Legendary Lightfoot 'rejuvenated' at 71-Toronto Sun

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http://www.torontosun.com/entertainm...03006-sun.html


Entertainment Columnists / Jane Stevenson
Legendary Lightfoot 'rejuvenated' at 71

Can't sustain long or high notes like he once did before cheating death in 2002

By JANE STEVENSON, Sun Media


“They’re all toe-tappers.”

That’s how Canadian music icon Gordon Lightfoot described his beloved folk-pop classics as he kicked off his long-standing tradition of performing a multi-night stand at Massey Hall on Wednesday night.

During the first of four consecutive shows, Lightfoot and his longtime four-piece band delivered a gentle, warm-sounding, and stripped-down night of music, yet managed to pack a staggering 27 songs in just an-hour-and-35-minutes if you count the 25-minute intermission.

The singer-songwriter-guitarist, looking thin but in good spirits for a guy who cheated death in 2002, admitted he was feeling a bit shy during his first night at Massey this time around.

Still, Lightfoot managed to crack a few jokes, tell some good songwriting stories - seeing Bruce Springsteen in a solo performance at Massey Hall about a decade ago inspired him to write Ringnecked Loon - and grinned when the crowd broke into a spontaneous rendition of Happy Birthday in honor of him turning 71-years-old on Tuesday. (He pointed out it was keyboardist Michael Heffeman’s birthday on Wednesday.)

There is an intimacy at a Lightfoot show at Massey Hall that comes from the crowd knowing the artist’s 40-decade songbook so well combined with his own unaffected charm.

“I feel rejuvenated,” said Lightfoot as he got more at ease as the show progressed. “I love this work.”

Lightfoot’s run at the celebrated venue began back in the late ‘60s.

And while his vocal delivery has definitely become more clipped, and his inability to sustain long or high notes is noticeable, he still is Gordon Lightfoot.

And for that, we are all eternally grateful.

Lightfoot, who favoured a blue velvet jacket in the first set followed by a burgundy velvet vest in the second set, began the night tentatively with Triangle, Did She Mention My Name, 14 Karat Gold, Never Too Close, and In My Fashion but finally hit his stride with A Painting Passing Through and Rainy Day People.

Meanwhile, Lightfoot’s band, rounded out by lead guitarist Terry Clements, bassist Rick Haynes and drummer Barry Keane, provided a minimal yet effective musical framework around which the songs could truly shine.

Other highlights proved to be hits like Beautiful, Carefree Highway, Sundown, Alberta Bound, The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, Don Quixote, If You Could Read My Mind, Baby Step Back, and Canadian Railroad Trilogy.

The tunes would sometimes prompt the whole crowd to clap along, declare their love for Lightfoot, or just shout out their appreciation.

“That was good Gord!” said one fan after a particular song.

“They’re all good!” added another fan to laughter.

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SET LIST

1 Triangle

2 Did She Mention My Name

3 14 Karat Gold

4 Never Too Close

5. In My Fashion

6. A Painter Passing Through

7. Rainy Day People

8 Shadows

9 Beautiful

10. Carefree Highway

11. Cotton Jenny

12 Ribbon of Darkness

13. Sundown

14 The Watchman’s Gone

15. Alberta Bound

INTERMISSION

16. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

17 Ringneck Loon

18. Don Quixote

19. If Children had Wings

20. Let it Ride

21. Fine As Fine Can Be

22 If You Could Read My Mind

23. Baby Step Back

24. Restless

25. Canadian Railroad Trilogy

26. Song for A Winter’s Night

ENCORE:

27. Old Dan’s Records
Sun rating: 3.5 out of five

Gordon Lightfoot

Massey Hall

Wednesday night

[Yuri]

Slightly belated from Toronto's 'Globe & Mail'

GORDON LIGHTFOOT

The tireless troubadour turns 71 tomorrow. A day later he launches his annual round of Massey Hall concerts

BRAD WHEELER
From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 12:00AM EST Last updated on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 3:44AM EST

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1364520/

On Wednesday evening, Sundown singer Gordon Lightfoot will creep down the backstairs of Toronto's Massey Hall, hitting the stage for another show in a long-standing annual series that began with a concert on March 31, 1967. About a month after that, a few blocks away, the Toronto Maple Leafs sipped bubbly from a tiered silver chalice. That tradition never really caught on in Toronto, but Lightfoot's ritual is an almost never-fail deal. "It's really amazing to me that I've been able to maintain this career for this length of time," says the great Orillian troubadour, calling from his Toronto abode. "We're enjoying it while it lasts."
If you were to meet someone who didn't know you from Adam, and they asked you what it is that you do, what would you tell them?
I would tell them that I'm a guitar player.
Not a songwriter?
Yeah, I might put that in too.
I think you should.
I met Prince Charles once. He said, "You're some kind of singer, aren't you?" So, at least he heard of me.
A lot of people have heard of you. You and your band have been going at this for decades, and you're almost 71 years old. How long do you plan to keep this thing running?
Well, we're going to enjoy it while we may. It's wonderful knowing I can still do this.
It seems your audience feels the same way.
Everyone's coming out to the shows. We're doing fine at the door. There really is no reason not to be doing it. We're in demand. We have offers.
Sundown, you better take care, if I find you've been creeping 'round my backstairs....
That's an old love ballad.
But I was thinking of that line in particular, as a metaphor for somebody resisting their sunset.
No, I'm not going to think of it that way. We're working on borrowed time, as far as the age goes. But since everybody is so very enthusiastic about it, including myself and my musicians and my entire troupe, which includes 12 people, nobody wants it to stop.
You're not making records much any more. Why not?
I was always a performer, long before I was recording artist. I love to perform. For me, going into the recording studio was almost akin to going to see the dentist. Particularly when I went in to record If You Could Read My Mind. I had a terrible hangover. Fortunately I gave [drinking] up in 1982.
I think I wish you hadn't told me about the hangover. If You Could Read My Mind is one of the most stunning, evocative songs ever made.
Well, it certainly is. And it's a great one to play on stage. That's one of the ones you save for about two-thirds of the way through the show.
Must be hard to follow
Oh, I can follow it okay - I can, honestly. I'll follow it with Baby Step Back or Restless or Canadian Railway Trilogy or Song for a Winter's Night. Or all of those.
Some of your songs are in the folk and storytelling tradition, while others are more the singer-songwriter type. Which style will be your legacy?
There's about 218 songs in the catalogue. So whatever anybody wishes to do with that, I'm sure they will. That will be my legacy, those 218 songs.
Gordon Lightfoot plays Massey Hall, Wednesday to Saturday (http://www.masseyhall.com or 416-872-4255).