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Iconic Lightfoot earns new admiration
By Anne Neville NEWS STAFF REVIEWER
Updated: 09/22/08 6:44 AM
The air was electric with emotion as Gordon Lightfoot took the stage Sunday night in Shea’s Performing Arts Center. And it wasn’t just the familiar themes of love, loss and longing that have permeated the 40- year body of work of the iconic Canadian songwriter, it was a new admiration for the fortitude that Lightfoot now personifies.
His 69 years of life and a near-fatal aneurysm in 2002 have damaged the clear top and smooth bottom notes of Lightfoot’s once-powerful baritone. Without benefit of surgery or other artifice, the once-robust Canadian lad is now a slender, elegant elderly man with a shoulder-length shock of straight, mostly dark hair brushed back from a widow’s peak. His voice is more nasal, his phrasing and pacing occasionally a bit too quick for the luxurious lines his voice once lingered over.
None of that mattered to a near-sold-out crowd who openly adored the singer-songwriter from the moment he took the stage to a standing ovation. As he strode confidently to center stage, Lightfoot wore gray wool pants and a light blue open-necked oxford-cloth dress shirt, a plain combo enlivened by a beautifully tailored waist-length burgundy velvet jacket.
With his first song, “Triangle,” one of the sailing stories that have so captivated Lightfoot’s poetic imagination, he showed off both his limits and his genius. His finger-picking on his trademark capoed 12- string guitar was quick and strong, his rhythm sure. When his voice occasionally rasped or broke, it added new layers of vulnerability to his utterly human lyrics.
“Cotton Jenny,” one of what he’d later refer to as his “toe-tappers,” showed off the skill of the tight band behind him — lead guitarist Terry Clements, who later showed lightning-fast finger work on “Hangdog Hotel,” keyboardist Michael Heffernan, bassist Rick Haynes and drummer Barry Keane.
Lightfoot, a native of Orillia, north Toronto, personalized the concert with comfortable memories of Buffalo. He recalled attending a movie at Shea’s when he was about 12 years old, then mentioned visiting Buffalo’s Club Moonglow “in my teenage years.” Pause. “We were stupid then.” The crowd cheered.
During the first lull as he changed guitars, a woman shouted out, “We love you, Gordon!” and Lightfoot looked surprised. In later between-song breaks, he was told that a song had been played at another woman’s wedding. “That’s nice to hear,” he said, looking slightly abashed. “You don’t hear that too often.”
Lightfoot presented many of his hits, showcasing them well. He sang “Beautiful,” a haunting and romantic tune, then stopped. After a moment of complete silence and growing anticipation, his band struck up the haunting and unmistakable percussive opening chords of the ominous “Sundown.” It was chill-inducing, as was what happened next: When the singer’s voice grew whispery on some words, the crowd’s soft vocals filled in. They knew his phrasing, his inflections, and they shared the experience with the man who’d given them the tune.
Lightfoot’s best vocals of the first segment of the show were on the next tune, “Carefree Highway,” which were strong and confident, followed by “The Watchman’s Gone.”
After intermission, during which he changed into a white shirt and a patterned vest, Lightfoot gave an excellent, moving rendition of his monumental “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The poetry of that powerful ballad never dulls.
“Does anyone know wherethe love of God goes When thewaves turn the minutes tohours? The searchers all saythey’d have made Whitefish BayIf they’d put 15 more miles behindthem.”
The band’s work behind him was near-flawless, and the powerful moment was marred only by an annoying hissing that filled the silent beats with white noise. The distracting noise was present, more or less, during the entire second half, although Haynes seemed aware of it and several times made adjustments that lessened its volume. Despite the hissing, “The Wreck” was followed by prolonged cheering and applause.
As the concert continued, Lightfoot seemed to gain energy from the rapt audience, and dug deeper into his songbook — swinging through “Alberta Bound” and into the bouncy “Don Quixote,” from “Clouds of Loneliness” to the lively “Baby Step Back.”
Finally, just when it seemed he wouldn’t get to it, he pulled a third acoustic guitar with an extra- warm tone from the shadows with the quip, “It’s been hiding,” and swung into “Canadian Railroad Trilogy.” He was in excellent voice again for this lively, historic ballad with shifting tempoes. Only Lightfoot could make “living on stew and drinking bad whiskey” sound appealing.
His encore was “Blackberry Wine,” a seldom-heard tune, and afterward the crowd applauded and screamed for another encore. After some minutes, Lightfoot returned to the stage alone, and bowed deeply before leaving, this time for good.
aneville@buffnews.com
Iconic Lightfoot earns new admiration
- Borderstone
