Ian Tamblyn at Wintergreen Studios

Isidora Spielman | Apr 06, 2017

On April 1st, a soft coloured Saturday with low hanging clouds and a definite sense of spring in the air, Wintergreen Studios was busy preparing for an evening of music and dinner for 50 guests. The dining tables were set to facilitate a gourmet experience.  The straw bale eco friendly lodge was a beehive of activity in preparation for overnight guests.

Wintergreen Studios is a year-round education and wilderness retreat centre located at 9780 Canoe Lake Road on 204 acres of mixed forests and meadows, granite outcroppings, ponds, marshes and a glacier carved lake. The property is part of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve in Southeastern Ontario.

Ian Tamblyn was the first performer for this year’s events at the Studios.

Ian brings music like breath from the land. With stories of Ontario’s lush forests or the haunting sounds of flute over large open spaces, Ian loves the land and he takes his listeners with him.  He skips ahead, singing enticingly over his shoulder to call us deeper into the forest, across that lake, up that boulder, onto the island. “Did you hear that rustle ….?” When the hammered dulcimer sings, we hear water crashing down a rocky slope and see people dancing around a campfire. We can almost see the fireflies.

Ian Tamblyn is a musician, an adventurer and a playwright.  He puts the audience at ease with his kind and easygoing stories and vignettes. And one tends to like the people one meets through his tales. He is a apt artist for a performance at Wintergreen, a space that is as devoted to the beauty and complexity of the land as he is.

During his performance, Ian talked about the late great songwriter Jesse Winchester, an American draft dodger who became an icon of the folk music scene in Montreal in the 1970’s and beyond. ‘Defying Gravity’, at Irene’s Pub in Ottawa, April 15th, is an evening devoted to the songs of Jesse Winchester. Performers will include Marcus Winchester, Ian Tamblyn, Rebecca Campbell, Anders Drerup, Keith Glass, Pat Moore, Chris Breitner, Ross Murray and Vicki Brittle.