Gordon Lightfoot Forums - Onamia- March 29: Set Lists

Gordon LIghtfoot played two casino-set concerts to sold out crowds at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs ballroom.

Debbie and I had a great time. We had dinner at the Grand Buffet with Paul and Sharron (MnMouse). We had met them last year in Minneapolis. Great fans from northern Minnesota.

Also caught up with Claudia and her friend Shelley. Claudia was able to get backstage between concerts. She is building relationships with Gord's new manager who replaced Barry Harvey.

For the first concert (6:00 p.m), we were way off to the Terry Clements side of the stage.

1) Cotton Jenny
2) Carefree Highway
3) Sea of Tranquility
4) Never Too Close
5) Painter Passing Through
6) In My Fashion
7) Rainy Day People
8) Shadows
9) Beautiful
10) Watchman's Gone
11) Ribbon of Darkness
12) Sundown
13) Wreck of E.F.
14) Hangdog Hotel Room
15) Restless
16) Waiting For You
17) If You Could Read My Mind
18) Baby Step Back
19) Early Morning Rain
20) Encore: Blackberry Wine

As I said, we were way off to the side and Gord's vocals were buried in the mix the whole set. Very little chatter from Gord during the casino set. Some women yelled out, "I love you." Gord said, "It's great to hear that again !!" We sat right under a big screen projector and my wife noted that Gord had his wedding ring on.

Second concert was much better. We were in the center section, about 12 rows back. Much better vocal sound from there.

Second Concert (8:30 p.m.) :

1) Triangle
2) Cotton Jenny
3) 14 Karat Gold
4) In My Fashion
5) Painter Passing Through
6) Beautiful
7) Carefree Highway
8) Hangdog Hotel Room
9) Ribbon of Darkness
10) Sundown
11) Wreck of E.F.
12) Alberta Bound
13) Clouds of Loneliness
14) Don Quixote
15) If You Could Read My Mind
16) Baby Step Back
17) If Children Had Wings
18) Canadian Railroad Trilogy
19) Encore: Old Dan's Records

Second concert was far more enjoyable for us and not just because of better seats. After 30 years and some 37 concerts, I finally heard "If Children Had Wings." Extremely tender song. I noticed that the line " and a wife can not stand too much pain" has been replaced with "and a life that I could not explain." Certainly some new self-confession in that updated line.

He seemed fairly jovial and went to Barry Keane to remember how to pronouce the name of the place: Mille Lacs (Mill Lax). Not that hard. The native Chippewa population went nuts when the Fitzgerald played. He also mentioned the new IMAX film coming out in a few months called "Mysteries of the Great Lakes" and that the song version from Summertime Dream will be used during the segment profiling the Fitzgerald. He had some reference that his involvement will be used to fund scholarships at the Maritime Academy in Traverse City Michigan. He also joked that he needed approval from the Ladies Club in Madison, WI to proceed with the project. He had asked the film producers if they thought they could get approval from Warner Brothers to do it and they said that they had already received it !! Does anyone know more about the Madison, WI reference??

Before starting Trilogy, he said that he felt "stuffed up" today but that he wanted to do it. He said he only does the song about every other concert and that with that schedule, he can handle it. About the third line, he messed up the lyrics and shrugged. Ever the professional, he started again from the beginning and did fine. In these days with performers having teleprompters for their lyrics, the memory this man has is something I hope I have at age 69.

He came back for "Old Dan's Records" and nailed it. Great energy song as a closer.

Anyway, gotta run. We are now off to Appleton, WI. Hope to meet Moosedog and Dave from Australia.

John - Forest Lake, MN