[charlene]

CW-Well I’ll tell you as somebody sitting in the audience, those two time frames on either side of that break go awfully fast!
GL-well we can stretch them out a little bit but not by much.It’s around two hours and eight minutes now.
CW-well we’re thankful that you’re up there doing those two hours and eight minutes. You were down at Hugh’s Room again in January. Jory was just thrilled with the evening that you were down and got up and sang. What prompted you to get up and do a bit of The Trilogy with Richard Knechtel?
GL-I did not do that, I did Alberta Bound with the Good Brothers.
CW-oh, okay, but back in January when you were down with Bernie you got up with Richard Knechtel and did a little bit of The Trilogy. You were trading off lines. Do you remember that?
GL-no-we did that, I did that with Brian, the only time I’ve done that with the Good Brothers, they were….see this is how information gets…(laughing to himself)
CW – no I was there Gordon! You got up with Richard. You sang three tunes. You sang I’ll Tag Along and two others and then you sort of just got up onstage for just a few minutes and went back and forth with The Trilogy with Richard Knechtel..
GL – oh shit I don’t even remember…(laughing again)
CW-you did – I have a picture! It’s nice that you go down and see them.
GL-oh it was the Tribute shows…I was down there about a month later helping the Good Brothers.
CW-And you did Alberta Bound. Somebody said it was a new song that you did.
GL – well it sounds like a new one.
CW-to someone who had never heard it before it would sound like a new tune.
GL-it’s one that I don’t do because it’s another one we haven’t got time to do. It’s one of the ones that hovers in the back, maybe we’ll do it at Mariposa.
CW-I’m looking forward to that, with Ian Tyson up there too. Are you all going to do your own things?
GL-I can tell you everybody’s gonna do their own thing.
CW-oh so there won’t be a big sing along sort of thing.
GL-if there is I’m gonna hear about it!I haven’t heard about it yet…I’ll wait. I’ll wait till I get my instructions.
CW-how did you find doing the CBC Songwriter’s event with Gord Downie and Catherine MacLellan? I was down for that. Did you enjoy that sort of event?
GL-yes I did very much.
CW-it was quite an interesting evening.
GL-it was well planned in advance.
CW-Catherine MacLellan – what a wonderful voice she has.
GL-she’s an interesting lady.
CW-I heard or read that you’re working on some of the live performances that were recorded.
GL-those are the things that I’ve gathered up over the years that will eventually be released.
CW-that would be great.
GL-eventually.
CW-well we’ll wait for that. I understand a company called Wounded Bird Records is releasing some Warner Brothers albums?
GL-I heard something about that too.
CW-they re-master and do all kinds of different artists according to their website. They put the original artwork on it..
GL-we’ll see how that goes.
CW-so you weren’t aware of that happening?
GL-I was aware.
CW-You’ve told me about the fall dates and that you’re hoping to head out west in the states.
GL-that won’t come down for another 2 or 3 weeks.
CW-there’s a lot of people out there looking for you.
GL-In June we’re starting in Grand Rapids, Michigan and ending in Wolf Trap, Virginia, Wolf Trap is the big amphitheatre in Washington.
CW-do you enjoy playing those outdoor amphitheatres?
GL-they’re all covered but occasionally we’ll get a bad day but basically during the summer months It’s fine. I think I got rained on once.
CW-nothing could be as bad as Mariposa a couple of years ago.
GL-that was the worst one ever. That was a deluge.
CW-we just sat out there like we were invincible. It was just incredible.
GL-well I wasn’t going to stop.
CW-that’s what you said. You said you weren’t stopping till you were finished.
GL-I had my whole band up there.
CW-Barry was quite worried about things but you just plowed right on there, totally ignoring him..
GL-calm down! (laughing)
CW-so you’ll be at Massey next year, May 2011?
GL-yes, we’ll be there.
CW-I see Bruce Cockburn is writing an autobiography. Have you given any more thought to penning a book?
GL-I’m not ready for that yet, I’m not ready for that.
CW-did you watch any of the Olympic hockey?
GL-yes I watched.
CW-I don’t know what’s wrong with the Maple Leafs but I’m about ready to give up after all these years.
GL-don’t give up yet!, they’ve got a great group down there right now. Burke and those two guys are great for that hockey team.
CW-well we’ll give them another year next year.
GL-another couple of years…
CW-the Jays look like they’re on their way to putting something together this year. Did you catch last night’s game?
GL-that was the 13 to 12 game? I didn’t watch, I was practicing. I practice just about every night.
CW-You were a friend of Robert Markle , what sort of person was he? There’s a new book about him that I want to pick up.
GL-well he loved riding his motorcycle, he was a great motorcyclist but it finally did him in.
CW-he did a portrait of you didn t he?
GL-yeah he did, he did a couple actually.
CW-and you’re in possession of those?
GL-yep.
CW-Danby did one of you as well. Do you have them all around the house?
GL-I just have one Danby portrait up.
CW-that’s a wonderful one. Is it on an album cover? Oh no, that’s on a book cover.
GL –that’s a picture taken by Diane Rubinger. The white suit, after I was dried out and sober. (laughing)
CW-you play so many venues in North America. Do you find audiences different in different places like New England audiences having a different reception or are more vocal than audiences in Texas or Minnesota for instance? Do you get that sense? Can you tell?
GL-they’re pretty much the same all over. Most of the people that come are familiar with my catalogue. Basically we’re putting it out on our side they’re getting the message. We get a pretty good response everywhere we go.
CW-I was a bit surprised in Peterborough that the audience was more subdued than I thought they would be in a hockey rink. I thought there might be a little more rowdiness.
GL-well they like to listen.
CW-well I prefer that everyone be quiet! Did you enjoy the Casino Rama show? You’d never played there before.
GL-we finally found a window
CW-it was a wonderful show. I was talking to Bernie about some way to have the big screens at Massey with the close-ups of the guitar work and keyboards.
GL-well we don’t bother doing that.
CW-it’s so impressive to see those close-ups, especially if you don’t have close seats.
GL-I get presented like that in a lot of places.
CW-I’ve never experienced it, I didn’t know where to look!
GL-I could hire a second semi…
CW-yeah right!
GL-we like it the way it is. Some of the places have their own set up.
CW-it was an excellent sound system and show. Hopefully you’ll be back in there. Do you have any plans of going back?
GL-no I don’t. We found a window. I have a lot of things, I do a lot of things in the area, the charity thing I do in Orillia, there’s the Mariposa Folk Festival, there’s Massey Hall and it had to jive in with my schedule. There’s a science to this. You have to know when to play and when not to play. You have to plan, there’s a lot of thought goes into this, where you’re playing and where the locations are. It was just never feasible. Originally they wanted me toward the end of the year and of course I always have to think about it anyway. They gave me lots of time to think about it. By that time I believe we were already printing tickets for Massey Hall so it wasn’t feasible. Mr. Mandel (Howie) has a bit of a health issue right now and cancelled his March date so they said can you come in here and we looked at and I thought about it for a couple of days. There was nothing upcoming locally that I could see. I knew that we were leaving for St. John’s the very next day and that we’d have to get the 18 wheeler out and it just turned out it was a day earlier than I thought it was gonna be. It was on the Thursday night so we had to have our truck leave right after that show at Casino Rama and drive all the way out to St. John’s. We just toured the eastern section of the country and we had to fit it in just before that. It worked out perfectly. That’s why it got done, because I was able to fit it in.
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