http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps...=2013303100011
Reached by phone about a week before Thursday’s show at the Historic Elsinore Theatre, Gordon Lightfoot says he is “between two worlds, ‘here’ and ‘there.’ ”
“Here” is an office in Toronto, where the Canadian singer has lived for 45 years and keeps a schedule so regular that panhandlers line up to greet him.
“There” is the “50 Years on the Carefree Highway” tour, which will take him to Salem and more than two dozen other cities across the U.S. and Canada.
Along with the song that forms the title of his tour, he’ll sing other favorites that helped define folk music in the 1960s and 1970s: “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and “(That’s What You Get) for Lovin Me.”
He may be 74, but this tour typically has him performing at a new city each night. He and his three-man backup band travel by plane. The stage crew goes by bus, and an 18-wheeler hauls the sound and light system.
Lightfoot started singing as a teen, he said, when he listened to Tony Bennett on the radio and thought, “I can do this too.” He wrote his first song in 12th grade.
His early role models included folk singers Pete Seeger and Bob Gibson. But Lightfoot forged his own reputation with long story-songs including “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
The latter was inspired by a news story about the loss of 29 lives when a ship sank on Lake Superior. It takes seven minutes to perform and is an essential part of each show he does.
He has continued performing through the 1980s to the present. Ill health has occasionally sidelined him — most notably for 19 months in 2002-04 for complications of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.
But public respect for his work has brought armloads of honors, including five Grammy nominations and induction into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame.
Perhaps conscious of his blessings, he makes a point of giving money to the homeless people who stake out the path between his gym and office. Some get $5 or $10 a day; one, a musician, gets $20.
“I feel sorry for this guy, he’s really a neat person,” Lightfoot said.
In an effort to stay in shape for touring, he has gotten back to his fitness routine: stretches, weights and fast walking, five or six times a week.
“I have discovered the secret of working out,” he said mischievously. “Don’t lift anything heavy.”
He lives with his cat but remains on good terms with his ex-wife and their young-adult children. His 19-year-old “baby daughter” is an aspiring songwriter, and Lightfoot coaches her.
His girlfriend, a film crew worker, lives Los Angeles.
Asked about his lack of a website — google “Gordon Lightfoot” and you’ll get a fan site — he responded, “I don’t even have a cell phone. One of these days I will get to the 21st century, but I guess I’m not ready yet.”
However, he does pay attention to today’s singers, including pop heartthrob Justin Bieber. The two shared billing in late November for the halftime show at the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup. The crowd cheered Lightfoot and booed Bieber.
Does he think Bieber’s music will be playing 50 years from now? No, he doesn’t go that far.
“I believe Bob Dylan might last,” he said. “Elvis Presley. The Beatles.”
He doesn’t add himself to that list. But fans in two nations buying tickets for “50 Years on the Carefree Highway” might disagree.
bcurtin@StatesmanJour nal.com, (503) 399-6699 or twitter.com/BarbaraCurtin
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