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Carefree highway
Folk legend Lightfoot loves performing on the road
Thursday, April 19, 2007
BY KIRA L. SCHLECHT ER
Of The Patriot-News
Folk singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot knows exactly how long he was out of commission back in 2002. During a con cert, he suffered a burst artery in his abdomen, underwent emergency surgery, and spent six weeks in a coma.
"I was out for 28 months before I made my first concert," Light foot, 68, said in a phone interview from his To ronto home.
It was the longest idle period of his career, and that preciseness is proof of his love of performing.
Lightfoot, who will perform Wednesday at The Forum in Harris burg, says he's doing fine these days, despite what he called that "case of mechanical fail ure."
"We've always been road warriors," he said. "I have a four-piece backup orchestra and everybody likes to get out and play the shows."
Lightfoot, as done by ... Before his solo career took off in the late 1960s, Lightfoot's songs were recorded by sever al other artists, many of whom had huge hits with them. Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Sarah McLachlan, Barbra Strei sand, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash and Anne Murray are only some of those who've done Lightfoot material.
"We were never able to get a hit single [early on]," he said. "I was nev er the kind of person who could take some thing and do it commer cially enough. But the songs were being heard and performed by many artists -- I was actually quite surprised by [it]. I wasn't paying very much attention to it; I was too busy touring."
He did, of course, go on to rack up plenty of his own hits -- "Sun down," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "If You Could Read My Mind" among them.
Speaking of Dylan ... Lightfoot says Dylan, the legendary song writer, has "been my teacher all my life."
Dylan in return has said of Lightfoot: "Every time I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever."
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Lightfoot toured with Dylan on his 1976 "Rolling Thunder" tour; Dylan recorded a version of Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain."
"He was a big influ ence on me, and I got to meet him really early on through a management deal," Lightfoot said. "I got to know Bob at that time and followed his career and he's followed my career.
"I do get to see him occasionally; I will get to see him, as a matter of fact, in July," he added. "We're actually playing in the same place at the same time."
An idol does 'Idol' In 2004, Lightfoot served as a guest vocal coach on "Canadian Idol," the north-of-the-border equivalent of the U.S. smash TV show.
"That was a lark," he said. "I was aware of the people who were involv ed in the production end of it, and they asked me if I wanted to do it and I said sure, and I loved it."
He says he tried to in still confidence in the contestants -- "like go get 'em -- get out and win," he said.
He says he hasn't fol lowed the furor sur rounding the sixth sea son of "American Idol."
"I've got such a focus going on these days with what I'm doing right now -- I basically just stay in touch with current events [in the world]," he said.
His biggest honor Among the host of awards and accolades Lightfoot has received in his decadeslong career is Canada's highest hon or, Companion of the Order of Canada, which he was given in 2003.
"I always wondered if I would be able to sus tain my career all my life," he said. "I started to think maybe I could by, say, about 10 years ago -- I said, maybe I can make it all the way through to 70. What it did was, it told me I had lasted for 25 years [and] I've actually almost reached my goal.
"That award gives me reassurance that if I've been able to sustain [it] long enough successful ly as an artist, then I can look forward to more years of playing, be cause I love to play con certs -- it's the only thing I really love to do most."
It all comes back to performing Lightfoot's 20th al bum, "Harmony," which he'd been working on since 2001, was delayed after his health scare and finally came out in 2004. Greatest-hits col lections were released in 2005 and last year.
He called "Harmony" an afterthought. He ful filled his contract obliga tion to Warner Bros. in 1998 and has no plans to record at the mo ment.
"We're doing shows, and I'm focused on that and letting the recording part [be put] on the back burner for a while," he said. "It eats up too much time and it divides my time too seriously."
KIRA L. SCHLECHTER: 257-4763 or
kschlechter@patriot-news.com
LIGHTFOOT NOTES
HONORS AND AWARDS Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot has accrued over the years:
• Six gold albums.
• 17 Juno Awards (Canada's equivalent of the Grammys); five Grammy nominations.
• Inducted into Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986.
• Received Governor General's Award in 1997 for his efforts in spreading Canadian culture.
• Inducted into Canadian Walk of Fame in 1998.
• Inducted into Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame in 2001; also received Arts Toronto's Lifetime Achievement Award that year.
• Received Canada's highest civilian honor, Companion of the Order of Canada, in 2003 (he had received an Order of Canada citation in 1970); that same year, he was inducted into the Canadian Folk Music Walk of Fame, the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame, and the Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame.
