You never know who you're going to meet on the internet and I came to know Peter Tibbles (bio here) via email over the past couple of years. His extensive knowledge of most genres of music and his excellent taste became apparent only gradually (Peter's not one to toot his horn) but once I understood, I knew he needed his own column at Time Goes By - or, better, that TGB needed his column - which appears here each Sunday. You can find previous Elder Music columns here.

I completely forgot about Ian Tyson when I was compiling the Elder Musicians. I think I still see him as the young folkie I discovered way back.

If you want to be a songwriter you could a lot worse than studying Ian’s songs. There are few to match him - maybe Jesse Winchester, Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot.

That’s interesting, I’ve just surprised myself. Ian’s a Canadian as are Gordie and Jesse (Jesse by naturalization). Bob’s from northern Minnesota which is really Canada, so I guess that means you should also be a Canadian. It must be the cold.

In his youth, Ian was a rodeo rider and when the inevitable happened, he learned the guitar while recovering in hospital. His early songs include the great Four Strong Winds and Some Day Soon. If you took notice of music during the Sixties you will remember him as half of Ian and Sylvia.

Here are Ian and Sylvia performing Four Strong Winds.

Four Strong Winds

Oh, what the hell, let’s do another. I originally had a fine YouTube clip of them singing this song with Emmylou Harris and Albert Lee, but some rotter has removed it, so here’s audio only of Ian and Sylvia with Summer Wages (without Emmy and Albert).

Summer Wages

Back to the early days of Ian and Sylvia, this is Salmon in the Sea.

Salmon in the Sea

Now, you may have noticed that I haven’t featured any yodeling yet in any of these blog posts. I can hear your cries, “Oh, for a song with some yodeling." Fear not for I’m about to rectify that.

One of the few songs Ian performs that he didn’t write, Night Rider's Lament. For those who don’t yearn for a bit of a yodel, it’s right at the end after the song is pretty much finished.

Night Rider's Lament

This is a real elders song, it’s called Fifty Years Ago. It’s a nostalgic look back, but not with too many regrets - more wry than anything. On a personal note, I’ve just realised that the very first short story I contributed to The Elder Storytelling Place was set (at least the last part of it) exactly fifty years ago.

That’s how long I’ve lived in this big smoke (except for times when I haven’t). It’s how long Buddy Holly’s been dead.

This is from Ian's “Cowboyography” album, mandatory for anyone who likes his music (or music in general, really).

Fifty Years Ago

To continue on the elders theme and to double that last song, we’re up to a hundred years with Irving Berlin (is 100 years old today).

That’s Ian in the photo, not Irving. Ian turns 76 this year, more than three quarters of the way to Irving, so he’s a definite elder musician.

Irving Berlin (Is 100 Yrs Old Today)