The Long Trail: My Life in the West

"I live on a ranch about six miles east of the town of Longview and the old Cowboy Trail in the foothills of the Rockies. On a perfect day, like today, I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world. Of course, I'm not going to say there aren't those other days when you think, 'What am I doing here?' It's beautiful country and it can be brutally tough as well."-Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson's journey to the West began in the unlikely city of Victoria, B.C., where he rode his dad's horses on the weekends and met cowboys in the pages of Will James's books, and eventually followed that cowboy dream to compete in local rodeos. Laid up after breaking a leg, he learned the guitar and then he drifted east, becoming a key songwriter and performer in the folk revival movement of the 1960s. But the West always beckoned, and when his marriage to his partner and collaborator, Sylvia, broke up and the music scene threatened to grind him down, he found his way to the foothills of the Rockies and work with cutting horses. Soon, he'd bought a ranch in Alberta and found a new voice and a new life as the renowned Western Revival singer-songwriter and horseman he is today.

In The Long Trail, Ian Tyson, a true Canadian icon, reflects on his longstanding love of the West and his life in one of the last true cowboy countries on either side of the border.

"Tyson's music will surely stand beside the works of his heroes as enduring documents of the West."-Los Angeles Times

"Tyson is hands-down the premier writer and performer of music of, and about, the people of the West."-Western Horseman

Ian Tyson has long been one of North America's most respected singer-songwriters. A music pioneer who began his career in the folk boom of the 1960's, he was one of the first Canadians to break into the American popular music market as part of the folk duo Ian & Sylvia. In the years that followed, he hosted his own TV show and recorded some of the best folk and western albums ever made. Tyson is a recipient of the Order of Canada, and has received multiple Juno and Canadian Country Music awards. He tours constantly across Canada and throughout the United States, and continues to live and work on his ranch in the foothills of Alberta's Rocky Mountains.