Ian Tyson’s musical collaborators will pay tribute to the late great Alberta singer/songwriter when The Gift is performed in Red Deer next month.
The concert, led by pianist and vocalist Stewart MacDougall who’s written, toured and recorded with Tyson, will be held April 15 at the Elks Lodge — and it’s already nearly a sell out.
The Red Deer show’s line-up of musicians include Thom Moon on drums, Gordie Matthews on guitar, fiddle ace Myran Szott and Julian Kerr on bass.
Vocal harmonies will be supplied by former One Horse Blue lead singer and guitarist Ian Oscar, as well as Tracy Millar and folk-roots singer John Wort Hannam.
The show, presented by Central Music Festival Society, will feature beloved tunes from Tyson’s albums, including Old Corrals and Sagebrush, Cowboyography, 18 Inches of Rain, I Outgrew The Saddle and Songs From The Gravel Road.
The Gift has been playing for audiences from Calgary to Ottawa for more than a decade. It even spawned a companion album from 2008 that included musical contributions from Gordon Lightfoot, Jennifer Warnes, Corb Lund and Blue Rodeo, among others.
Tyson, a Canadian folk music icon, who wrote the classic Four Strong Winds, as well as Navajo Rug, M.C. Horses, Summer Wages and many other tunes that have been covered by other artists, died at age 89 in December.
For more information, please visit centralmusicfest.com.