Canadian folk music icon Ian Tyson died on Thursday morning..His former wife and musical partner, Sylvia Tyson, confirmed his death to CBC News and said, "the 89-year-old's impact on Canadian culture is hard to overstate.".The Tyson's breakthrough second album “Four Strong Winds” in 1964 was a hit.."I sat in with a young band at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto and they wanted me to do Four Strong Winds with them. It was quite a young audience and I didn't really expect that kind of response but everybody in the crowd sang Four Strong Winds," she told CBC News in a phone interview Thursday.."It's kind of like a Canadian national anthem.".The Victoria, BC native died Thursday at his ranch in southern Alberta following a series of ongoing health complications, according to his manager Paul Mascioli..Tyson was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989, and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, with his former wife and singing partner, Sylvia, in 1992..He also became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1994. In 2003, he received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award, and was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 2006..Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria, and grew up in Duncan BC. After sustaining an injury in a bad fall in the rodeo in his younger days, Tyson then picked up a guitar. The rest is history..Tyson released his most recent single “You Should Have Known” in Sept. 2017 on Stony Plain Records, the label that Tyson’s released fifteen albums with since the ‘80s..The family will hold a closed service and have requested privacy at this time.
