Chest Fever Releases “Four Strong Winds” Live at Massey Hall
Chest Fever recently released “Four Strong Winds” as one of the singles from their upcoming album The 21st Century LAST WALTZ – Live At Massey Hall. The single comes with a corresponding live music video available on Youtube, capturing one of the most memorable moments from the band’s landmark performance at Toronto’s Massey Hall in 2023. Featuring Canadian music legend Sylvia Tyson alongside an incredible lineup of roots musicians, the performance brings new life to a song deeply woven into Canada’s musical history. We caught up with Chest Fever’s Dude Cervantes to talk about sharing the stage with Tyson, experiencing that moment as an American musician, the musical ties between Canada and the U.S., and how “Four Strong Winds” fits into the band’s forthcoming live album, The 21st Century LAST WALTZ – Live At Massey Hall.
“Four Strong Winds” is such an iconic piece of Canadian music. As an American musician, what did the song mean to you before this performance, and did your relationship with it change after playing it at Massey Hall?
Dude Cervantes, Chest Fever: Prior to 2021, we had never performed “Four Strong Winds” as a group. The first time we actually performed it was with Hall of Fame songwriter Jack Tempchin, known for his work with the Eagles, of course. He was personally a fan of the tune and the writing of Ian and Sylvia Tyson.
Before Massey Hall, though, we had the opportunity to perform the song with Sylvia Tyson, another Hall of Fame songwriter, at the Horseshoe Tavern in 2022. I would say it was at that show, on our first international Last Waltz tour, that we fell in love with the song and began to identify with it through our own love for Canada. You could say that year it became a soundtrack to our journey.
Was there a moment during rehearsals or the performance when the significance of sharing the stage with Canada’s Queen of Folk, the legendary Sylvia Tyson, really hit you?
Dude: Honestly, the band and I didn’t really understand the gravity of the situation. We knew she was a Canadian folk legend, but I would say it was after the Last Waltz at Massey, a year later, that it struck me personally.
I was working on our forthcoming documentary about the journey from the Horseshoe Tavern to Massey Hall and watching a clip from Festival Express of her wailing on “C.C. Rider” when I realized, “OMG! I was sharing the stage with a rock ’n’ roll goddess.” An absolute badass.
This performance brought together Sylvia with artists like John Muirhead, Rebekah Hawker, and The Pairs, musicians from different generations of Canadian roots music. What was it like to witness that connection between generations on stage?
Dude: Beaming would be the word, I think. That array of talent across generations on the same stage doesn’t happen often, and being in the middle of it all was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Having orchestrated the whole thing, I was almost directly in the center of this swirl of sounds: Scarlet Rivera’s iconic violin tone, Albert Lee’s smooth-as-can-be diamonds, Cindy Cashdollar’s sweet slide, Colin Linden’s masterful fingerpicking, Rebekah and The Pairs’ gorgeous harmonies like sirens in the wind, John’s incredible vocal delivery, and Sylvia Tyson at the helm the whole time. The song, the sentiment, it all embodied the feeling.
John Muirhead described performing “Four Strong Winds” with Sylvia at Massey Hall as “every Canadian folk musician’s dream.” As someone coming into that moment from outside Canada, could you feel the weight that the song carried for the Canadian musicians around you?
Dude: Absolutely. It reminds me of how I feel playing, working, and composing alongside Jack Tempchin of the Eagles. As songwriters, to be alongside these masters of the craft who have influenced you your whole life is as profound as you allow it to be. You take the emotion and experience with you, and hopefully it comes through you at some point down the line.
“Four Strong Winds” has become almost a piece of Canadian cultural history. Did being an American performing such a distinctly Canadian song make you approach it differently or feel an extra sense of responsibility to honour it?
Dude: I felt like an honorary Canadian, haha! Or at least on the same team as my northern friends.
We call The 21st Century Last Waltz “The New North American Songbook.” I once had a friend from Mexico tell me, “I’m an American, you are an American, we are both from North America.” I had never looked at it that way, but as a Mexican-American, I’ve always identified my own two cultures as a singular experience. I suppose that now extends to my newfound Canadian culture and the family I’ve grown since touring in the North.
Chest Fever celebrates and carries forward the legacy of The Band, whose story crosses the Canadian-American border. How did performing “Four Strong Winds” deepen your perspective on that shared musical history, and how does it inform The 21st Century LAST WALTZ as a whole?
Dude: The Band is the flagship of the North American melting pot, and it is our duty to carry that message and music forward. They didn’t draw borders. They embraced differences and let the truth push forward.
That is what the Last Waltz is about: leave your differences at the door, stand shoulder to shoulder with your brothers and sisters, and let it go. Come out on the other side and tell the story. Keep it going.