thanks for the report! it never gets old..so true!
Here's an article from Feb.26 before the concert:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertai..._the_song.html
COURTESY PHOTO
Gordon Lightfoot's songs have been covered by a wide range of performers, and he loves them all.
An evening with Gordon Lightfoot
Where: Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St.
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Tickets: $30-$50 at Ticketmaster outlets
By Jim Beal Jr. - Express-News Staff Writer Gordon Lightfoot's songs have been recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Nico, the Grateful Dead, Count Basie and Cowboy Junkies.
“It's always been difficult for me to comment in terms of the songs that have been covered,” Lightfoot, 70, said via telephone from his Toronto home. “So I say I've never heard a cover recording I didn't like. I love them. I've had so many songs covered. Even Nico, of the Velvet Underground, covered one of my songs.”
Lightfoot has had more than a little success as a songwriter. But even with that success, and after surviving a near-death experience because of a burst abdominal artery in 2002, Lightfoot isn't sitting around writing songs hoping other people record them.
“I could, of course, but I have a lot of other responsibilities. I want to keep my tours up,” he said. “I played bars and lounges when I was starting out. I've always been a performer and I'll always be a performer. We work hard at it and we take it seriously.”
The “we” is Lightfoot and his band, players who have been with him for decades, Terry Clements (lead guitar), Rick Haynes (bass), Barry Keane (drums) and Mike Heffernan (keyboards). They'll be in action in the Majestic Theatre on Thursday.
“They get it done,” Lightfoot said about his band. “We keep refining the songs. We rehearse every week, usually on Fridays, when we're not touring. I rotate through 37 songs right now. Twenty-seven tunes is about a two-hour show with a 20-minute intermission.”
The man also turns in physical labor.
“I go to the gym a lot. That's my day job,” he said, laughing. “I couldn't play for 28 months when I had my illness. I made my way back after a series of operations. I plowed my way back. The first concert I did when I came back was a benefit for the hospital.”
Lightfoot's “Early Morning Rain,” “Sundown,” “Song for a Winter's Night” and “For Lovin' Me” are part of the foundation of modern acoustic music. He's a national treasure in Canada, and revered by wordsmiths in other locales. But Lightfoot does not romanticize the art, or craft, of songwriting. His latest album, “Harmony,” his 20th, was released in 2004.
“I was always under contract,” he said. “I was always having to write songs. I had to write songs so I could afford to pay my band. My recording contracts specified a certain percentage of original songs.”
Lightfoot has advice for aspiring songwriters.
“I tell 'em to sit down and get some titles,” he said. “There's always some kind of good title floating around out there. I got a great title, ‘Carefree Highway,' from a sign on a road in Arizona, between Flagstaff and Phoenix, I believe. Then put the title with a melody.
“Another way is to start writing melody chord symbols and start putting words with them and see if it goes anywhere.”
Pay attention, Lightfoot's way clearly goes somewhere.
San Antonio Show
