Photo: ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE...
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazett...ea1005&k=18931
Strength in softness
With songs destined to outlive us all, Gordon Lightfoot strides into magic territory
Legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot charms fans last night at Place des Arts.
Photograph by : ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE
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BERNARD PERUSSE, The Gazette
Published: Friday, November 10, 2006
If there was one defining moment in last night's Gordon Lightfoot show at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts, it came, surprisingly, in a lesser-known song.
Five songs into his second set, the fragile-looking but cheerful singer-songwriter glided unassumingly into A Painter Passing Through, the wistful title track from his 1998 album. It's a beautiful, delicate and sadly underrated song.
"Once upon a time, once upon a day/ When I was in my prime/ Once along the way," Lightfoot sang, establishing a wistful connection with his mostly-greying audience. With the chorus's self-effacing key line - "I am just a painter passing through the underground" - Lightfoot acknowledged the transience of his physical presence on stage.
It's a sobering reality for both Lightfoot, who would not have been with us last night if a life-threatening condition had its way four years ago, and his fans - who once strutted cockily like the song's protagonist.
But if Lightfoot was just passing through, his art was not, which made the song a celebration. And the romp through his seminal catalogue last night merely showed how many of his songs are destined to outlive us all.
Opening hesitantly with a one-two punch of Cotton Jenny and Carefree Highway, his thin voice betraying the punishment he's taken, Lightfoot didn't take long to relax. Standing ramrod straight and shifting between
six- and 12-string guitars, Lightfoot spent the evening alternating between songs that form part of Canadian folk music's DNA, like Beautiful, Ribbon of Darkness, Sundown and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and aficionado favourites like Sea of Tranquility, Never Too Close and In My Fashion.
A polite-sounding backup quartet - Terry Clements on lead guitar, Barry Keane on drums, Rick Haynes on bass and Mike Heffernan on keyboards - added a subtle polish to Lightfoot's easygoing, soothing approach in what might have been one of the softest Montreal concerts in some time.
His confidence and comfort level seeming to grow as the evening progressed, Lightfoot delivered the double whammy If You Could Read My Mind and Don Quixote late into the second set, by which point the concert had entered magic territory.
"Now comes the real test," he said, explaining that the high notes he was about to attempt were a risk. He then performed a soft, haunting, unhurried Canadian Railroad Trilogy that brought all but a few off-beat clappers to a hush.
The painter had passed. With flying colours.
[ November 10, 2006, 13:36: Message edited by: Jesse -Joe ]