The Gift: A Tribute to Ian Tyson

As You

     

First, my bias: not one of the artists who so kindly paid tribute to Ian come anywhere close to the man himself for the delicate beauty and musical instrumentation of the originals. This is always a problem with this kind of album but Tyson is so far above these performers that their covers are bound to seem lesser. There's a few here that would stand on their own. I especially liked what the McDades did with Ian's tribute to his father, "Smuggler's Cove." And it's moving to listen to other old-timers like Ramblin Jack and Gord Lightfoot having a go at Tyson classics. But then, if you buy the whole thing - and I say "don't do it" - you'll end up with the likes of Blue Rodeo's entire miss of everything that was so wondrous about "Four Strong Winds" -- I am still trying to purge that abortion from my head. Anyway, in this era of being able to buy MP3s so easily individually, you are way better off tracking down and getting the originals.