Canadian idol
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Lightfoot returns after brush with mortality
By SEAMUS GALLIVAN
Special to The News
2/23/2007
Gordon Lightfoot is the quintessential Canadian songwriter. Honest, affable and adventurous, he has carried his canon across the border and back for more than four decades and counting.
A master of metaphors with a stout, supple voice, his street-smart folk songs have covered everything from historic events to barstool prophecies, and they've hitched rides with the heaviest hitters in Americana, including Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.
The 68-year-old Orillia, Ont., native has always been a wanderer in search of a stage, but after a near-fatal abdominal hemorrhage in 2002, his taking over of the Niagara Fallsview Casino's Avalon Ballroom for a three-night stay next week represents a monumental feat.
"Rock of Ages, tell me where does it stand?/Are we bound for the Promised Land?/Bless my soul, I ain't ready to die/and my future is in your hands."
- "Mister Rock of Ages," 1980
The 2002 hemorrhage left Lightfoot in a coma, but he woke up ready to get back to work. After many rounds of grueling rehabilitation, he began touring again some 28 months later.
"It took a while to get my strength back, good breath control," Lightfoot said from his longtime home of Toronto. "They did a lot of work on me."
Lightfoot insisted he had plenty left in his tank, including 18 songs that he'd already recorded solo. His vision for these songs came to glorious life with the 2004 release of "Harmony."
"I was actually working on that album while I was lying on my back at the hospital," he said. "It gave me a heck of a lot of good things to think about while I was recovering, too. I got the idea to go after these old tracks almost as soon as I woke up, because I was out cold for 51/2 weeks. It was one of the first things I thought about, was these rehearsal tapes I had stashed."
It's clear that Lightfoot's hunger to perform was a driving force in his full recovery. "Clouds of Loneliness," which includes the lines "I'm all dressed up to be somebody/all I need is a friendly face/With my midnight crowd to glide through," is the lone staple from the album in his career-spanning, constantly rotating live set.
"I would never like to get locked into doing the same show every night," said Lightfoot, who will be joined by his longtime band for the shows in the Avalon Ballroom. "It's like rotating pitchers; we try to change it up a bit. You have to have "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,' "Sundown,' "If You Could Read My Mind' - there are some that really must not be forgotten, some we do every night."
Neither those songs, nor the man that wrote them, are likely to be forgotten anytime soon, and Lightfoot has fought off his maker to make sure he can still tell them himself.•
PREVIEW
WHO:
Gordon Lightfoot
WHEN:
8:30 p.m. Thursday, 9 p.m. next Friday and March 3
WHERE:
Avalon Ballroom, Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, 6380 Fallsview Blvd., Niagara Falls, Ont.
TICKETS:
Sold out
INFO:
(888) 836-8118
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- Borderstone
