In celebration of Pride Month, we decided to release this haunting version of the Ian Tyson classic “Four Strong Winds”. This song was recorded in the mid-1960s. Accompanying Ellen is Marge Doherty, a fellow educator and friend of Ellen’s, who also happened to be a talented singer. This recording is an artifact of LGBTQ+ history.

“Four Strong Winds” is available now on BandCamp.

About the album

Here is Ellen’s amazing essay about Marge and this recording session:

“Marge was in her early 20s when we met, blonde, fresh-looking, about 5’6”, and clearly very bright. I was in my early 30s, living in Detroit, teaching folklore at Wayne State University. She was in college in a nearby town, finishing her Master’s degree in Physical Education.

It was in the mid-1960s, and I don’t remember exactly how I met her, but I do recall she was part of a group of women physical education teachers who worked at some of the small colleges in the Detroit area. Most members of the group, including Marge, were queer. I’m sure that they knew I was hardly adverse to such relationships, but although both Marge and I knew each other’s ‘proclivities,’ we also knew that our singing somehow transcended any such relationship. As far as I was concerned, the best of our relationship was what we had in our singing… and I wouldn’t have disturbed that for the world.

I had never felt as inspired by anyone’s harmonies or musical interaction with my singing as I did with Marge. She was immensely talented and had an innate ability to predict when and where I would start and stop, syncopate, or accelerate. I never analyzed her harmonies, and I don’t think I want to. In many ways, it is like trying to explain why you love someone, and I did love Marge in our singing, although we never had the physical involvement that it seemed she was keenly afraid of.

In the social environment in which I knew her, such a relationship would have been assumed. Looking back on it, I believe that both of us were determined not to bend to ‘social pressure’ any more than we were determined not to bend to our own inclinations, which I believe we both had.

When Ross and I decided to put ‘Four Strong Winds’ onto streaming platforms, Ross suggested I contact Marge so she could hear it. I found her, or rather, I found her obituary. She had died years ago, quite young, having had what seems a generous and good life as a physical education instructor. But the most poignant thing I read was that she was remembered as being fond of singing and playing her guitar. She never played the guitar when I knew her, and I wondered whether she had found someone else to sing with.

In their advanced years, couples often point to songs that marked their developing relationship. Marge and I could never have done that; Marge and I were the song.”

—Ellen Stekert

The album art is a photograph that Ellen took of her classmates while on a school trip to Europe in the early 1950s. The man on the right is Jean-Claude van Itallie, a friend of Ellen’s who would later write the acclaimed play America Hurrah. The man on the left is unknown.

Lyrics

Four strong winds that blow lonely, seven seas that run high
All those things that don’t change come what may
For our good times are all gone, and I’m bound for movin’ on
I’ll look for you if I’m ever back this way

Think I’ll go out to Alberta
Weather’s good there in the fall
Got some friends that I could go to working for
Still, I wish you’d change your mind
If I ask 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 those things that don’t change, come what may
But our good times are all gone
Then I’m bound for movin’ 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 going good
You could meet me if I send you down the fare
But by then it would be winter
There ain’t much for you to do
And the winds sure can blow lonely way out there

Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All those things that don’t change, come what may
But our good times are all gone
And I’m bound for moving on
I’ll look for you if I’m ever back this way

Credits

released June 20, 2025
Guitar, Vocals: Ellen Stekert
Vocals: Marge Doherty
Composer: Ian Tyson
Producer: Ross Wylde
Production Assistant: Bates Detwiler
Editorial & Publicity Manager: Christopher Bahn