[spocksbrain]

Hi Char,

I own the Up Close and Alone CD. Those versions of the Guess Who material are low key. It is a great CD in my opinion. I am a long time Guess Who fan. The "Clone" Guess Who, featuring Gary Peterson as the only original member, came to my hometown in 1999. I got to have dinner with them. Peterson was a delightful person and provided a lot of insight as to the workings of the group. At that time, just a year before, no one had any idea that a Bachman/Cummings Guess Who would be touring the following year. Their frontman at the time, Carl Dixon, was a very good singer and was pretty much dead on as far as sounding like Burton. They released two live CDs to sell at concerts. The second one was better than the first, as the first featured Terry Hatty, who would later sing in the Lightfoot musical in PEI.

Gary Peterson now lives in South Carolina.

BTW, I have the Running Back Through Canada DVD and I don't think Burton has lost much from his incredible voice. The only difference is that he does not have some of the gravel that he used to, kind of like John Fogerty.

I have always thought of the Guess Who as a bit strange lyrically. Some of their stuff is straight foward like "These Eyes" and "American Woman", but some of the stuff is a little weird. I remember when I first heard "Lightfoot", though. What a great tribute! A splendid example of mutual Canadiana.

Here's another aside- Burton states in the liner notes of Up Close, that he played the Maggie Mae track for Gordon, who enjoyed and appreciated it. I don't know if that CD is still in print, but it is definitely worth checking out.