Gordon Lightfoot Forums - Trip & Show report-Trib.show-Toronto-1-18-09-SECOND NIGHT

Toronto – Sunday January 18, 2009
Hugh’s Room – The Way We Feel – A Celebration of Gordon Lightfoot music
Year 7

3rd nite of 3

After the Saturday night show:
The walk from Hugh’s Room along Dundas Street to the subway is only about 2 blocks but I wished it was a bit longer. The snow was falling in great big flakes, the roads were covered and it wasn’t cold or windy. Other than the odd car passing it was beautifully silent and I could have walked for quite some time going over the evening’s special moments in my mind.

Lisa and I arrived at our hotel about 20 minutes later and before turning in at 1:30 a.m. I called Sparky on her cell phone to see where she was on her journey north. She had just arrived in the lobby after 10 hours on the road. She left the Hartford CT. area around 4 and ran into ‘weather’ near Syracuse NY. But she was here and safe, albeit loopy from driving fatigue. We made plans to check in with each other later on that morning after a good night’s sleep.

My mum was picking Lisa up around 1 p.m. and Sparky and I were heading out to the St. Lawrence Market where on Sundays they have booths set up with antiques of all kinds. We spent a while there and then hit a retail shoppe or two before heading back to get ‘tarted up’ for the show.

It was snowing again on our drive to Hugh’s but we arrived only a few minutes late for our 6 p.m. dinner reservation. We were seated on the main floor just off the stage area so would have great close-up views even if they were side views for the most part.

The night before I had told Jory and David and Rick Fines that Jenney was making her way up for the show so it was nice to have them all come over and say hi to her and that they were glad she made it safely to Toronto.
It was great to have her back up for the shows and neither of us could believe the last time she was in town for them was in 2005. She was also here for the 2004 shows. We attended all three nights each year.

Shortly after arriving our dear Kenyon (and lovely g.f.) came over for big hugs and hellos! He’s such a great kid and always makes us smile with his exuberance and passion about all kinds of things.

Once again the show started around 8:30. All three nights were sold out!

Jason Fowler was the first performer and sang “I’ll Tag Along.” He mentioned his “boiler” story and that the night before after recounting it when Lightfoot was in the audience he later spoke with Gord about it. And Gord said to him, “it’s all bullshit! I don’t do it anymore – I buy new ones!” lol
So Jason’s ‘boiler’ story has a new ending for future shows! And the drinking game continues. lol
He said that the next song has Lightfoot “rapping” in the middle and sang “In My Fashion.”

When Jason mentioned Lightfoot being there the night before, a big groan went through the audience.

David then told us about the Saturday show being recorded by CBC and being broadcast on March 31 so we could listen to it at that time.

Oh Susanna once again sang “Old Dan’s Records” to start and then said she always liked to think of the lyrics of the next song as being “all the women tasted good and the liquor tasted fast.” She sang “Early Morning Rain.” She told us that the night before she had forgotten some words but Lightfoot didn’t call them out and she swore so it won’t be on the CBC broadcast! Lol

David Matheson said that some of Gord’s songs were chauvinistic but this one was from a kinder, gentler Gordon Lightfoot and he sang “Talking In Your Sleep.”
The next one was ‘the traditional guy goes out and gets drunk and misses the train song’ and he sang “Steel Rail Blues.”

The Undesirables sang “Shadows” and “Cotton Jenney.” They were joking about the possibility of his grandmother Jenney Cotton and Gord actually getting together way back in the day. Sean Cotton said he always wondered where he got his red hair.

Royal Wood sang “Sit Down Young Stranger” to a completely silent crowd and then sang “Cobwebs and Dust.” What a wonderful voice.

Rick Fines recounted how as a young boy he ‘knew about fast women and liquor’ and then captivated us with “Boss Man” and “Ribbon of Darkness.”

Ken Whiteley talked about seeing Lightfoot in 1964 at the Riverboat with Dave Rea and Joni Anderson (Mitchell). He said that the Dave Rea had a real blues lick in the song he was going to do - “That’s What You Get For Loving Me.” What a great interpretation!
Dala came onstage and sang “Cold On The Shoulder” with him.

BREAK

David Newland sang “Carefree Highway” and then introduced the next performer.

Anne Lindsay said that she was going to do an instrumental of one of Lightfoots most intimate tunes and played “Softly.”
She then sang “The Way I Feel”, mentioning it could be about estranged lovers, parents of a certain age, an empty house for a couple of decades.

Liam Titcomb came up to do “Sundown” but had no lyric sheet. He said it was the 3rd night so he was pretty rehearsed and should know them. He had the crowd singing along once again to a very energetic rendition.
His second song was “Summer Side of Life.”

DALA sang “Home From The Forest” and the song about the lonely character – “Go Go Round.” Their harmonies are SO sweet and easy to listen to.

Cadence sang “Oh Linda” and “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” to another gobsmacked audience.

Jory Nash sang “The Watchman’s Gone” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” I recorded IYCRMM. Jory was still floating on air from the success of the previous night and that Lightfoot had played HIS guitar while singing SFAWN! His smile was delightful!

Lori Cullen sang “Rainy Day People” and with DALA did “Song For A Winter’s Night” mentioning to the crowd that Gord did her song when he was there the night before. I recorded SFAWN.

FINALE – “Rich Man’s Spiritual” with audience participation.

It was over for another year! It went too fast! We could sit there for hours and still want more!

We said our goodbyes to Kenyon, snapping some pictures and then goodbyes to Jory and David. Having met Jory’s g.f. on Saturday night I was sorry I didn’t get to spend any time with her.

Sparky and I each bought a “Hugh’s Room t-shirt with a great rendering of the outside of the building and marquee by Toronto artist David Crighton. www.davidcrighton.com (he has painted many Toronto landmarks and I have his Massey Hall painting with the marquee noting Lightfoot’s 1984 dates)
Before leaving I had many of the performers autograph my T-shirt and will bring it along to future shows for more autographs.

It was another stellar show with amazing interpretations of Lightfoot tunes. The professionalism and quality of the whole “The Way We Feel” production reflects the love and respect that Jory (and Aengus) has for the music and that attitude is there in every story and song from each performer. I can only sit back and be astounded by all of it every year.
The immense effort to make it all so perfect regardless of Lightfoot attending and pulling it off year after year is what makes the shows so popular and in demand.

I can only imagine that Lightfoot himself is a huge fan of the whole LIVE music scene in Toronto and especially at Hugh’s Room. Having him in attendance is testament to the regard and appreciation he has for the production of “The Way We Feel” shows and the talent onstage.

In the past his visits have seen him sitting, listening and enjoying, but this year it seemed that he felt he wanted to be a part of it, showing all of us the way HE feels by gracing us with one perfect song for a winter’s night in snowy Toronto.