[2] Growing up in Duncan, British Columbia,[3] he learned to ride horses on his father's farm, and eventually became a rodeo rider in his late teens and early twenties.

Tyson decided to concentrate on country and cowboy music, resulting in the well-received 1983 album Old Corrals and Sagebrush,[7] released on Columbia Records.

His next albums were cowboy music: I Outgrew the Wagon (1989), And Stood There Amazed (1991), and Eighteen Inches of Rain (1994).

[9] In 2006, Tyson sustained irreversible scarring to his vocal cords as a result of a concert at the Havelock Country Jamboree followed a year later by a virus contracted during a flight to Denver.

[11] Notwithstanding, he released the album From Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Stories in 2008 to high critical praise.

[12] The album includes a song about Canadian hockey broadcasting icon Don Cherry and the passing of his wife, Rose, a rare Tyson cover written by Toronto songwriter Jay Aymar.

Sylvia joined Ian to sing their signature song, "Four Strong Winds", at the 50th anniversary of the Mariposa Folk Festival on 11 July 2010, in Orillia, Ontario.

Their son Clay (Clayton Dawson Tyson,[16] born 1966[17]) was also a musical performer and has since moved to a career modifying racing bikes.

[18][19] After the divorce, Tyson returned to southern Alberta to farm and train horses but also continued his musical career on a limited basis.

In 1978, Neil Young recorded "Four Strong Winds", and Tyson used the royalties for a down payment on a cattle and horse ranch.

[20][21][22] Co-written with Calgary journalist Jeremy Klaszus,[1] the book "alternates between autobiography and a broader study of [Tyson's] relationship to the 'West' – both as a fading reality and a cultural ideal.

A few years later, Ian said that Evinia Pulos (Bruce) was his "soulmate"; since she lived in Kelowna, a city in south central British Columbia, he said that he was unable to see her often.

[37] A tribute CD to Ian Tyson, The Gift, was released in 2007 on Stony Plain Records featuring "Someday Soon" done by Doug Andrew with Buddy Cage on pedal steel guitar (Buddy played in Great Speckled Bird), "Four Strong Winds" recorded by Blue Rodeo, plus another 13 of Tyson's best known songs done by major folk and country artists.