Feature ArticleMarch 6, 2002
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Ian Tamblyn at MERABy Jeff GreenIn the Land of the Silver Birch Cry of the Loon There's something about this country That's a part of me and youSo runs one of the refrains to an Ian Tamblyn song that's set in this part of the country. It's been almost five years since Tamblyn has trekked this way from his home over the border in Chelsea, Quebec, but he is always travelling, up north to the arctic, out on the oceans, out to the west. So much so that he thinks he begins to sound a bit like The National Geographic as he describes the settings to his songs. "I can see myself as a magazine" he says, because I'm a pretty two dimensional guy." I would have thought Ian Tamblyn was anything but two dimensional from his performance at the MERA (Mcdonald's Coners Elphin Recreational Society) schoolhouse last Saturday. Ian Tamblyn is part landscape painter, part story-teller, part poet, part stringed intstrument virtuoso, and part environmental activist.
His songs this night ranged from hilarious accounts of his experiences travelling on canadian highways as a musician, in songs like "The Gypsy Kings in Manitoba", performed in the best Spanish accent a boy from Thunder Bay could muster and "Always Fresh" an song Tim Hortons donut shops on the highway, to haunting melodies brought forth from his hammer dulcimer and songs about the vastness of the north and the colour of the sky over the oceans.He also seemed to change personalities as quickly as he changed musical directions, from an extroverted raconteur to a contemplitive, almost shy musician, in the face of the applauding audience. Overall Ian Tamblyn is an artist, allowing his imagine to get caught up in his work and letting the direction of each song, each visual sound, to come out through him. He brought all the worlds he inhabits with him to his show, and it was pleasure to be allowed a glimpse into them.
