Winnipeg rock music historian John Einarson lands exclusive story with Ian & Sylvia Tyson

Book cover (McClelland & Stewart) 

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Some things are worth waiting for. After pursuing notoriously stubborn Ian Tyson for several years regarding my undertaking a biography of iconic Canadian folk music duo Ian & Sylvia only to be rebuffed albeit in a friendly but firm manner, he finally acquiesced on Halloween night 2008 backstage at the Odeon Theatre (sorry, Burton, but for anyone growing up in Winnipeg in the 50s and 60s, the Burton Cummings Theatre will always be the Odeon). Following his concert, Ian and I chatted over a bottle of white wine. "I'll do it if Sylvia will do it, but she'll never agree to it," he declared confidently, guzzling the last drops from the bottle.

Little did he know Sylvia had agreed the year before, on first being approached. That was my trump card and once I played it, I had Ian. A cowboy always honours his word. His only caveat: "Just tell the truth."

We agreed that I wouldn't conduct any interviews until the following summer (I was busy completing another book).

In August 2009 I spent three days (and several more bottles of wine) with Ian at his sprawling horse ranch in Longview, Alberta (interview sessions were held in his century-old stone house where he goes to write his songs, a few miles from his main house) and the following month, three days (and several pots of coffee - Sylvia doesn't drink) with Sylvia at her elegant Rosedale home in Toronto (with a delightful evening spent at Gordon Lightfoot's mansion for an interview prior to my time with Sylvia).

I even managed to get the two together for a cordial lunch, no mean feat, at the King Edward Hotel in downtown Toronto while Ian was in town for a concert. The young waiter said to me afterwards, "I knew they were famous, I just didn't know who they were." We also met up at the 50th anniversary of the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia in 2010, where, 49 years earlier, Ian & Sylvia had headlined the inaugural festival (I know, the math doesn't add up but somehow the festival organizers came up with the magic number 50).

Thus began what I openly admit in the acknowledgements to Four Strong Winds: Ian & Sylvia is a dream project for me. Both subjects cooperated fully by being open, honest, candid, revealing and, as expected, contrary. Some thirty other interviewees added their own recollections, insights and anecdotes to flesh out the story.

In the end I met Ian's terms and told the sometimes harsh, often times warm and affectionate but always honest truth. Ian approved. In doing so I learned an awful lot about this groundbreaking duo and these two individuals I never knew before (and I always do my research thoroughly before interviews). I know readers will, too.

John Einarson (Liz Watson) 

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