Gordon Lightfoot on his way to Atlantic CANADA!!!

[Jesse Joe]

http://www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docroo...ticleID=140930





Gordon Lightfoot was scheduled to perform in Moncton in 2002, but had to cancel due to health problems. His long-awaited show at the Coliseum is set for tomorrow night.





Lightfoot overcomes health problems to tour again



Published Thursday May 10th, 2007.


Gordon Lightfoot wasn't sure he would ever make it back onto a stage, much less step foot onto Moncton's biggest stage at the Moncton Coliseum.

The legendary Canadian folk singer was scheduled to perform at the Coliseum on September 17, 2002, but the Maritime tour was cancelled after Lightfoot experienced stomach pains, symptoms of what could have been a fatal abdominal hemorrhage.

Nearly five years, Gordon is healthy again and is finally on his way to the Hub City. He'll perform at the Moncton Coliseum tomorrow night.

It's been a long time coming.

"I had a case of mechanical failure," Gordon jokes over the phone from his home in Toronto a week ago. "It's good to be back. I'm a little late."

A burst artery in his midsection caused the abdominal hemorrhage, which had him in and out of the hospital three times over 19 months.

It was 28 months before he hit the stage again. For the first six months, he wasn't sure he'd ever be well enough to perform again.

"I knew I was ready to play again after two years," he says. When he was well enough, he performed at a benefit for the hospital that treated him when he was ill.

Since then, he's hardly left the stage. Gordon tours regularly, but he's careful to take time off and not burn himself out on the road.

"It's a passion. It's a passion to perform, to put it in simple terms. I would like to keep doing it as long as I can. I'm 68 now, but I know several people who are into their 70s who are still going pretty strong," he says, citing Kris Kristofferson, Ian Tyson, Willie Nelson and Tony Bennett as examples.

"(The gym) keeps me prepared and gives me an energy reserve for when I walk out onto the stage and try to knock your socks off with these shows that we're doing."

If there's anything you will understand after a conversation with the venerable singer, it's that he likes to be prepared. Being prepared comes up every time he can slip it into the conversation. Tours are carefully planned, the set list is well thought out and Gordon rehearses every week with band members so that each song he intends on performing is right on the tip of his tongue.

In fact, he was tuning his guitar for a practice (while watching the night's NHL playoff game of course) when the Times & Transcript called him.

Performing is Gordon's only serious musical interest now. While he tinkers with song ideas regularly, he says he isn't interested in recording another album. His last, Harmony, was released in 2004, and it was released on a small record label. Gordon's 33 year relationship with Warner Music ended in 1998.

"I'm not really interested in working on an album," he says. "I've completed all the recording contracts that I ever had. I was under contract for 33 years. I was out of that in 1998. This last album was just a second thought, an afterthought. I wasn't going to go back to Warner Brothers and ask them if they wanted to sign me for a fourth time.

"I'm going back to what I always did right at the start. I always had a show, and I was always a performer. And now I've perfected all of that. We've got it in wonderful condition."

Still, it's hard to believe that a songwriter whose songs - If You Could Read My Mind, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and Sundown, to name just a few - are ingrained into Canadian culture has no interest in writing songs anymore.

"Occasionally, I've got a twitch," he admits. "I've always got two or three things I'm tinkering with. But you don't take it seriously. I'm 68 years old now. It takes a lot longer the older you get, I've found. And I don't want to waste that time. I've got a family, I've got quite a few kids. And I've always tried to be attentive, but I really want to be more attentive in that regard.

"And I want to look after my business activities too. I've got estate planning and those things to look after too. I've got a catalogue that will be here when I'm no longer here. All of these things have to be thought about."

Gordon has six children ages 13 years and older. He's been married twice and engaged twice. He's currently single, but five of his children live in Toronto (one of his son's lives in Los Angeles), so family is always close by.

His current lifestyle allows him to enjoy his family time, but still get out and perform. While a new album might not be in the plans, he intends on touring as long as he's able to.

"In the stops in between and the things that you see, and the people you see, the fans and the afterglow, the response ... it's really a hard thing to shake, you know?" he says. "If you really enjoy it, and as long as you feel strong and you're prepared ... I keep stressing that. All my people are like that. Everyone's focused on doing a great job."

One could write a book about Gordon's many accomplishments. His songs have been covered by everyone from Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley. He's won 15 Juno awards and has been nominated for five Grammys. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Coutnry Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In May 2003, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and is also a member of the Order of Ontario. In 2004, he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

But when asked about what he hopes his legacy is, Gordon merely says he hopes the way he has led his career can be an example for young musicians.

"I would like to have set a good example. And that example would be - it's just so simple and straight ahead - write the songs. Start working on a catalogue, because without the songs you have no material to work with. Step two, cover other people's songs and keep adding your own songs to the mix. That's my advice and that's what I've done since the beginning."

Gordon's East Coast tour, which kicks off at Saint John's Harbour Station tonight, will see him perform in Moncton, Halifax, Sydney and St. John's.

"I'm really excited, because I wondered if I would ever be able to fulfill those engagements, and it makes me feel really good to know we'll be able to do that."


Gordon Lightfoot will perform at the Moncton Coliseum tomorrow night (Friday) at the Moncton Coliseum. Tickets are on sale now for $61. Tickets can be purchased at the Moncton Coliseum box office, by phone at 857-4100 or online at www.tickets.moncton.ca.

[ May 10, 2007, 04:34: Message edited by: Jesse-Joe. ]

[charlene]

How many/which shows are you getting to JJ?

[Jesse Joe]

Hi CHar,

The one in Moncton for sure I have excellent seats. Maybe Halifax as well, not sure ?

I might pass the entire day tomorrow at The Coliseum...{lol] :D

I told members of my family, that I will go to the Coliseum thursday night, {tonight} and come home Saturday morning, they looked at me strangely. I was just kidding of course... :D

Gordon Lightfoot... "What A Guy!"

[Auburn Annie]

Here's another article from the Chronicle Herald (Halifax):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Published: 2007-05-10
Legendary Lightfoot

Canadian icon opened Metro Centre 30 years ago; Saturday he returns, and Sunday he makes his Membertou debut

By ANDREA NEMETZ Entertainment Reporter


GORDON LIGHTFOOT has penned hundreds of songs, released 19 albums and completed two anthologies.

So it might be hard to predict what the Canadian folk icon will sing when he takes the stage at Halifax Metro Centre on Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., and the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre in Sydney on Sunday, at 7:30 p.m.

But three songs are certain to make it onto the play list, says the genial singer-songwriter from his home in Toronto: If You Could Read My Mind, which in 1970 became his first top-10 hit; Sundown, which topped the charts in 1974; and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a six-and-a-half minute ballad about the deaths of 29 men aboard an ore carrier. It spent 21 weeks on the charts in 1976.

The success of the song, which appeared on the album Summertime Dream, came unexpectedly for the now 68-year-old singer.

He wrote the tune after reading about the tragedy on Lake Superior in a newsmagazine.

"I knew I better get it in chronological order, I’d better do it right, because I have a lot of fans around the Great Lakes, it took a little bit of research," he admits, acknowledging he enjoys history.

The winner of 15 Junos, who has also earned four Grammy nominations, has a personal history with Nova Scotia.

He closed out the weeklong Theatre Arts Festival International at Acadia University in Wolfville in 1974, played a three-night stand at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in 1987 and was the very first act to play at the Halifax Metro Centre when it opened in 1978.

"I was thrilled by the prospect of doing it," he recalls of the Feb. 18, 1978, concert put together by Concert Productions International. "I was very honoured to be asked and I remember it very well."

His return to the Metro Centre, nearly 30 years later, completes a concert date in town he was unable to make when he nearly died after suffering a burst abdominal aneurysm. On Sept. 7, 2002, Lightfoot collapsed shortly before he was scheduled to perform in his hometown of Orillia, Ont. and was airlifted to hospital with an abdominal hemorrhage. He began a recovery process that was to take 19 months including three surgeries.

After his final surgery, a week after they took his last tube out, the one they used to administer saline solution at home, he returned to the gym, he says gravely.

Though he’s known for a strict diet and exercise regimen he began in 1982 after giving up alcohol, Lightfoot denies being a health fanatic.

"I go to the gym to give myself energy to go onstage with, it’s all part of the job. I want to build up an energy reserve. I’m almost 70 years old and I get that energy reserve when I get on the stage. I can feel that, I want the people to feel that. I want to do a good job. Doing a good job for me is the most important thing there is. I have to drive this persona all the time, the Gordon Lightfoot they see doesn’t just happen by itself, it has to be worked on. A lot of preparation goes into it on the music side as well.

"Touring is an easy thing to do. Staying prepared for it is the hard part. You have to stay sharp, we practice a lot, we work on detail, work on improving little things, tinker with things. We have a rehearsal once a week."

His band, which usually includes Rick Haynes on bass, Michael Heffernan on keyboards, Barry Keane on drums and Terry Clements on lead guitar, has been with him for decades.

"The band do the job so well I wouldn’t replace any of them," he says, adding the "people who play in my orchestra are really interested in music. We all like playing in music. It’s a real challenge. We’re working with all acoustic instruments, so we have to be concerned about tuning and intonation all the time, it becomes like a hobby."

Lightfoot says his favourite guitar, a Martin D-18, built in 1948, is already on its way to Halifax, travelling with the rest of his gear on a tractor-trailer, for his five-date swing through Atlantic Canada. The crew goes by bus, while the band goes by plane.

He’ll arrive around 1 p.m. on the day of show, go directly to the Metro Centre to start getting ready and the band will come in for a soundcheck between 4 and 6 p.m., playing mostly bits and piece of tunes.

"By about 5:30 p.m., we’re ready to rock," he says, adding he tunes his guitars last, between about 5:30 and 6 p.m.

Around 6 p.m. he’ll have dinner sent in, though he can’t eat much as it will affect his singing. If he was to pig out on the road, pasta would be his delicacy of choice, and he loves a chocolate bar with coffee on the plane on the way to the next gig.

An inaugural inductee into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, he has just returned from a 10-show, 12-day tour of northeastern U.S., and says the key to enjoying touring is to do it in short batches.

Lightfoot, who released his self-titled debut album in 1966, says he has two different ways of approaching his show, each one with a rotation of songs.

"Most of the stuff you’ll recognize," he says tossing off the names of hits like Early Morning Rain, the Canadian Railroad Trilogy, In My Fashion, Don Quixote, Rainy Day People, Cotton Jenny, and Carefree Highway that are likely to make an appearance in a show that will have two sets with a 20-minute intermission.

"Most of the stuff (audiences) will recognize. A lot haven’t been released as singles, a lot are from albums, what we think are really well-managed performances of album cuts, which go over very well."

Part of the coffee-house scene in Toronto in the ’70s that included performers like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, he also recalls American stars like James Taylor, Carly Simon, Tim Hardin, and Maria Muldaur passing through the Yorkville area.

"It was a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. It was nice to be on the inside looking out, to stand back and watch. I spent most of my time getting tuned up for my next set," he says, noting at the time he was married and stayed home with his family and drove into the village to play. "The club was so hot where I worked, my guitar was always out of tune."

Lightfoot’s favourite song, If You Could Read My Mind is one of the most covered songs in history with versions performed by Dylan, Elvis Presley, Olivia Newton-John, Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Petula Clark and Johnny Cash (it was released on Cash’s posthumous album American V), among others.

But he’s still humble about hearing his work recorded by others.

"I feel honoured every time anybody does one of our songs. I don’t care how they do it, I don’t care what interpretation they put on it. I don’t even care if they were half asleep when they did it. I love everything everyone records that is mine. I’m honoured.

"Anne Murray gave me a great job on Cotton Jenny," he says proudly. "It was a big hit for her and didn’t hurt us any either."

And he’s very impressed with Cape Breton native J.P. Cormier’s ECMA-winning album The Long River: A Personal Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. Multi-instrumentalist Cormier, who calls Lightfoot his favourite songwriter, released the 18-song disc in 2005.

"I have a very deep respect for Mr. Cormier. He did an admirable job in the material of mine that he’s done. I’ve met him and I admire his work."

Tickets for Lightfoot’s show in Halifax are $61 each including tax and service charge and are available at the Ticket Atlanticbox office at Halifax Metro Centre, by phone at 451-1221 at the 17 participating Atlantic Superstore outlets or online at www.halifaxmetrocentre.com.

Tickets for the Sydney show are $58 to $73 and are on sale at the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre box office or by calling 539-2300.

(anemetz@herald.ca)

[charlene]

"I feel honoured every time anybody does one of our songs."

I love how he says "our" songs...

[charlene]

Well have a grand time, take notes/pics and report back to us ASAP.. you are our Maritime correspondent!
Hi to Mr. Lightfoot from CHar!

[Jesse Joe]

Well thanks Char, we are looking forward to a grand time.

I can tell you that I contacted the Coliseum Box Office this afternoon about the sales of tickets, and she told me, "we have a 'Sell Out.'"

So this is great news that Im sure Mr. Lightfoot will be glad to see the huge crowd.

Ive been doing some painting in my house lately, and for the past 2 weeks the Moncton Radio station, 'Magic 104' have been playing Lightfoot music like crazy. One would think we were in the 70's. {Contest}, when they played a Lightfoot song the 4th caller would win tickets to the show. And a grand prize to meet & greet the 'Superstar Icon' after the show... Thats how they described him.

So in the meantime this is Jesse-Joe reporting from Moncton NB, for the Corfid Group... :D

[ May 10, 2007, 20:45: Message edited by: Jesse-Joe. ]

[Jesse Joe]

www.magic104.ca



http://www.monctoncoliseum.com/


http://www.monctoncoliseum.com/english.htm


http://www.monctoncoliseum.com/concertbowl.htm

[ May 10, 2007, 20:18: Message edited by: Jesse-Joe. ]

[Jesse Joe]

PHOTO COURTESY GORDON LIGHTFOOT

http://www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docroo...ticleID=140362


Over more than 40 years and 20 albums, Gordon Lightfoot has consistently captured Canada's spirit, musical and otherwise.


From cradle to middle age
Music Canadian treasure Gordon Lightfoot makes first New Brunswick visit in more than a decade.

The first grown-up song I remember hearing as a child was Gordon Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain. It was from his first record - simply titled, Lightfoot! - also the first album cover I recall laying around the house. My music-loving parents had hundreds of albums, but this one was always out, propped against the sofa-sized Silvertone console stereo in the living room.

It had a golden brown background and bright green lettering. The young, handsome man on the front wore his light brown hair slicked back. He leaned stiffly in a director's chair, boots crossed in front of outstretched legs, holding a 6-string Martin guitar in his lap, glancing away from the camera. He looked deliberate, detached, intense, cool.

Gordon Lightfoot held a place of prominence in our house. His folk songs, so many of them instant classics, were my cradle music, the soundtrack to my earliest years. My parents, and especially my father, adored him from that first album; a mono, 14-song recording that came out in 1966, the year before I was born. My dad, who played guitar, learned all of Lightfoot's songs by ear and strummed and sang them to me when other toddlers were being nursery-rhymed to sleep.

Other albums followed swiftly to join the stack by the stereo - The Way I Feel, Did She Mention My Name and an enduring favourite, Sunday Concert, a live recording of a 1969 show at Toronto's historic Massey Hall, where Lightfoot performed every March, often as many as 10 nights. Each year, my mother and father would head to at least one and often several of those shows. Two songs from those records, Black Day in July, about the calamitous 1967 Detroit riots, and Ballad of Yarmouth Castle, about a cruise ship that caught fire and sank off Miami in 1965, killing 90 of its 552 passengers and crew, stuck with me as a child. Emotional, moody and pensive, they excited and frightened me.

Along with Bob Dylan, and my mother's favourites - Johnny Mathis and Burt Bacharach, and the Kingston Trio and Nat King Cole - music was constantly playing in our house. But it was Lightfoot who ruled the stereo, and later, the cassette deck in our blue Volkswagen van, even as he was beginning to capture and define this country's spirit, musical and otherwise, something he has done consistently over more than 40 years and 20 albums.

Now 68 years old, Canada's treasured troubadour is on a lengthy tour that began in January and won't wind up until September.

Lightfoot has not performed in the Maritimes for more than a decade; a frightening and near-fatal health crisis in 2002 cancelled a scheduled tour. An aneurysm exploded in his stomach before a show in his Ontario hometown of Orillia, putting him in a coma for six weeks. A road warrior used to performing about 60 concerts a year, the singer was sidelined for 20 months and endured three operations, including one on his larynx. Fans, and Lightfoot himself, wondered if he would ever set foot on stage again. He spent months undergoing speech therapy, and working on the post-production of his most recent album, Harmony, for which the vocal tracks had already been laid down and was finally released in 2004.

"For the first seven or eight months I wondered if I would be able to make a comeback," he said last week from his home in Toronto. "I was thinking about things and working ahead, wondering if I'd be able to go ahead with (performing). But it's just a matter of having a passion for the sport. You enjoy it so much you want to continue doing it. Having the album to work on kept my mind off my condition. It was good incentive to keep going.

"The biggest problem was getting the breath in and getting out the longer phrases, but I knew it would come back. The moment of truth was when I got out on stage and started rehearsing."


SUBMITTED BY SHAWNA RICHER Gordon Lightfoot has transcended mere music; he has shaped the country's sense of romance with songs such as Canadian Railroad Trilogy and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and mapped its emotional fabric in ones such as Steel Rail Blues and Love and Maple Syrup. He was awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003, the country's highest honour. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 by his longtime friend and mentor Bob Dylan, who recorded a version of Early Morning Rain and said of his Canadian contemporary: "Every time I hear a song of his, it's like I wish it would last forever."

Lightfoot had written 35 songs in the early '60s but it wasn't until he met Dylan in New York through their shared management company that he began to hit his stride.

"Dylan taught me to write lyrics," he said. "I'd written all these songs but none of them were very good. Next thing I knew I was writing Early Morning Rain and that was the first one that was any good. It wasn't until I was influenced by Dylan and I'd gotten to talk to him that came out."

Lightfoot has written more than 250 songs; when organizing a tour he settles on 30 or 40 from which he will choose 26 for a performance.

"It requires quite a bit of thought," he says. "You do ones you don't necessarily get to from one show to the next, and you leave in the ones you know really work well and that people expect to hear. But really, I enjoy every one. I love them all."

He continues to exercise regularly, four times a week for nearly two hours at a gym near his home, and on tour is tireless, taking few nights off, preferring to play as many consecutive shows as possible. He rehearses obsessively, even after so many decades of playing with the same veteran band; lead guitarist Terry Clements and bassist Rick Haynes have been with him nearly four decades. Lightfoot's attention to detail and arrangement translates to crisp, pitch-perfect performances instrumentally, even as his baritone is not as weighty as it once was.

But his songs endure, especially the earlier ones. Lightfoot has written some of the most direct, honest and intimate relationship songs ever recorded, from Sundown to Cold Hands From New York to Carefree Highway and If You Could Read My Mind.

"It's the experience of having been there so many times," he says of his well-publicized and often troubled love life. "It's been a roller-coaster ride at times, and I'm writing songs about love gained and love lost and I've had it going both ways. There's nothing middle of the road with me."

Lightfoot, who drank heavily until he quit cold turkey in the early '80s but always approached songwriting with the precision and craftsmanship of a boat-builder, acknowledged he wrote many of his best tunes while he was drinking.

"Alcohol was the fuel," he says. "When I gave it up most everything was behind me anyway. I wrote a few good things after that, but only three albums. Alcohol was a tool but it had to go.

"I'm very practical about songwriting. I like to keep up a tight schedule. I'm well organized. I keep my daily journal and I write three lines, sometimes six."

He isn't eager to take on the task of writing another album, though thinks he has one in him.

"It would take me four or five years to write another record," he says. "I don't want to have that hanging over me anymore."

His songs have been covered by everyone from Dylan to Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash and the Cowboy Junkies. His favourites? Those by Peter, Paul and Mary, Ian and Sylvia, and Elvis. He is flattered each time someone decides to sing his songs; attestation he has made an lasting impression.

"My ability to continue is what I'm proudest of," he says. "It takes discipline and I've seen that through the ups and downs of it.

"I'm a lesson in the work ethic. I keep telling people they have to start writing themselves a catalogue and don't waste time; write songs, write flat out. If you can't do it, it's real tough. You have to have a feel for it."

Lightfoot's feel is a sixth sense, a gift. His songs shaped my earliest memories and sparked a love of lyrics and melodies and poetry. He led me to Neil Young and Jackson Browne, deep into Dylan and to my truest musical love, Bruce Springsteen. Thanks, Gordon. And thank you, Dad.

[ May 11, 2007, 06:04: Message edited by: Jesse-Joe. ]

[Auburn Annie]

And here's another article:


Harmony Light

After a health scare that cut short his 2002 tour, Gordon Lightfoot gets to stretch his Atlantic legs


KARLA HAYWARD
Special to The Telegram

In 2002, our entire country held its collective breath. Beloved musical legend Gordon Lightfoot seemed on death's doorstep, felled by a serious illness while touring - just before his Atlantic Canada leg, in fact. Almost five years later, after three subsequent relapses and recoveries, Lightfoot is - according to him - as good as new.

"I'm doing fine, absolutely fine," he says in a voice that's perhaps just a touch less hearty then before his illness.

During his recovery, Lightfoot was unable to perform live. But that didn't stop him from making music. Using tracks he'd laid down on his own before his illness, Lightfoot began building his latest album - Harmony.

"That was good. It took my mind off my condition. I just thought about the music. It was about two years more before I thought about getting back on stage, but even then I was doubtful. But then, I started rehearsing."

The music helped him heal, "Oh yes, of course. Absolutely. And I know I had a lot of healing prayers from a lot of people - which were very much appreciated."

In his more than 40 years of performing, Lightfoot's won 15 Juno Awards and been nominated for five Grammys. He is a Canadian Music Hall of Famer and a Canadian Country Music Hall of Famer. In 2004, he was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Today, Lightfoot's back on the road, performing for packed houses and fans who are perhaps more enthusiastic than ever, excited to see what they'd once feared lost. "We're getting a great response. And we're getting pretty much sold-out (crowds). We've just got to feel it out and see how far it can take us, 'cause I'm quite capable of doing 50 or 60 shows a year."

Though a true superstar on the global music scene, Lightfoot's always modest and rather un-star-like. Being a demanding celeb has never really occurred to him, it seems.

"My personal life is very much the same as anyone else's ... My dad always told me when I was making it as a boy soprano, 'Don't let it go to your head.' And I listened to him. But it never would have gone to my head anyway because I was a farm boy and I just didn't have it in me," he says.

"Or," he continues half-laughing, "maybe it's there and I just don't know it. Maybe I'm the most arrogant son of a gun. ... But I don't care what they think. I just want to do a good job and be a good person."

Lightfoot's a perfectionist. He practises, plans his set lists weeks in advance, gets to his venues early to tune his instruments and warm up. He and his band are constantly striving - and succeeding - at making the show ever better. He promises an exciting show. "I'm really concentrating on the tour - we're perfecting our stage presentation. It's never, never perfected, I assure you ... We will give it full blast. We always work full of energy."

That's the approach he plans to take with his career as long as he can, "As long as I continue to rise to the occasion, as I am doing, with the kind of energy that I can put out there, I'll continue (making music and touring).

Tuesday's show isn't Lightfoot's first time in Newfoundland; he played here for the first time about 40 years ago. Working for the Canadian government at the time, he did shows in a number of smaller communities including some on the Burin Peninsula.

He seems genuinely pleased to get back to our bit of the world. "We're going to have a wonderful time being in Atlantic Canada for a whole week. I really was disappointed when we had to cancel back in October of 2002. I'm glad it came back into the picture, because at one point I wasn't sure I'd ever make it back down there. Now it's only a week off and I'm really getting excited about it.

Gordon Lightfoot plays Mile One Centre Tuesday. Tickets are $55.00, tax included, plus surcharge and can be purchased at the Mile One Box Office (709) 576-7657, 1 800 361-4595 or www.mileonecentre.com.

[Gitchigumee]

Thanks for the articles, JJ & Annie, they just seem to be getting better and better! I can really feel the energy in Gord's words. I particularly liked this part:

"He isn't eager to take on the task of writing another album, though thinks he has one in him."



[ May 11, 2007, 10:30: Message edited by: Gitchigumee ]

[Jesse Joe]

I had to type this from the T&T front page this morning, as it is not on the Site. It also has a great photo of Gord last night in concert... Dont know why it's not on the Papers Site???


A legend in concert !

Gordon Lightfoot played to a packed house at the Moncton Coliseum Theatre. Lightfoot delighted fans, playing his second N.B. show in as many nights. {Times & Transcript Saturday May 12, 2007.}


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Set List:

Triangle
Cotton Jenny
14 Karat Gold
Never Too Close
In My Fashion
A Painter Passing Through
Rainy Day People
Shadows
Beautiful
Carefree Highway
Hangdog Hotel Room
Ribbon Of Darkness
Sundown
The Watchman's Gone

Intermission:

The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
Alberta Bound
Don Quixote
Minstrel Of The Dawn
Clouds Of Loneliness
Waiting For You
If You Could Read My Mind
Baby Step Back
Restless
Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Old Dan's Records


We met Terry Clements, Barry Keane, and Mike Heffernan around 1:15 pm at the hotel they were staying. The same hotel where Willie Nelson, Cher, The Rolling Stones, among others, were at when they performed in Moncton.

Just curious I had to go there not expecting to find any of Lightfoot's entourage. But as we pulled close to the entrance, I saw Terry got out of a grey SUV, then saw Barry Keane and Mike Heffernan. I said "there they are." Talk about LUCK. We parked the car and went in to find Barry Keane at the desk, as Mike and Terry were waiting, all 3 very nice gentlemen. Wishing them a good show, Terry said thank's, and you folks all have a great evening as well. Thank you, thank's, etc...lol {unbelievable} They then took the elevator to the 7th floor. No Lightfoot or Rick Haynes around.


As we went to the Coliseum around 5:30 pm, we went around the back of the building and saw the red 18 wheeler, with New-Jersey Licence plates. Made me think of John Fowles... Once again we saw Terry Clements w/ other folks smoking holding the double door open. I honked the horn and he waved back.

At 6:30 pm, the front doors of the coliseum opened as the flocks of Lightheads poured in. Security said, "No cameras with flashes please"... But there were cameras flashing all evening. {lol} Before the show started we saw Barry Harvey, pacing the floor quite a bit, looking at the crowd as people were flowing in. Rick Haynes was at the right side of the stage, greeting certain people I suspected that he knew.


'A great concert it was.' The band came on stage, and as Gordon walk on, being very cool I might add, to a thunderous standing ovation before he even could say one word.

Terry Clements waved to the crowd as they started Triangle. The same song he started with in 1990, which was the last time he had perform in Moncton, also at the Coliseum.

"It's a friday night, and were here in Moncton New-Brunswick,{Great Smile}
Sorry Im late, 4
and 1/2 years late", smiling, as the crowd cheered him on.

Before doing 'Hangdog Hotel Room,' he explained how that song came about, partying with the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker, and {The Hawk,} Ronnie Hawkins, how they had not much sleep in those days.

The band were as tight as usual, Lightfoot's voice was good, but very soft. I think it was at it's strongest on CRT.{Amazing} He did massage his right hand from time to time.

He had the 2, 12 string Gibsons, and his great Martin D 18, with the happy Face sticker on the back.

Man those guitars have got a great sound. {Awesome} Although he only used the second 12 string not plug in an Amp for 'The Canadian Railroad Trilogy.'

I myself noticed that the strings on all 3 of his guitars were really shinning.


It was really warm in the coliseum, when he did 'Old Dan's Records', instead of saying, "We're all here we've all got dates," he went, It's a hot friday night, we've all got dates." Which was very true of the evening. lol

Rick Haynes was wiping his forehead after many songs...

I did take a lot of pics, dont know how they will turn out ?

All and all it was a great concert, and after the encore doing, 'Old Dan's Record's, he came out again almost running, to take 3 more bows, giving the thumbs up, and waving good bye to his adoring crowd. To me it was as if, this was probably the last time he will perform here in Moncton, N.B. Twice in the late 60's and then again once in 1990.


Got all the autographs. And yes Char I said to him, "Char from Whitby {Toronto} says "Hi." He looked at me smiled and said, "Oh! do you know CHar ? nice lady," as he was very busy signing stuff, for more fans...


When we got back to the stage area, the crew were already very busy dismantling the set, as the coliseum crew were at it with the stage.

As we went to the car to take off, I made one last round of the huge Coliseum. In the rear was the 18 wheeler backed up inside the building, and we could see the stage.

There were young people smoking, sitting outside the double closed doors, which is probably the 'EXIT' door, the band would be coming out.

"The Poet Genius is quite a cool guy "!

Thanks,

~Jesse~

[ June 22, 2007, 06:42: Message edited by: Jesse Joe ]

[charlene]

Great stuff JJ!
It's quite amazing how quickly those fellows can take apart the set - like little ants scurrying around and packing and hauling..and Chuck supervising them all with the exact way to pack and where things go.

I'm happy to hear you got some pics and autographs and were able to meet The Poet Genius.! I have been following the weather down there and noted the temps..Summer has indeed come early for us.
I saw the review in the on-line paper but it can only be accessed if you are a subscriber for home delivery..I e-mailed them but haven't heard back. I asked if I could get it e-mailed to me as I don't get home delivery way up here in Toronto.!
lol
thanks for saying Hi for me..he's probably still wondering who you were talking about! lol
Can't wait to see the pics you took..

[RM]

Thanks for the wonderful review.

[Kerstin]

Hi Jesse-Joe,
great review. Can't wait for the pictures!

[Jesse Joe]

Thanks Charlene, RMD, and Kerstin. Very kind of you all. Char I think he knew exactly who I was talking about...

[ May 15, 2007, 08:19: Message edited by: Jesse-Joe. ]

[Moosedog]

Thanks for the review - sounds like you had a great time.

Vickie

[Jesse Joe]

Thanks Vickie, we had a great evening. He is one Super Cool Dude...

[Jesse Joe]

This photo was on the front page of The Moncton Times & Transcript, May 12, 2007. Sorry for the size.

[Jesse Joe]

The hotel where they stayed, and where I got to meet, Terry Clements, Barry Keane and Mike Heffernan.

[Jesse Joe]

The Moncton Coliseum. For that night May 11th 2007, I was under the same roof as The Master Poet. {lol}

[Jesse Joe]

The Red 18 wheeler with New-Jersey Plates, transporting all that marvelous equipment.