Few musicians have reinvented themselves as successfully as Ian Tyson. In the early ‘60s, Tyson began a musical and romantic collaboration with Sylvia Fricker. Calling themselves Ian & Sylvia, the couple and eventual spouses were a popular act in the early ‘60s folk scene and became represented by Albert Grossman, Bob Dylan’s early manager.

They were known for hits like “Four Strong Winds,” a simple folk composition where Sylvia’s vocals shadowed Ian’s strong singing. The number has since been covered by Neil Young, the Searchers and Johnny Cash. “Four Strong Winds” was also voted the greatest Canadian song of all time by the listeners of CBC Radio One.

Tyson and Fricker were some of the first musicians to cover songs by up-and-coming folkies Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell. By the mid ‘60s, Ian & Sylvia turned away from straight folk and started to perform folk rock and country music.

But following a split from Sylvia in the mid ‘70s, Tyson retired from music and became a horse trainer in southern Alberta. It took his new wife Twylla to push him back into making music. In 1983, Tyson rode back into the music scene with Old Corrals and Sagebrush, a release that marked a detour into cowboy music. It was not a surprising change in direction since Tyson was a rodeo rider before he teamed up with Sylvia as Ian & Sylvia. He actually learned the guitar while recovering from a rodeo accident.

His ranch-friendly leanings will make Tyson a top draw at this year’s Monterey Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival. Other musicians performing at the three-day event include eclectic Americana singer/songwriter Tom Russell, local Western music player and roots rocker Mike Beck and female singer Joni Harms.

Since returning to playing music, Tyson has created solo material full of rich observations about rural life and being a cowboy. His “Najavo Rug,” which he co-wrote with Russell, wonders what happened to a colorful rug and a beautiful waitress in a small town diner. Meanwhile, “Old Corrals and Sagebrush” reads like a personal ad describing Tyson’s favorite things, including “old corrals and sagebrush under rows of pines, pretty girls in pickup trucks and California wines.” Though numbers including “Bob Fudge” romanticize life on the range, others like “Little High Plains Town” illustrate how small communities are changing with the encroachment of Walmarts and the next generation trying to “leave this lonesome prairie” by riding “across the digital divide.”

Tyson’s latest, 2005’s Songs From the Gravel Road, begins with “This Is My Sky,” a meditative rock song with a quick political rumination about how “sweet America is comin’ off the rails.” The rest of the album includes mostly cowboy fare like “Casey’s Gone,” a catchy number about a dog that passed on, and “The Ambler Saddle,” a song sung from the point of view of the saddle Jerry Ambler sat on while becoming the 1946 World Saddle Bronc Riding Champion.

Over the years, Tyson’s folk music with Sylvia and his solo outings have won him many prestigious awards in Canada. In addition to being inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame and the Canadian Country Music Association’s Hall of Honor, the musician was made a member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, in 1995. Yee haw. 

IAN TYSON plays 7pm Saturday, Dec. 8, and 2:30pm Sunday, Dec. 9, at the Monterey Bay Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival located in the Monterey Marriott, 350 Calle Principal, Monterey. $35/Tyson performance; $190/all-event pass. 1-800-722-9652.