|
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 3,101
|
April 2008-Ottawa Citizen review
Lightfoot's still 'Mr. Canadiana'
Patrick Langston, Ottawa Citizen
Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008 Ottawa
Gordon Lightfoot, to paraphrase one of his songs, is still the same old loved man. And if he'd been having any doubts, Saturday night's sold-out show in the NAC's Southam Hall would have immediately put his mind at ease. A second NAC show, tonight, is sure to confirm his continuing popularity.
His fans applauded long and lustily as the veteran of the Canadian folk music scene (almost 70, Lightfoot's logged over four decades on the folk circuit) worked through a repertoire of audience favourites last night. Songs like Rainy Day People, Beautiful and If You Could Read My Mind evoked especially warm response from the crowd, the majority of them baby-boomers who'd clearly grown up in the days when folk musicians like Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and Ian and Sylvia all received regular play on Canadian commercial radio.
Playing a 12-string guitar and standing in his characteristic crouch, legs bent and feet wide apart, Lightfoot opened with Cotton Jenny followed by Carefree Highway. His four-piece band ringed his back in a semi-circle, careful not to overwhelm Lightfoot's aging but still plaintive voice (George Jones' band was equally low-key when the silver-haired country singer played Ottawa a couple of weeks ago).
Now comes the really tricky one," said the gaunt Lightfoot as he launched into a vocally shaky Shadows. His effort, naturally, was rewarded with warm applause. Ditto a hard-hitting version of his early song Ribbon of Darkness, a big hit for country singer Marty Robbins in the 1960s, and his own mid-1970s No. 1 tune, Sundown.
"All right!" said Lightfoot early in the evening, "show No. 26 this year (much applause). In the nation's capital, Ottawa. In the country we all love so much (more applause)."
As if anticipating his comment, long-time fan Carol Milsom said before the show, "He's Mr. Canadiana. Everyone identifies with him."
Her husband, Peter, nodded in agreement.
"I've been following him since his Yorkville days (in the 1960s)," he said. "There's something almost melancholic about a lot of his songs."
Mike Clisch, 23, was among the younger audience members.
"I was only introduced to his music about a year ago," he said. "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is my favourite."
Maybe Lightfoot overheard the comment, because he included the song about a maritime disaster on the Great Lakes in his set: dramatic, thanks especially to the drums and bass, the song surged along with the inevitability of the tragedy that sank the ship.
A Painter Passing Through and Don Quixote, which Lightfoot wrote at the height of the Vietnam War, were also on last night's bill. Don Quixote, with its timeless messages about war, social justice and racial equality, remains among Lightfoot's most resonant songs, and his delivery last night was a superb blend of subtlety and romanticism.
Of course, what would a Lightfoot show be without Canadian Railroad Trilogy? Written in 1967 as part of our centennial celebrations, last night's version wasn't entirely the original we grew up with: as Lightfoot said in introducing it, "I've changed a bit because I may not hit the high notes."
He struggled with even those changed notes, but that didn't prevent a tumultuous response from Lightfoot's ever-loving audience.
|
