JamesG and John and Lightfoot music!
http://www.theenterprisebulletin.com...ay-collingwood
Lightfoot tribute band to play Collingwood
By JT McVeigh, The Enterprise-Bulletin
Wednesday, May 24, 2017 4:17:18 EDT PM
For some people, the direction life takes them is predestined.
That has to be the reason why the music of Gordon Lightfoot has run so deeply in John Stinson’s life.
The Tiny Township musician will be in Collingwood June 10 with his band for an evening of the Music of Gordon Lightfoot as a fundraiser for the Georgian Bay Great Lakes Foundation.
Joined by Eric Kidd, JG Jones and Lightfoot’s nephew, Steve Eyers, Stinson will present a full evening of classic Lightfoot music – so close to the original, if you close your eyes, you won’t know the difference.
“I’m sort of the main guy with the music; I have been playing Lightfoot music all of my life. I started in Toronto, but I raised my family in Aurora and ... it was there that I met the original lead guitar player for Lightfoot in the ’60s and ’70s, named Red Shea,” said Stinson. “I met him, took lessons from him and learned the nuances of Lightfoot’s music, so I have a good sense of what the music is, the background and everything.”
Stinson was then introduced by Shea to Terry Clements, who replaced Shea when he left the Lightfoot band.
The latest incarnation of the band started in Orillia when that city started Lightfoot Days to celebrate the hometown singer.
“There were two fellows there whom I met who were very close to Lightfoot’s music, one of them being Gord’s nephew, Steve Eyers, and his is the son of Gord’s sister,” said Stinson. “She managed Gord during much of that turbulent 1970s.
“So, with Steve, we talked and said let's do something together.”
For the past year, the foursome has been playing small theatres around southern Ontario.
For this fundraising concert, the Georgian Bay Great Lakes Foundation was chosen because of contact Stinson had with the early formation of the organization.
“I know about the foundation because I live on Georgian Bay over in Tiny Township,” he said. “I’ve been here for about 40 years, so when the water was really low a few years back, I got involved in the foundation headed up by Mary Muter.”
Last April, Muter went to one of the group’s concerts and suggested they could work on something together.
The Georgian Bay Great Lakes Foundation, which used to be associated with the Sierra Club Canada Foundation, offers solutions and science in supporting water levels, wetlands, fisher and aquatic invasive species control in the Great Lakes system.
What happens when the guy’s songs you are singing is in the audience?
It happened to Stinson during a performance in Orillia.
“He saw us play last fall. It was a wonderful time for us to have him come up on stage. It was a great moment,” said Stinson. “I had a feeling when we were performing that night that he was in the audience. I was very nervous about it; my mouth had never seemed so dry in my life. But I would look over to see if he was listening. I don’t know if he was listening or falling asleep – it is the same look – but I’ll say he was listening, and I was trying to discern what he was thinking. It was a great night.”
The Gordon Lightfoot tribute band will be at the Historic Gayety Theatre in Collingwood June 10. Tickets are $30 – $20 for seniors – with the show beginning at 8 p.m.
Tickets are available by contacting the Gayety Theatre.
jmcveigh@postmedia.com
JamesG - John Stinson
