DALLAS, TX - February 25,2015
 

At 76, Gordon Lightfoot is still a road warrior, heading to the Winspear

Michael Granberry
Published: February 24, 2015 5:17 pm

He’s 76 years old, but the dude can still bring it. Gordon Lightfoot rolls into town Wednesday night to play a show at the Winspear Opera House.

It’s amazing that Lightfoot is still on the road. In 2002, he underwent surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. A coma, a tracheotomy and multiple operations followed. He suffered a minor stroke during a 2006 show but regained full use of his right hand and continues to tour. His current road campaign takes him all the way through August.

I last saw him in January 2012 at the Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie, and it brought back a flood of Lightfootian memories … Here’s my review from three years ago:

It was April 1976, when a 37-year-old Gordon Lightfoot strode onstage at the Anchorage Sports Arena and blew the Alaskan faithful away with a set that was bold, confident, charismatic and daring. The Canadian was a superstar, and the crowd adored him.

The long-haired troubadour who walked to the microphone at Verizon Theatre on Saturday night is a much different man. Eerily gaunt in black pants, a white shirt and blue suede jacket, he looked more like Dumbledore from the Harry Potter movies or leathery Brit Bill Nighy.

But just as a few in the crowd gasped or whispered at the realization of how much their favorite folkie has aged, they greeted him as one would a beloved king. And he rewarded them with a stirring set that filled nearly two hours and embraced 26 songs that define the legend.

At 73, Lightfoot has been through a lot. In 2002, he underwent surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. A coma, a tracheotomy and multiple operations followed. He suffered a minor stroke during a 2006 show but has regained full use of his right hand and continues to tour, Grand Prairie being the last of 15 shows since Christmas.

Bob Dylan once praised Lightfoot as one of his favorite songwriters and said that his wish upon hearing almost any Lightfoot song is that “it would last forever.”

Of course, the crowd had its favorites and openly cheered for the ones they cherish the most: “Rainy Day People,” “Beautiful,” “Sundown,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Song for a Winter’s Night” and “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” which brought tears to several eyes. The voice is but a raspy shadow of the buttery baritone it once was, but like an aging boxer, Lightfoot is a proud warrior who is not afraid to push on, to do what he loves and does so well.

As a woman in the crowd yelled out, “You’ve still got it, and we still love you!”

http://popcultureblog.dallasnews.com...winspear.html/