Portland review in blog
 

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Monday, November 8, 2010GORDON LIGHTFOOT: CASTING A MUSICAL SPELL
My wife and I were pleased to be in the audience at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland on November 3, for a performance by Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian singer and songwriter. It was an evening of warm and engaging songs, performed with a high degree of polished musicianship.

Gordon Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario in 1938, and came to fame in the 1960s, with "Early Mornin' Rain," "For Lovin' Me," "Ribbon of Darkness," and other heartfelt compositions. He achieved even greater fame in 1971, when one of his songs, "If You Could Read My Mind," was released as a single and became a major hit. Other hits, including "Sundown" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," followed in the next few years.

He is now in his early seventies, and his voice has taken on a slight reediness with age, but his outstanding talent as a performer continues to be strongly evident. He still has the ability to fully command the interest of an audience with his voice and his songs. During his performance in Portland, he entertained his fans by singing many of his most well-known songs from the 1960s and 1970s, including "Early Mornin' Rain," "Ribbon of Darkness," "Cotton Jenny," "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown," "Carefree Highway," "The Watchman's Gone," and "Beautiful." His measured rendering of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," a song conveying the true account of a ship that sank on Lake Superior in 1975, was one of the highlights of the evening.

Although Gordon Lightfoot had his primary heyday in the middle of the 1970s, a handful of his best songs from the 1980s and 1990s also were featured in his performance, with "14 Karat Gold," "Blackberry Wine," "Baby Step Back," and "A Painter Passing Through" all sounding particularly good. In addition to the gentle tones of his own guitar, all of his songs were ably supported by the guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums of the skilled musicians behind him.

Gordon Lightfoot cast a musical spell on his audience for several hours, moving quickly and smoothly from song to song, pausing only a few times to make brief comments. He wisely chose to avoid unnecessary words, allowing the proven quality of his music to speak for itself.