Customer Reviews

Four Strong Winds: Ian and Sylvia

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bottom line: this book is well-worth the amazon price, as the importance of ian and sylvia warrants a look back at their genesis and carreer. there is great information about those heady years for i&s in new york, and FASCINATING material on the recording years on the 4 labels. in my opinion, the biographical material on ian's earlier life is much better presented in ian's own "The Long Trail: My Life in the West," released in 2010. and of course, more complete.

the editing is not very tight, with a lot of information being repeated, particularly character introductions and re-introductions early in the book. e.g. ramblin' jack's real name, suze rotolo's relationship with bobby z. this often happens when there are lots of different authors with no-one coordinating (although i doubt that's the case here).

the book is written in an interview format, which is a problem for me early on, with so many different people interviewed. it's difficult for me to read a book in this style, which is, at times, 50% quotes at least, because i can sometimes forget who's being interviewed. but, what are you going to do? you take what you're given, and a thorough job was done here, regardless. and it IS nice to hear actual quotes even if it can get confusing as to who's speaking. no skimming here.:) but who'd want to?

four misstatements jumped out at me about artists about whom i do know a great deal (which make me question the facts about others with whom i'm not so familiar). there are other partial inaccuracies.

page 18. regarding the kingston trio during the early days: "The Kingston Trio had their moment in the sun and were huge. When Bob Shane left that kind of took the wind from behind them because he was the heart and soul of that group." Bob never left the group, ever. maybe the author is speaking of Dave Guard who left the group in 1961. But the group was reinvigorated when John Stewart took dave's place, and the trio continued to enjoy tremendous success, with a number of hits (till the beatles came!!). in fact, Bob Shane retired from the trio only a few years ago. almost 50 years with the Kingston Trio. john and nick both decided to go their separate ways in 1967, but that didn't stop bob from keeping the trio going.

page 118. ian's "old corrals and sagebrush" was the lp released in 1983. the cd referred to on this page, "... and other cowboy culture classics," was released in 1994 and includes songs from his self-titled album also.

page 64. re: peter paul and mary: "Puff" was on ppm's second album, not "..the freshly minted trio's debut album" which DID include "lemon tree" and "if i had a hammer."

page 260. canadian chief dan george (who gained widespread fame in "little big man") was not in "dances with wolves." how did the editor miss THIS one?

but BUY the book! : a goldmine for ian a& sylvia fans, and a reminder of how good they were, and that their peers, the best critics, put ian and sylvia at the very top.

An easy read while still informative. Lots of behind the songs insight up to the present which benefits from the artist involvement. And Dylan wanted to be a cowboy, very cool! Not one for the scholars perhaps but definitely perfect for even a casual fan of either or both, like a long magazine you can pick up again after laying it down for some time. You will find yourself digging out the recordings to revisit or discover along the way. A really nice and durable dust jacket too.

I've been a fan of Ian & Sylvia from the beginning.. Attended all of their concerts at Massey Hall, seen them at the Riverboat and also at McMaster University in Hamilton.. This book was very informative filling in more information about their careers. Wish they were still singing.