View Single Post
Old 11-27-2016, 11:10 PM   #6
imported_Next_Saturday
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 440
Default Toronto Star-Gordon Lightfoot charms fans in Massey Hall concerts

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/11/24...certs-kick-off




TORONTO - From one Canadian music legend to another.

Gordon Lightfoot fondly remembered Leonard Cohen’s impact, fluency and charm on Wednesday night as the 78-year-old folk icon played the first of four shows at Massey Hall in what has long been a November tradition.

“I was sad to hear of Leonard Cohen’s passing,” said Lightfoot, late in his two-hour show.

“He was a great guy, a big influence and totally bilingual.”

In the latter category, Lightfoot recalled he, Cohen, Van Morrison, and Jesse Winchester playing in Montreux, Switzerland once when the Quebecer, who passed away at age 82 two weeks ago, charmed a young, pretty cocktail waitress with his fluent French.

Lightfoot’s return to Massey Hall - which he referred to as “these hallowed grounds” - saw him backed by longtime bass player Rick Haynes, drummer Barry Keane, keyboardist Mike Heffernan and newest recruit Carter Lancaster on lead guitar.

So new in fact, that Lightfoot had to look up his name on a piece of paper - though he’s been in the band since 2010.

Opening the evening with Sweet Guinevere, Lightfoot’s weaker vocals made for a clipped delivery, so whenever Haynes and Lancaster added their voices off mic as backup, it was a welcome addition.

At one point, he even sprayed nasal spray into the air before turning his back and using it on himself, and then offering it to Lancaster.

“It’s OK to say no,” the lead guitarist joked.

Dressed in a velvet blazer (blue in the first set and burgundy in the second), white dress shirt and black pants, Lightfoot’s pale, thin silhouette made him appear fragile but his charm and impressive songbook carried the night.

Highlights included The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Carefree Highway, Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, and Early Morning Rain, the latter which both Elvis and Bob Dylan covered, as Lightfoot mentioned during the show.

“Elvis himself,” said Lightfoot, sounding impressed.

There was also his first new song in 12 years, Plans of My Own, which led off the second set after a 20-minute intermission.

Regardless of what he said or sang, people shouted out their love and devotion all night long and he repeatedly countered with: “We couldn’t do this without you.”

Lightfoot plays Massey Hall through Saturday night.

---

SET LIST

Sweet Guinevere
Did She Mention My Name
Waiting for You
Never Too Close
Don Quixote
Clouds of Loneliness
Rainy Day People
A Painter Passing Through
Christian Island
Shadows
Beautiful
The Watchman’s Gone
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Carefree Highway
INTERMISSION

Plans of My Own
Now and Then
Ribbon of Darkness
Sundown
I’d Rather Press On
Minstrel of the Dawn
Let It Ride
If You Could Read My Mind
Restless
Baby Step Back
Early Morning Rain
ENCORE

Cold on the Shoulder
__________________
"I'll see you all next Saturday..."
imported_Next_Saturday is offline   Reply With Quote