8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ian is not retired yet -- A super album, February 13, 2002
Ian is 68 years old and could rest on his laurels and do a "greatest hits," but this album ignores them with a couple of exceptions (Someday Soon, Navajo Rug) and creatively presents some new and recent songs in the cowboy-western tradition. A couple of these (Little High Plains Town, Bob Fudge) are among his very best ever. The sound is wonderful for a live concert, the arrangements are creative, with effective addition of drums and fiddle on some songs and even a trumpet on one, and his voice is as strong as ever. In an amazingly strong catalog that includes some of the best 60s folk (Ian and Sylvia), early country rock (Great Speckled Bird) as well as the cowboy classics of his later career, this album is one of his very best. It's my favorite of all his solo albums, because of the consistency of the material and the warm feeling of the concert that makes you wish you had been there.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As comfortable as a pair of ostrich skin Nocona's, February 11, 2002
At 17 tracks it is possible to think of this package as two CD's in one. Live versions of old classics AND more new songs than were included on the excellant compilation 'All The Good Uns' The new twists on the familiar songs are all worth having, Ian's voice is lose and the phrasings relaxed and different enough from the careful studio ones to give the songs new feel and depth. But there's more going on than just vocals; there's a great fiddle break on Casey Tibbs, a new sound to "I Outgrew the Wagon" and a great guitar intro to "Fifty Years Ago" The arrangement of "Old Corrals and Sagebrush" is the third Ian has recorded, and is the best one yet.
The new songs could have come off "18 Inches of Rain" or "I Outgrew the Wagon" Tracks 3,8,12 and 15 have the great sense of melody that Ian stepped away from in favor of a different sound on the "Lost Herd" CD. Fans who didn't care for that CD as much as the earlier ones will welcome the return to classic form. On the other side, tracks 5 and 16 (the later revisiting the Texas to Montana cattle drive theme of 'Banks of the Musselshell') show Ian still evolving and expanding as a songwriter.
Then the last track, Magpie, has been reworked to something I can best describe as calypso vasquero.
All in all a smooth easy broken-in sound and as strong a CD as any Ian has made.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tyson's Still Got It, January 28, 2003
I have been listening to Ian Tyson since the 60s. His voice is still as strong as ever. Age has not diminished it at all. This is a wonderful CD for any cowboy folk fan. I especially enjoyed the live recording. I hope he is still writing and recording for a good long time.
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