Ian and Sylvia
So Much For Dreaming

Ian Tyson: to many of you, this name might mean little or nothing, but this Canadian from British Columbia is one of the few artists still alive (and still active, at the ripe age of 75!) to whom a tribute album has been dedicated; and if you add to this that good Ian is a member of the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame, that some of his songs have been covered by none other than Bob Dylan, and that "Four Strong Winds," his most famous hit, is considered a true milestone of Canadian music, you get a vague idea of the character, or better, the living legend we're dealing with.

The adventure of this great songwriter began in the early '60s in partnership with then-wife Sylvia Fricker: the duo would eventually disband in 1974 (due to divorce), but not before recording 8 studio albums, including this "So Much For Dreaming" from 1966: this is not a masterpiece nor one of their most famous and successful albums, yet it remains a very interesting and stylistically varied work, ranging from the more traditional country that would later characterize Ian's solo career to blues, with pop, rock, and especially folk influences, experimenting with popular sounds that are at times very peculiar and evocative.

Among the strong points of the album is certainly the stunning cover of Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game," where Ian's deep and low voice intertwines perfectly with Sylvia's velvety and light one, against the backdrop of an ethereal yet extremely catchy melody that immediately sticks in your mind; this same characteristic is also found in the equally fascinating "Grey Morning," which closes the album in an atmosphere of light and almost imperceptible melancholy, and in "Come All Ye Fair And Tender Ladies," a carefree reimagining of a Canadian folk song; more tied to the country genre are two excellent tracks like the ballad "Wild Geese" and the rhythmic quadrille "Child Apart": all these songs are united by the simplicity of the melody and the arrangements, a feature that is instead lacking in the passionate title track "So Much For Dreaming" and in the bluesy "Hold Tight," two decent experiments that, however, fail to convey much, while the most characteristic passages of the album are surely the medieval folk divertissement of "Cutty Wren" and the poignant atmosphere of "Si Les Bateaux."

Apart from these nine tracks sung as a duo, "So Much For Dreaming" also includes three "solo" episodes: the less successful and incisive "Catfish Blues" sung by Sylvia, while the two tracks sung by Ian alone are little masterpieces, both the captivating country rock of "January Morning" and especially "Summer Wages" (which in 2007 will be included in the tribute album "The Gift"), a ballad that, in its simplicity, possesses an almost epic evocative power, Ian Tyson's trademark, and that serves as an excellent example of this artist's magic, which extends to the present day and has been a great inspiration for many artists who came after him.

Returning to "So Much For Dreaming," the final evaluation, considering its status as a "minor work" and the presence of some fillers, would be three and a half stars, but given the stature of the characters in question, rounding up is practically inevitable.