Great Speckled Bird was a country rock

Country rock

Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

 group formed in 1969 by the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 musical duo Ian & Sylvia. Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson

Ian Tyson CM, AOE is a Canadian singer-songwriter, best known for his song "Four Strong Winds". He was also one half of the duo Ian & Sylvia.-Career:Tyson was born to British immigrants in Victoria in 1933, and grew up in Duncan B.C...

 sang, played guitar and composed. Sylvia Tyson

Sylvia Tyson

Sylvia Tyson, CM , is a musician, performer, singer-songwriter and broadcaster. From 1959 to 1974, she was half of the popular folk duo Ian & Sylvia with Ian Tyson....

 sang, composed and occasionally played piano. The other founding members were Amos Garrett

Amos Garrett

Amos Garrett is a Juno Award-winning American-Canadian musician, performer, and author. He holds dual citizenship and was raised in Toronto and Montreal...

 on guitar and occasional vocals, Bill Keith

Bill Keith (musician)

Bill Keith is a five-string banjoist who made a significant contribution to the stylistic development of the instrument. In the 1960s he introduced a variation on the popular "Scruggs style" of banjo playing which would soon become known as melodic style, or "Keith style." -Professional...

 on steel guitar, Ken Kalmusky

Ken Kalmusky

Ken Kalmusky was a Canadian musician born in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, to saxophonist Walter "JoJo" Kalmusky and Mary Kalmusky.-Early career:...

 on bass and Ricky Marcus on drums.

The group was featured in the film Festival Express

Festival Express

Festival Express is a 2003 documentary film about the eponymous 1970 train tour across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends...

, a documentary about the music festival of the same name that took place in 1970. The shows were scheduled, and the performers traveled by train, across Canada. In the film, Great Speckled Bird performs "C.C. Rider", along with Delaney Bramlett

Delaney Bramlett

Delaney Bramlett was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. Bramlett's five decade career reached peaks in creativity, performance, and notoriety in partnership with his then wife Bonnie Bramlett, in a revolving troupe of professional musicians and Rock superstars dubbed Delaney...

 and members of The Grateful Dead. A performance of the Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

/Manuel

Richard Manuel

Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....

 song "Tears of Rage

Tears of Rage

"Tears of Rage" is a song written by Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel, the former writing the lyrics and the melody being provided by the latter.-Initial recordings:...

", without the aforementioned accompanyment, is included in the extra features of the DVD release.

In 1970, the group became the house band for the television show Nashville North, produced by the CTV network

CTV television network

CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

 and filmed at the CFTO-TV

CFTO-TV

CFTO-DT, broadcast on channel 9 and cable 8, is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, owned by Bell Media. Currently branded as CTV Toronto, it is the flagship station of the CTV Television Network, and was one of the charter members of the network when it was launched in 1961. It...

 studios in Toronto, which, after one season, became the Ian Tyson Show. The show ran until 1975.

The group backed Ian & Sylvia until the duo parted ways in 1975. They also backed Ian Tyson as a solo artist, for his 1973 debut solo album and his live performances, until 1976.

Albums

Year	Album	Album Artist	CAN	Label
1970	Great Speckled Bird Great Speckled Bird (album) Great Speckled Bird is a country rock album by Great Speckled Bird, a band formed in 1969 by Canadian musicians Ian and Sylvia Tyson. The other group members at the time of recording were Buddy Cage, on pedal steel guitar, Amos Garrett, on guitar and backup vocals, and N.D. Smart, on drums...	Great Speckled Bird	54	Ampex
1972	You Were on My Mind	Ian & Sylvia and The Great Speckled Bird		Columbia
1973	Ol' Eon	Ian Tyson	81	A&M

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions			Album
		CAN Country	CAN AC	CAN
1970	"Trucker's Cafe"	9		94	Great Speckled Bird
1972	"You Were on My Mind You Were on My Mind "You Were On My Mind" is a song written by Sylvia Tyson in 1964. It was originally performed by her and Ian Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia and they recorded it for their 1964 album, Northern Journey. It was published in sheet form by M... "		4		You Were on My Mind
1973	"Love Can Bless the Soul of Anyone"		46	61	Ol' Eon
1974	"Great Canadian Tour"		13

Videography

Year	Title	Notes
1970	The Johnny Cash Show The Johnny Cash Show (TV series) The Johnny Cash Show was an American television music variety show hosted by Johnny Cash. The Screen Gems 58-episode series ran from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC; it was taped at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. The show reached No...	*performed "Crazy Arms Crazy Arms "Crazy Arms" is an American country song recorded by Ray Price. The song, released in May 1956, went on to become a hit that year and a honky-tonk standard. It was Price's first number one hit. The song was written by Ralph Mooney and Charles Seals... " and "Long Long Time to Get Old"
1970	Nashville North	*produced by the CTV network CTV television network CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
1971–1975	The Ian Tyson Show	*produced by the CTV network
2003	Festival Express Festival Express Festival Express is a 2003 documentary film about the eponymous 1970 train tour across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends...	*filmed in 1970

External links

• The Cool Groove – Great Speckled Bird, website of some former members of the band