Phish.net

On their only performance of this song on the second day of the 1998 Bridge School Benefit, Phish sat back and let the Canadians have the spotlight. This folk tune, penned by Canadian Ian Tyson and full of Canadian pastoral imagery, followed Phish’s collaboration with Canadian songstress Sarah McLachlan on Cat Stevens’ “Sad Lisa.” Neil Young, the benefit’s organizer and another Canadian, emerged from backstage before “Four Strong Winds” and started to take the lead vocal. The band left Young and McLachlan to handle all the singing and stuck to the arrangement Young used when he covered “Four Strong Winds” on his Comes A Time album. 

Watch Four Strong Winds on YouTube Phish with Sarah McLachlan and Neil Young, “Four Strong Winds” - 10/18/98, Mountain View, CA

(Tyson)
© Warner Bros Inc. (ASCAP)

Think I'll go out to Alberta
Weather's good there in the fall
Got some friends that I can go to working for
Still I wish you'd change your mind
If I asked you one more time
But we've been through that a hundred times or more

Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All these things that don't change
Come what may
If the good times are all gone
Then I'm bound for moving on
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way

If I get there before the snow flies
And if things are looking good
You could meet me if I send you down the fare
But by then it will be winter
Not too much for you to do
And those winds sure can blow cold way out there

Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All these things that don't change
Come what may
If the good times are all gone
Then I'm bound for moving on
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way