http://www.bourbonhours.com/2010/11/...ying-the-flag/
Gord Lightfoot: Still Carrying the Flag
Posted on November 9, 2010 by chinaski
We took in a Gord Lightfoot concert at the Moore Theatre in downtown Seattle this past weekend. I’ve always been an admirer of Gord from afar. His hits speak for themselves: Sundown, Carefree Highway, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the strength of his repertoire is virtually unmatched in the Canadian context. He’s not exactly a shining example of the bourbon genre: he’s neither hillbilly, blues, nor jazz, but he is quintessentially Canadian, more so than, say, Neil Young, and as such has a spot on the bourbonhours shelf. If there was a booze metaphor in Gord I’d say he is Canadian Whiskey rather than bourbon – there’s just nothing southern in the man. He sings about landscape, wildlife, trains, weather. He is almost a lyrical extension of the Group of Seven painters, casting his lines into the foggy waters of a northern Canadian lake.
A couple of years ago we heard that he was dying in a hospital, stricken with something serious and unlikely to recover. Next thing we knew he had recovered, and what’s more had released a new album. That in itself was remarkable. He did indeed face a long and difficult illness, a fact which is borne out by his personal appearance now. He has lost his muscle-mass, and is thin to the point of gauntness. He is weak on his feet and suffers from what looks like arthritis. He was constantly working his fret-hand and once apologized that it wasn’t “working”.
However, he put in two solid sets, playing through some of the highlights of his career along with a few new songs and some of his lesser known pieces. The crowd was appreciative and supportive. I think much of the applause was an acknowledgment of the greatness that was rather than solely for the material being delivered. His voice was difficult at times; the higher range was a struggle. His bandmates were subdued to say the least. We got the feeling they didn’t want to push the man, for obvious reasons.
The thought that struck me though as we listened was that Gord Lightfoot has always carried the flag. He carried it at his height in the 70′s when he was a regular visitor to the “top ten” and he is still carrying it, now that he is nearing the end of his career. He represented us, our better angels; he sang about the people, our landscape. He told our stories. That is nothing but cool.
Seattle review in blog
