Gordon Lightfoot Forums - MONTREAL review

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The line was inevitable, but the audience at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts had to wait until five songs had gone by before Gordon Lightfoot delivered it.

"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," the unflappable singer-songwriter loudly proclaimed, to cheers and applause. "What a kerfuffle that was." He was, of course, referring to a rumour in February, reported by some media, that he had ridden his last carefree highway.

As he showed last night, Lightfoot, 71, has a sundown or two left in him. Yet the song that followed his Mark Twain quote, the superb A Painter Passing Through, is a cheerfully resigned tip of the hat to mortality. And truth be told, the two-hour concert had a ghostly quality, with Lightfoot and his four backup musicians delivering haunting, hushed versions of well-worn classics and obscure favourites (five selections came from the 1982 album Shadows).

Some songs, like Don Quixote and Song For a Winter's Night, had a hymn-like feel that made even the enthusiastic, but civilized applause seem like an intrusion. Folk-rockers like Sundown and Hangdog Hotel Room were even gentler than their studio counterparts. Ultimately, this show --- similar in tone to Lightfoot's 2006 performance in the same hall --- must have been among the quietest concerts ever heard from a popular music artist.

Part of the equation is Lightfoot's voice. What was once a rich, confident baritone has, apparently, lost both its resonance and its reach: you had to fill in the higher notes of Song For a Winter Night's chorus with your imagination, for example. Perhaps the vocal thinness requires the supporting players to really hang back and even undersell their perfect fills. Luckily, however, there were times --- as in Fine As Fine Can Be and Restless, a highlight --- where short, passing daydreams of the old Gord voice just about became reality.

Ultimately, a Gordon Lightfoot concert in 2010 is not about reinventing the back catalogue and rocking up the old favourites, as fellow legend Bob Dylan might do. A Lightfoot show is a much tamer affair, one that can pretty much mean only one thing: a gathering of the faithful to celebrate one of the finest bodies of work in popular music. That description of the oeuvre seemed more apt than ever after the singer finished the ever-stunning Canadian Railroad Trilogy, during which a movement to clap along in the faster sections failed to get off the ground.

A standing ovation, appropriately polite, brought the night's sole encore: the oddly-chosen Old Dan's Records, a likeable, but lesser Lightfoot song. The audience was up for more, but it was not to be: Lightfoot returned alone, without his guitar, took a bow, held two thumbs up and disappeared as the room lights were turned on.

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MAINCONTACT EDITORSUBSCRIBE RSSToday is Saturday April 10, 2010 Set List: Gordon Lightfoot at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts; April 8, 2010
By Bernard Perusse Fri, Apr 9 2010 COMMENTS(0) Words & Music
Filed under: Gordon Lightfoot
1. Triangle

2. Cotton Jenny

3. 14 Karat Gold

4. Never Too Close

5. In My Fashion

6. A Painter Passing Through

7. Spanish Moss

8. Shadows

9. Beautiful

10. Carefree Highway

11. Hangdog Hotel Room

12. Ribbon of Darkness

13. Sundown

14. The Watchman's Gone

15. Alberta Bound

*** INTERMISSION ***

16. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

17. Ringneck Loon

18. Don Quixote

19. If Children Had Wings

20. Let It Ride

21. Make Way For the LAdy

22. Baby Step Back

23. Fine As Fine Can Be

24. Restless

25. If You Could Read My Mind

26. Canadian Railroad Trilogy

27. Song For a Winter's Night

ENCORE:

28. Old Dan's Records