "The Beginning of the End" is pure country with an emotional vocal from Ian and a beautiful harmony vocal from Sylvia. It is a song about heartbreak and separation and I'm tempted to think it is about their impending break-up like "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" on "Ian & Sylvia," but it lacks the personal quality of that song. The song that I think most reflects the state of their marriage is the album closer, Sylvia's "Bill (Won't You Please Take Me Home)" which is my favorite original song on the album. It is about a married couple who go to a party where the husband meets up with an old flame from the past. She sees them dancing and realizes that he loves his old girlfriend more than he loves her. The party in the song may be fiction, but the poignant quality of Sylvia's heartbroken lead vocal suggests to me that the feeling of loss she is expressing is real. I find it very moving. It is a powerful song that gives the album a strong finish. I'm consistently engaged and entertained by this album, but it is bittersweet to me since it was their final record. Since I first heard Ian and Sylvia as a teen, I've always felt a deep emotional connection to their music, they are among my very favorite pop artists. I enjoy their solo records too, but they don't have the same resonance for me as their joint work. The beauty, the idealism and the passion expressed in their work as a couple is inspiring to me and I'll always treasure their records. This album is a very worthy addition to their wonderful catalog and I'm happy at least that they ended their partnership with such a fine record. Recommended to fans of Gordon Lightfoot.
Ian & Sylvia
Ian and Sylvia
Columbia C 30736
1971
There are no bad Ian and Sylvia albums. If you are a fan of the duo, you should buy all of them, but I wouldn't make this one a priority. It is actually not all that easy to find since it did not sell much when it was originally released. It was their first album for Columbia Records and the penultimate studio album in their career. The duo had moved from folk and folk-rock to a more country rock sound that suited them extremely well although they did not abandon their folk roots completely. The album opens on a positive note with David Wiffen's "More Often Than Not." Wiffen also wrote one of my favorite Tom Rush songs, "Driving Wheel." It is a sparkling country-pop tune sung by Ian with vocal sweetening from Sylvia that describes the life of a musician on the road. It is a terrific song, one of my favorites on the album. The album takes a nose dive with the sappy love song, "Creators of Rain." It is credited to Smokey which is a pseudonym for a guy named Larry Mims who had recorded it with his sister back in the 1960s under the name Smokey and his Sister. Ian and Sylvia sing it beautifully but it is still a crummy song and the corny string arrangement doesn't help it any. According to John Einarson's book on Ian and Sylvia, Columbia Records executive Clive Davis forced them to record the song against their will which I can easily believe since Ian and Sylvia normally have unfailingly excellent taste in covers. The album rebounds with Ian's "Summer Wages" which is a remake of a song he recorded back in 1967 in a folk-rock version for "So Much For Dreaming." I don't know why he chose to record it again, but I have to admit that the country flavored version on this album is more satisfying. Ian sings it with a lot of feeling and Sylvia's harmony vocal on the chorus is divine. The song is about bumming around and the transience of love narrated with very evocative imagery. I think it is one of Ian's best all-time songs and it is my favorite song on the album. Sylvia sings lead on her composition "Midnight" which is a slow bluesy love song. Her sensuous vocal really sends me and there is a nice sultry guitar solo from David Wilcox as well. Ian and Sylvia co-wrote "Barney" which is a gut-wrenching autobiographical account of him shooting his favorite horse to put it out of misery. It has a stark arrangement, largely driven by Sylvia's piano playing that puts all the focus on Ian's heartbreaking vocal. It is an incredible song, one of the most moving and powerful songs in their long career. Side two kicks off with Ian's "Some Kind of Fool" which is a charming country rock love song forcefully sung by Ian. Ian's "Shark and the Cockroach" is a goofy country-rocker with a swamp rock flavor that features a gritty vocal from Ian embellished with some yodels. Next is a cover of John Dawson's "Last Lonely Eagle" which appeared in a superior version on the debut album by the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Ian and Sylvia sing it as a mournful duet with sparse accompaniment with a little instrumental color coming from Weldon Myrick on steel guitar. Of course Ian and Sylvia sing it great, I'd listen to them sing just about anything but I still find the song kind of boring. I don't really care much either for "Lincoln Freed Me" which was written by singer/songwriter David Patton. As you can probably tell from the title it is written from the point of view of a freed slave. Ian and Sylvia duet on this as well accompanied only by David Wilcox on guitar. It galls me to write this, but I prefer the version by Joan Baez on "Blessed Are..." not because she sings it better than them (as if!) but because of the more elaborate instrumental arrangement on her version. Sylvia takes a solo turn on Bert Jansch's "Needle of Death." It also only features Wilcox on guitar for instrumental support but it is such a strong song that it really doesn't need anything more than that. Sylvia sings it with a lot of feeling and this is one of my favorite versions of that oft-covered classic. The album concludes with Sylvia's "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" which is about breaking up. It is a majestic tune driven by a strong organ line and some tasteful strings. The heartbreaking lyrics are so strong and vivid I feel like Sylvia must be writing from her heart envisioning the imminent end of her marriage and partnership with Ian. I've loved Ian and Sylvia since I was a teenager, it really tears me up to listen it, almost as if I were listening to my own parents breaking up. It provides a beautiful and emotional conclusion to the album. This album is too spotty to rank with the best Ian and Sylvia albums but it still features some of the best music they ever did. I would include the remake of "Summer Wages," "Barney" and "Everybody Has To Say Goodbye" among their very best songs and the album is worth seeking out just for them. Aside from "Creators of Rain" even the weaker songs have much merit. Ian and Sylvia may have been nearing the end of their road together, but this album shows that they still had plenty of vitality and creativity. It deserved a better fate, it was largely ignored upon its release failing to even crack the top 200 albums chart in sales. I like it better than a lot of the other albums that came out in 1971 and recommend it to anyone who values emotional honesty in music.
Northern Journey
Ian and Sylvia
Vanguard VSD-79154
1964
Ian and Sylvia's third album. I first discovered Ian and Sylvia via the We Five's cover of Sylvia Fricker's "You Were On My Mind." My stepmother had the first We Five album, "You Were On My Mind," and I listened to that one song many times as a teenager. I became curious about the original and sought it out. I started with an Ian and Sylvia comp but the song first appeared on this album which I picked up a few years later. After Dylan, Ian and Sylvia are my favorite folkies, at least as far as North America is concerned. There are many reasons for this, starting with my obsession with Canada. Their albums feature many songs about Canada and listening to them made me yearn to visit the great white north. Secondly, Ian and Sylvia had excellent taste in songs and were both good songwriters also. I believe that all of their Vanguard albums are worthwhile. They were talented singers as well, Ian Tyson has one of the best voices in North American folk music, I think only Tom Rush is better and Sylvia Fricker is a brilliant harmony singer, that vibrato in her voice always sends me. Finally, I have to admit, I had a crush on Sylvia Fricker. When I saw her picture on the comp I bought, I was instantly smitten. As a youth I totally idealized her and what I thought she and Tyson represented - integrity, bohemia and the true north strong and free. According to the album's liner notes the album title reflects the folk scene in Canada or more particularly the way Anglo-American songs traveled there from England and the United States. Many of the songs are either about Canada, from Canada or collected in Canada. The album begins with "You Were On My Mind." When I heard the We Five version (which altered the lyrics) I thought it was about a depressed person who was cheered up thinking of her love, but my error became clear when I heard the Ian and Sylvia version and realized that the narrator is depressed because she is heartbroken, she is trying to forget the person on her mind. Despite the sad subject matter, I'm always elated when I hear this song, it makes me feel good to be alive. The lyrics sound like a blues song but the music is almost joyous. There is a rich string sound in the performance which features two guitars, a bass and Fricker on autoharp. This is characteristic of most of the album aside from the autoharp. All but one of the songs features a bass and most of the songs feature a second guitarist. The resulting richness of sound is very appealing. My two other favorite songs were both written by Tyson. "Some Day Soon" is a classic song about a girl in love with a rodeo performer. It is set in the United States, but given Tyson's background in rodeo I would assume that the song is a little autobiographical as well. With no less than three guitars and a bass it has a very dynamic sound and boasts a terrific duet vocal. It would later be a minor hit for Judy Collins although I greatly prefer this version. Tyson's other song is "Four Rode By" which describes the exploits of the criminal McLean gang in British Columbia in 1879. The song is mostly neutral in its perspective, ignoring the various social and political aspects of the events. It is a very propulsive tune with some stirring guitar work from John Herald. The remaining songs are all traditional. I particularly like the compelling "Nova Scotia Farewell" which is about the hardships of the life of a sailor. The mournful dirge, "Brave Wolfe" recounts the battle of Quebec between the French and the British in 1759 and celebrates the valor of James Wolfe, the British general killed in the battle. "The Moonshine Can," another Canadian folk song on the album, could not be more different than "Brave Wolfe." It is a frenetic tune recounting moonshining activities in Newfoundland and features some fast-paced picking from Monte Dunn on mandolin and John Herald on guitar. The haunting ballads "The Jealous Lover" and "The Ghost Lover" feature subject matter typical of Anglo-American folk music. Anyone who is familiar with the Child ballads will recognize their tales of the man who kills his true love mistaking her for someone else and the dead lover who pays one final ghostly visit to his love. "Green Valley" also covers familiar territory, that of the young woman wronged by a false lover, but it is apparently unique to Canada and Ian and Sylvia credit the New Brunswick traditional singer, Marie Hare, as their source for the song. The song is given a charming country treatment with Dunn's mandolin providing much of the instrumental color. Although collected in Nova Scotia, "Captain Woodstock's Courtship" is an old Scottish ballad that Child included in his anthology. It is an amusing series of riddles sung by Fricker and responses sung by Tyson. For an old folk song, it is kind of sexy. The remaining songs are less connected to Canada. The acappella performance of "Texas Rangers" and the lively gospel tune "Swing Down, Chariot" are obviously American and "Little Beggarman" is a rollicking Irish tune that the duo picked up from Tommy Makem. They are all good songs but I don't see how they fit into the concept of the album except perhaps as a display of the diversity of music popular in Canada. I love this record, this music has been the soundtrack for many of my Canadian road trips. Recommended to people who'd rather make a journey to Halifax than Hollywood.
