This much-loved and frequently covered song was written by Ian Tyson, one-half of Canadian folk duo Ian and Sylvia. Their early albums spawned several songs that have become classics, probably the best-known being ‘Four Strong Winds’, which Neil Young performed at The Band’s ‘The Last Waltz’ show with Ian Tyson in the audience. The couple performed together from 1959 and married in 1964. They were managed by Albert Grossman, along with stablemates Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan, and though the marriage broke up in 1975, they continued with long and successful solo careers.
As the music industry boomed in the early 1960s, there was a scramble for good material. Dylan was, of course, a frequent source for just about everyone, as were The Beatles and even traditional songs like ‘The House of the Rising Sun’. And though they themselves were emerging talents as songwriters, Ian and Sylvia had had a major hit with Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Early Morning Rain’ several months before the writer’s own version was released.
In 1961, Sylvia had written ‘You Were on My Mind’ which was included on their 1964 album ‘Northern Journey’ and became a 1965 #2 hit in the UK for Crispian St Peters. Ian and Sylvia had less success with their own single release of the song, on the B side of which was another track from the album, ‘Someday Soon’. Like ‘Four Strong Winds’, the song went on to enjoy far greater acclaim than perhaps Ian and Sylvia had ever anticipated.
‘Someday Soon’ dips into Ian Tyson’s late teens and early 20s when he had worked as a rodeo rider. Growing up on a farm in British Columbia, he had learned to ride at an early age, and it was while recovering from an injury that he first picked up the guitar. The song features an unnamed rodeo rider from Colorado who is the centre of a girl’s affection but who is frequently away on the circuit. Her father disapproves of the liaison, while there’s an ironic reference to his own younger days being “just as wild”.
By 1968, the song had become well enough established in folk and country rock circles to be familiar to both Stephen Stills and his partner, Judy Collins. She was recording the album “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” in Los Angeles, and one evening they were driving home from Malibu when she said she was looking for one more song. Stills suggested ‘Someday Soon’ and as Judy Collins says, “The song was perfect for me, a Colorado girl at heart.”
Next day, the recording featured several legendary performers, with the pedal steel of Buddy Emmons and James Burton on Fender Telecaster, Stills himself playing acoustic guitar. With such stellar figures featuring in the arrangement behind Judy Collins’ gorgeous vocals, it’s little wonder that the song has become so iconic. Ian and Sylvia were always delighted by the success Collins enjoyed and were proud to bring her on stage in their reunion for a Canadian TV special in 1986.
Written from the girl’s perspective, Tyson was unable to ever explain where the idea came from. Borrowing the first line from a Stanley Brothers bluegrass song, “There’s a young man that I know”, it’s a song with a narrative that has appealed to the many artists who have covered it. Glen Campbell recorded it in 1973 and Moe Bandy in 1982, both altering the lyric to suit the male persona, but to my mind, the story doesn’t work as well from that point of view.
The many female singers to have put their imprint on the track include Skeeter Davis, Crystal Gayle and Lynn Anderson, herself a champion horse rider. In 1991, Suzy Bogguss released ‘Someday Soon’ as a single taken from her “Aces” album, and in more recent times it has been selected by a contestant on the US version of ‘The Voice’ and covered by Annalisa Tornfelt with another version by Fred Eaglesmith and Tif Ginn. It was included in Steve Forbert‘s 2020 covers set “Early Morning Rain”, mercifully maintaining the original lyric and female perspective, while the singer Jewel took the lead vocal in a duet with Garth Brooks on the USS Enterprise. Obviously, this was the aircraft carrier rather than the starship of that name, but a song that appeared on a B side in 1964 has nevertheless travelled a long way.
That’s SkeetER Davis – a well-known name in country music at the time.