Gordon Lightfoot Forums - Bakersfield article

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Wednesday, Nov 02 2011 03:34 PM

Gordon Lightfoot

When: 8 p.m. Sunday

Where: Fox Theater, 2001 H St.

Tickets: $30 to $55

Information: 324-1369 or vallitix.com

Gordon Lightfoot will perform at the Fox Theater on Nov. 6.

There's something about the music of Gordon Lightfoot. Penning songs about love, shipwrecks and distant lands, the gentleman with the gentle baritone vibrato dominated radio in the 1970s.

For bell-bottom-wearing fans of his music, he had the perfect blend of poetry and romance.

Heralded as one of the best singer-songwriters of that era, he'll be performing hits like "Sundown," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "If You Could Read My Mind," to name a few, as he presents a retrospective of his illustrious career at the Fox Theater on Sunday.

Starting out as a young troubadour in the pubs and coffeehouses of his native Canada, Lightfoot took off early in the folk rock movement.

Today, at age 72, he's still traveling, celebrating his long career, which includes more than 20 full-lengths albums.

"I love to work. It's that simple," he said during a phone interview with The Californian. "The entire time I've been doing this I've been writing these songs. The recognition they receive is greatly appreciated."

Covered by everyone from Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley, who recorded a popular version of "Early Morning Rain," he's been both celebrated and parodied.

"I never heard a cover that I didn't like. The results are amazing but always interesting. I heard a cover of my song 'Bitter Green' by a 5-year-old, and it came out sounding like 'Bitto Gween.'"

When he's not on the road, Lightfoot is a news junkie of sorts, listening to talk radio and catching up on world news.

"It's almost like osmosis. As you listen to the media, you're absorbing and I feel a sense of urgency that I always take with me to the stage. I can feel it in the crowd here in Canada and down there in the States."

As for Sunday's show, Lightfoot said Bakersfield fans will get a cross section of favorites.

He also wanted acknowledge his admiration for one of his (and Bakersfield's) personal favorites, Buck Owens, before leaving the conversation.

"I saw Buck at O'Keefe Center in Toronto many years ago and that was one of the best shows I ever saw."