Sylvia Tyson, (''née'' Fricker; born 19 September 1940) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician and broadcaster. She is best known as part of the folk duo

Ian & Sylvia Ian & Sylvia were a Canadian folk and country music duo which consisted of Ian and Sylvia Tyson. They began performing together in 1959 (full-time in 1961), married in 1964, and divorced and stopped performing together in 1975. History Early ...

, with

Ian Tyson Ian Dawson Tyson (25 September 1933 – 29 December 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who wrote several folk songs, including " Four Strong Winds" and " Someday Soon", and performed with partner Sylvia Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia. Ea ...

. Since 1993, she has been a member of the all-female folk group Quartette.

Early life

Tyson was born Sylvia Fricker in Chatham, Ontario, the second of four children. Her father was an appliance salesman for the

T. Eaton Company The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's gr ...

, and her mother was a church organist and choir leader. At a young age Fricker decided to become a singer. Although her parents tried to discourage her from pursuing a career as an entertainer, she left Chatham in 1959 to perform in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ian and Sylvia

From 1959 to 1974, she was half of the popular folk duo

with

. The two met after a friend of Ian's heard her sing at a party and let Ian know about her. Ian had been performing in Toronto clubs as a solo artist, but after he and Fricker met, they decided to work together as a duo. Their full-time collaboration began in 1961 and continued for a decade. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, she and Ian Tyson also fronted the

country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...

band Great Speckled Bird. Sylvia Tyson wrote her first and best-known song "

You Were on My Mind "You Were on My Mind" is a popular song written by Sylvia Fricker in 1961. It was originally recorded by Ian & Sylvia, but better known versions were recorded by We Five and Crispian St. Peters. Background The song was written in a bathtub in a ...

" in 1962. It was recorded by Ian & Sylvia in 1964. The song has been covered extensively, but first became a hit single in the mid-1960s for the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

-based folk-rock band

We Five We Five was a 1960s folk rock musical group based in San Francisco, California. Their best-known hit was their 1965 remake of Ian & Sylvia's " You Were on My Mind", which reached No. 1 on the Cashbox chart, No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 ...

, and also for the British pop singer

Crispian St. Peters Crispian St. Peters (born Robin Peter Smith; 5 April 1939 – 8 June 2010) was an English pop singer-songwriter, best known for his work in the 1960s, particularly hit songs written by the duo The Changin' Times (comprising Steve Duboff and Art ...

. Fricker married Ian Tyson on 26 June 1964. During their years together, they recorded 13 albums. The Tysons were divorced in 1975. During their marriage, they had one child, Clayton Dawson Tyson.

Later career

After the Tysons separated and stopped performing together in 1975, Sylvia started a solo career. She released two albums on

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

, ''Woman's World'' in 1975 and ''Cool Wind from the North'' in 1976. In 1978, she established an independent record label, Salt Records. With the label she released the albums, ''Satin on Stone'' in 1978 and ''Sugar for Sugar'' in 1979. Sylvia Tyson contributed offstage to the Canadian music scene as a board member of

FACTOR Factor (Latin, ) may refer to: Commerce * Factor (agent), a person who acts for, notably a mercantile and colonial agent * Factor (Scotland), a person or firm managing a Scottish estate * Factors of production, such a factor is a resource used ...

and the

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

s. With

Tom Russell Thomas George Russell (born 1947/1948) is an American singer-songwriter. Although most strongly identified with the Americana music tradition, his music also incorporates elements of folk, rock, and the cowboy music of the American West. Many ...

, she was an editor of the 1995 anthology ''And Then I Wrote: The Songwriter Speaks'' (). In 2011, she wrote her first novel, ''Joyner's Dream''. Sylvia joined Ian to sing their signature song "

Four Strong Winds "Four Strong Winds" is a song written in 1962 by Ian Tyson and recorded by Canadian folk duo Ian and Sylvia on their 1963 album ''Four Strong Winds''. The song was the first one that Tyson wrote. Tyson has stated that he wrote the song in about 20 ...

" at the 50th anniversary of the

Mariposa Folk Festival Mariposa Folk Festival is a Canadian music festival founded in 1961 in Orillia, Ontario. It was held in Orillia for three years before being banned because of disturbances by festival-goers. After being held in various places in Ontario for a fe ...

on 11 July 2010 in

Orillia Orillia () is a city in Ontario, Canada, about 30 km (18 mi) north-east of Barrie in Simcoe County. It is located at the confluence of Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a Lis ...

, Ontario. In 2012, Tyson and singer-songwriter

Cindy Church Cindy Church (born 1958) is a Canadian country and folk artist. Church released three studio albums on Stony Plain Records and was nominated for Best Country Female Vocalist at the Juno Awards in 1995 and 1996. She is also a member of the awar ...

wrote a campaign song for the

Alberta Party The Alberta Party, formally the Alberta Party Political Association from 1998 to 2004, is a political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. The party describes itself as centrist and pragmatic in that it is not dogmatically ideological in ...

, a centrist political party in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. On November 3, 2023 at the age of 83, Tyson released what she states is her last album titled 'At the End of the Day'.

Awards and recognition

Sylvia Tyson was made a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

in 1994. She was nominated seven times for a

, the first being in 1987 as Country Female Vocalist of the Year. The

Canadian Music Hall of Fame The Canadian Music Hall of Fame was established in 1978 by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) to honour Canadian musicians for their lifetime achievements in music. The award presentation is held each year as part of th ...

inducted Ian & Sylvia as a duo in 1992. In 2003, Sylvia Tyson was inducted into the

Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame The Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame honours Canadian country music artists, builders or broadcasters, living or deceased. The artifact collection includes extensive biographical information on the inductees. The Canadian Music Hall of Fame can ...

. In July 2019, it was announced that Ian Tyson and Sylvia Tyson would be inducted into the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...

individually, not as a duo. The

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

said that "the duo's 1964's hit, ''Four Strong Winds'', has been deemed one of the most influential songs in Canadian history". The CBC report also referenced the song ''You Were on My Mind'', written by Sylvia Tyson, as well as her four albums (1975–1980).

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Sylvia Tyson
on a Wayback Machine cache of Quartette's web-site
Sylvia Tyson
, ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

''
An interview with Sylvia TysonCBC interview with Sylvia on the early years of Can-Con (important because of Sylvia's contribution to the organisational side of Canadian music
*
Quartette
* *
Sylvia Tyson Interview
at NAMM Oral History Collection (2021) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tyson, Sylvia 1940 births Living people Singers from Ontario People from Chatham-Kent Canadian women country singers Canadian women singer-songwriters Canadian folk singer-songwriters Canadian folk guitarists Canadian country singer-songwriters Canadian women folk guitarists Members of the Order of Canada Great Speckled Bird (band) members Quartette (band) members 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers Autoharp players 20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters