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charlene · 03-24-2011, 08:13 AM

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/...stone-and-a-BY JIM JENKINS - Staff Writer
I was trying to explain to my godson, Daniel, 22, the significance of a 72-year-old folksinger of whom he and most of those in his and the preceding generation had never heard. We were en route to Meymandi Hall in downtown Raleigh, and though Dan's an agreeable and musically open-minded fellow, I figured I'd better get the explanation in while I could.

The first time I saw this fellow, I told him, I was 15 years old and had just moved to Winston-Salem with my parents. I had no friends and no particular hobbies to take my mind off loneliness, and then a friend from Raleigh came to town with two tickets to hear a folksinger. The music spoke to me. I spread the word and I made friends.

In college, other friends united by the music would gather in a dorm lounge and listen to him, lights dimmed. A few days before the concert to which Dan and I were headed, a college mate e-mailed that he would see us at the show: "I still remember sitting there in the hallway sometimes with the speakers pulled out so we could hear the music. It's one of the fondest memories I have of Carolina. And it's something my wife and I first liked together."

Yes, there it is then. Some touchstones, benchmarks of life, whatever you want to call them, are in the familiar smells of a favorite restaurant or the street signs of a hometown or the heroes of politics such as JFK, and the best ones keep going and stay with us for a good bit of the journey.

At the intermission Saturday, a fan of long-standing who is about the same age as the folksinger said this, later acknowledging he was almost moved to tears at the show's beginning: "I would have come, if all he could do was whisper."

Gordon Lightfoot has been on my journey for 43 years, since that first show in Winston-Salem. There have been many albums since, perhaps 14 or 15 concerts, a group dinner backstage once and one show my late parents attended to show me they wanted to connect with their college-age son.

A year ago, there was a memorial visit of sorts, when a group of friends gathered to go to a Lightfoot show to honor one who had recently died young of cancer. His most prized possession was a 20-year-old backstage picture of himself and Lightfoot.

On Saturday last, most of the heads were gray and bald, except for the youngsters who were on the receiving end of memory stories: "Now I saw him first in 1968 ... " or "He came to Chapel Hill when I was there ... must have been the early '70s" or "I met your mother at a show in Greensboro around 1980." He chronicled, this singer, his own ups and downs and ours; he was a generation's biographer.

It's a curious thing, in a way, that so many people (Meymandi was full, as have been the other halls on this current tour) would be so intensely keen on someone who has had a 50-year, respectable career but never flirted with superstardom. And yet intensity is the word for it. The cheers were many, the ovations were standing and the calls for specific songs ("Bitter Green," "Canadian Railroad Trilogy") showed the room was full of people whose admiration went back a ways.

Yes, he's older and reed-thin and his voice has lost some power. But the music that spoke to them in youth still does. Except this night, they didn't retire to their dorm rooms and put on their albums and pull all-nighters. They went home and called up some songs on their computers and took their evening meds and got ready for a visit from the grandchildren on Sunday.

But the folksinger, who's survived a life-threatening aneurysm, a mild stroke and years of the strain of the road, caused them to take a turn through the pages of their minds, pages in a book for which he was a periodic mark.

We got back to my house, and Daniel pulled out the old Martin guitar and immediately picked up on some of the melodies. "All the songs were great," he said. "A couple of them were beautiful. I mean, they were just amazing."

How nice that Lightfoot appears to have young folks ready to sign him on as a traveling companion. May he and all those rallied 'round in Meymandi Hall continue the journey together for a while to come. See you next year, Gord.

Deputy editorial page editor Jim Jenkins can be reached at 919-829-4513 or at jjenkins@newsobserver.com

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/...#ixzz1HWCQ4Q7F

03-24-2011, 08:13 AM	#1
charlene Moderator Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 16,001	Durham NC article http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/...stone-and-a-BY JIM JENKINS - Staff Writer I was trying to explain to my godson, Daniel, 22, the significance of a 72-year-old folksinger of whom he and most of those in his and the preceding generation had never heard. We were en route to Meymandi Hall in downtown Raleigh, and though Dan's an agreeable and musically open-minded fellow, I figured I'd better get the explanation in while I could. The first time I saw this fellow, I told him, I was 15 years old and had just moved to Winston-Salem with my parents. I had no friends and no particular hobbies to take my mind off loneliness, and then a friend from Raleigh came to town with two tickets to hear a folksinger. The music spoke to me. I spread the word and I made friends. In college, other friends united by the music would gather in a dorm lounge and listen to him, lights dimmed. A few days before the concert to which Dan and I were headed, a college mate e-mailed that he would see us at the show: "I still remember sitting there in the hallway sometimes with the speakers pulled out so we could hear the music. It's one of the fondest memories I have of Carolina. And it's something my wife and I first liked together." Yes, there it is then. Some touchstones, benchmarks of life, whatever you want to call them, are in the familiar smells of a favorite restaurant or the street signs of a hometown or the heroes of politics such as JFK, and the best ones keep going and stay with us for a good bit of the journey. At the intermission Saturday, a fan of long-standing who is about the same age as the folksinger said this, later acknowledging he was almost moved to tears at the show's beginning: "I would have come, if all he could do was whisper." Gordon Lightfoot has been on my journey for 43 years, since that first show in Winston-Salem. There have been many albums since, perhaps 14 or 15 concerts, a group dinner backstage once and one show my late parents attended to show me they wanted to connect with their college-age son. A year ago, there was a memorial visit of sorts, when a group of friends gathered to go to a Lightfoot show to honor one who had recently died young of cancer. His most prized possession was a 20-year-old backstage picture of himself and Lightfoot. On Saturday last, most of the heads were gray and bald, except for the youngsters who were on the receiving end of memory stories: "Now I saw him first in 1968 ... " or "He came to Chapel Hill when I was there ... must have been the early '70s" or "I met your mother at a show in Greensboro around 1980." He chronicled, this singer, his own ups and downs and ours; he was a generation's biographer. It's a curious thing, in a way, that so many people (Meymandi was full, as have been the other halls on this current tour) would be so intensely keen on someone who has had a 50-year, respectable career but never flirted with superstardom. And yet intensity is the word for it. The cheers were many, the ovations were standing and the calls for specific songs ("Bitter Green," "Canadian Railroad Trilogy") showed the room was full of people whose admiration went back a ways. Yes, he's older and reed-thin and his voice has lost some power. But the music that spoke to them in youth still does. Except this night, they didn't retire to their dorm rooms and put on their albums and pull all-nighters. They went home and called up some songs on their computers and took their evening meds and got ready for a visit from the grandchildren on Sunday. But the folksinger, who's survived a life-threatening aneurysm, a mild stroke and years of the strain of the road, caused them to take a turn through the pages of their minds, pages in a book for which he was a periodic mark. We got back to my house, and Daniel pulled out the old Martin guitar and immediately picked up on some of the melodies. "All the songs were great," he said. "A couple of them were beautiful. I mean, they were just amazing." How nice that Lightfoot appears to have young folks ready to sign him on as a traveling companion. May he and all those rallied 'round in Meymandi Hall continue the journey together for a while to come. See you next year, Gord. Deputy editorial page editor Jim Jenkins can be reached at 919-829-4513 or at jjenkins@newsobserver.com Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/...#ixzz1HWCQ4Q7F