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Gordon Lightfoot concert review: Lightfoot warms Winnipeg hearts
Robert Rheubottom
, Canada Music Examiner
December 3, 2011
Gordon Lightfoot shoe-horned his appearance at the MTS Centre last night (12/2/11) in between 2 scheduled Winnipeg Jets hockey games.
“We feel like a Jet sandwich!” quipped legendary Canadian singer-songwriter.
But being put in a squeeze play, didn’t really seem to bother the multi-Juno Award winning folk artist one bit.
In fact, unlike his last appearance in Winnipeg in April/09, the Orillia, ON native seemed poised and relaxed right from the outset.
With no warm up, the lights dimmed promptly at 8pm, and the rail-thin septuagenarian entered behind his 4-piece backing band, sporting a dark blue waistcoat, black pants, a open-collared light blue shirt with his 12 string acoustic guitar over his shoulder.
The stage was stripped down, and there were no jumbotrons or fancy stage trappings. Outside of mood lighting and a draped backdrop, there was nothing to disrupt the focus from the folk icon’s incredible songs, voice and rock solid backing band.
Lightfoot kicked off the night with a pair of 12 string numbers - “Sweet Guinevere” from 1978’s Endless Wire followed by “The Watchman’s Gone” from his No 1 1974 album Sundown.
The acoustics and sound in the MTS were excellent, and the crowd, though small, gave the singer a hearty reception.
As he switched routinely from 12-string to 6-string, the notoriously taciturn artist was surprisingly downright chatty throughout the night.
He joked that he recently celebrated his 73rd birthday (Nov 17), and that his wife’s birthday present nearly popped his eyes out – she bought a shirt 3 sizes too small – ba-da-bump!
Lightfoot’s voice is thinner and raspier than in his heyday, and he doesn’t have the same range (he’s put 73 years of hard living on it after all). But it remains instantly recognizable and he maintains his fine gift for phrasing, as well as the power to wrench emotion out of his songs.
His backing group, which includes bassist Rick Haynes, drummer Barry Keane, and keyboardist Mike Heffernan has been with him for decades. The notable exception is lead guitarist Carter Lancaster who has only been with him for a mere 4 months, but did an admirable job, replacing a man who helped create Lightfoot’s signature sound – longtime sideman Terry Clements who sadly passed away in February.
The band did a superb job of supporting the icon as he worked his way through one of the most envied back catalogues in Canada.
Rather than going with mostly hits in the opening set, as he did during his last appearance at the MTS, Lightfoot chose to mix things up, mixing deep album cuts with more familiar radio hits.
1st set highlights included the poignant retrospective title track of his 1998 album A Painter Passing Through, the uber-romantic 1972 Don Quixotehit “Beautiful,” the instantly recognizable “Sundown,” and his 1st set wrapper, the 1971 Summer Side of Life track (a huge hit for Anne Murray) “Cotton Jenny.”
After a 20-minute intermission, Lightfoot returned and began with 1 of his most beloved songs, his 1976 Summertime Dream commerative “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” which was a smash hit, both in the U.S. and Canada.
Continuing to mix things up, he followed it with another album track from 1998’s “Painter,” an intriguing bit of Canadiana called “Ringneck Loon.”
2nd set highlights included his 1972 ode to the windmill tilting “Don Quixote,” the riff driven “Let it Ride” from 1986’s East of Midnight, his haunting 1970 hit ballad “If You Could Read My Mind,” his 1966 Lightfoot hit “Early Morning Rain,” and his set closer from 1967’s The Way I Feel,“Song for a Winter’s Night” – an appropriate ending for a frosty December’s eve in Winnipeg.
Lightfoot waved and quickly exited after “Winter’s Night,” catching the audience, who were likely expecting 1 of his more familiar radio hits to end the set, a bit off-guard.
But the crowd quickly recovered, and gave him a justly deserved standing ovation, which enticed Lightfoot and the band to return for 1 more song – the romping “Blackberry Wine” from his 1982 album Shadows.
Sure, Lightfoot might have gotten a bigger response ending with a hit, and some might question a few of his song choices (admitted I would rather have heard “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” or “Black Day in July” than “Hangdog Hotel Room"), but the show was far more satisfying to me than the perfunctory “all-hits” set he delivered last outing, and, judging from the singer’s energy and animation - for Lightfoot himself.
Having rightfully earned “Canadian icon” status through 5+ decades in the biz, numerous awards, accolades, and 20 studio albums of material from which to cherry pick, he’s earned the right to please himself, and if it keeps him performing – more power to ya Gord!
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