Ian Tyson, Canadian folk and country legend, dead at 89

Canadian folk and country legend Ian Tyson has died.

Family of the long-lauded singer-songwriter confirmed he died at home, at his ranch in southern Alberta, on Thursday.

He was 89 years old.

He had ongoing health complications, his family said in a release put out by music publicist Eric Alper.

Alper noted Tyson's many accomplishments in Thursday's release.

He is an inductee of the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame as well as the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

He is also an inductee of the Alberta Order of Excellence.

He is a member of the Order of Canada twice-over.

He is a recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award.

When the Calgary Stampede celebrated its 100th anniversary, he was the event's parade marshal.

Country music artist Paul Brandt told CTV News on Thursday that Tyson "sounded like Alberta."

Tyson loved the Canadian landscape and lived to write music and sing about it.

He was born in Victoria and taught himself to play the guitar.

He was a natural.

"He wanted to be a rodeo rider. But he took a pretty bad fall in his late teenage years, and he picked up a guitar while he was recuperating," Alper told CTV News.

Beginning his career in the coffee houses of Toronto's Yorkville, that's where he met fellow musician Sylvia Fricker.

They became a couple on and off the stage.

Four Strong Winds was penned by Tyson and recorded by the duo in the '60s.

Four Strong Winds is considered to be among the great songs of Canadian music and is oft-covered, including by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Johnny Cash.

"It was about my first love, my first girlfriend from art school," Tyson once said of the song.

Sylvia recalled her former husband and musical partner – they divorced in the '70s – as "versatile" and a "very serious songwriter."

"He put a lot of time and energy into his songwriting and felt his material very strongly, especially the whole cowboy lifestyle," she told The Canadian Press on Thursday.

"Ian and I were apart for a lot longer than we were together," she added.

"And aside from making some great music, we made some wonderful friends and got to play in a lot of wonderful places."

Tyson had a television show on CTV, and eventually moved to Alberta where he bought a ranch in the foothills south of Calgary.

“I’ve always been kind of an outsider, a lot of cowboys are, you know, or they wouldn't be cowboys,” he once said.

He continued to perform and collect honours.

"If you grew up a western kid in Alberta, then Ian's music always loomed very large and was a big part of your childhood, really. And yeah, he was our voice, so he'll be missed," country music artist Corb Lund said.

Brandt said his introduction to Tyson came when he first picked up a guitar and started learning songs around the age of 13.

"(Four Strong Winds) was the first song that I ever played on the guitar, so it really became a huge part of me and my musical story as well," he said.

"When I had my first hit and had the opportunity to come home and perform at the Saddledome -- we did a benefit for the Alberta Children's Hospital (and) the place was packed and everyone was excited for this homecoming -- my dream was that I might get the opportunity to perform Four Strong Winds with Ian Tyson, and he said yes.

"I'll never forget it."

Tyson admitted he could be prickly and lived life on his own terms.

"Irascible, I think is the term," he once said.

"I think the way that Ian approached everything was just to be authentic," Brandt said.

"He just was who he was, wherever he was, whether that was in the writer's chair or up on the stage. He said it like it is and I think that's what was so endearing about him as an artist."

Alper noted Tyson's last single was "You Should have Known" in 2017.

Tyson always said he wanted to leave a body of work that would stand the test of time – and it has.

A closed service will be held by Tyson's family, according to Thursday's release.

The Ian Tyson Legacy Fund is, meanwhile, taking donations in his memory at westernfolklife.org/donate.

With files from The Canadian Press