Ian Tyson

A former rodeo rider who learned guitar while recovering from injuries, Tyson teamed up with Sylvia Fricker in 1959 to form Ian & Sylvia, becoming leaders of the North American folk revival. In 1963, Tyson wrote Four Strong Winds, an aching ballad of migration and prairie separation voted Canada's greatest song in a 2005 CBC poll.

In the 1970s, Tyson returned to his cowboy roots, operating a working cattle ranch in the Alberta foothills near Longview. His western albums, including Cowboyography (1986), celebrated the true spirit of the working cowboy, honored with the Order of Canada and induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.