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training horses in the ranch country of southern Alberta. After three idyllic years cowboying in the Rockies at Pincher Creek, Tyson recorded the album Old Corrals & Sagebrush, consisting of cowboy songs, both traditional and new. It was a kind of a musical Christmas card for my friends he recalls. We werent looking for a hit or radio play or anything like that. Unbeknownst to Tyson and his friends, the cowboy renaissance was about to find expression at the inaugural Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering in 1983; a small coterie of saddle makers, rawhide braiders, cowboy poets and pickers discovered one another in a small cow town in northern Nevada. Tyson was invited to perform his new western music and hes missed only one or two gatherings in the 30 years since. He has continued to be honored for his achievements. After numerous Canadian Country Music Awards, membership in the Juno Awards Hall of Fame one of five such honors with various industry organizations he has three honorary Doctorates, and is proudly a member of the Order of Canada. Four Strong Winds, in 2006, was chosen Canadas #1 song of the 20th century by CBC listeners. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Life has not been without its difficulties, however. In 2006, he seriously damaged his voice after a particularly tough performance at an outdoor country music festival. I fought the sound system and I lost, he said afterwards. With a virus that took months to pass, his smooth voice was now hoarse, grainy, and had lost much of its resonant bottom end. After briefly entertaining thoughts that he would never sing again, he began relearning and reworking his songs to accommodate his new voice. There was a scary night in Eugene, Oregon where a kind audience allowed me to tell some tales in a harsh whisper and gave me a glimpse of the road back through the dark woods. The songs started to come and so did the voice, Tyson says now. Slow, so slowly as I floated down the Colorado River, playing on a borrowed guitar with the worlds greatest acoustics to help me, I gured hey, I can do this That first night was a harbinger of the future: To his surprise, audiences now paid rapt attention as he half-spoke, half-sung familiar words, which seemed to reveal new depths for his listeners. The response to his 2008 album, Yellowhead to Yellowstone, was enthusiastic. Once people got used to the different voice, the new songs resonated in the same way that so many of his classics had. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now, with the 2012 release of Raven Singer, there are signs that Tysons voice is recovering some of its flexibility and range. Tyson made the record over a three-year period, as he wrote the new songs. His travels have provided the background for two of the 10 remarkable songs Under African Skies and Back to Baja. The first is partly travelogue and partly a story of running from the memories of a broken relationship. The latter has a distinctly southern Californian feel and is a song that Jimmy Buffett would feel at home singing. Other songs that maintain his reputation as one of Canadas most distinctive writers include Blueberry Susan, which offers a tribute to the first guitarist he ever heard, and some of the players Red Shea, Monte Dunn and David Rea whom he worked with and who passed away since Tysons last album. Charles Goodnights Grave and Saddle Bronc Girl are warmly-observed songs of the real West, not the romanticized version shared by weekend cowboys and Nashville new country singers. One of the most moving songs on the new CD is a new version of The Circle is Through, which he originally recorded almost 20 years ago with Nashville singer Suzy Bogguss. And so his life continues. Tough and a man who does not suffer fools lightly, Tyson stares at the future with clear eyes and weather-worn face. Bring it on, he seems to say. Meanwhile, the songs keep coming and the stories they tell are true. Ian Tyson is one of a kind: Authentic and durable. And not done yet. Not by a long shot. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ IAN TYSON RAVEN SINGER STONY PLAIN RECORDS U.S. RELEASE DATE: MAY 29, 2012 www.stonyplainrecords.com U.S. Publicity Contact: Mark Pucci Media (770) 804-9555 / mpmedia@bellsouth.net