Boy this topic sure is generating controversy and I realize that Ken is relatively new on the board here as opposed to many of us faithfuls who have taken the musical package of Gordon Lightfoot along for a year and many. And it's nice to hear what folks have to say, especially new voices. And more so, it seems evident that Ken recently discovered the vast legacy of material that Gord has accomplished. Now for those of us who have followed the voice through over the years, the "Painter Passing Through" issue would sail completely over our heads. When I listen to that song, (and I'm just beginning to realize just what a great piece of work it really is) I hear the voice of a guy in my own age group who's still out there strutting his stuff and yes, his voice has aged and survived a near death experience even, still there's no shortage of audiences who travel from many parts of the world to get to see and hear him perform. But if I can try and make a comparison here; when I travel to Toronto and I get to see my grandchildren after not seeing them for a period of time, well, yes there's an amazing difference in everything about them. I realize it may be a wild comparison but I know for sure that, based on my own health experiences not all of our parts are going to be in top performance at the the same time as we age. But we take what we have and work with it the best way we can. Sure hope I get to move on successfully to a new paragraph here and comment on the subject of the lowering of the voice. Are we on here guys? Cool! OK. Now, if you listen to "Remember Me" on the "Songbook" collection, the low notes that Gord hits there, well, to me they are at the bottom of his range. So it seems he has more difficulty with the lower notes than he does with the high ones. Considering that, if you take an epic piece of work like "The Canadian Railroad Trilogy," well I honestly can't see any possibly that the key for that work could could be lowered any because of the demand that it requires on the voice range. He's a master though at substituting harmony notes in place of the ones that he's not sure of. It seems as well that his gift is a tenor voice as opposed to any other. But Gord being Gord he can go out there and sing it any way he wants to and there never will be a shortage of folks lining up to watch this guy in action. Anyone who wants to try and make a go of it the music business, study the master and you'll learn a thing or two. Thanks, Ron J. (Guess the paragraph thing didn't work out)
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