http://savannahnow.com/do/2010-03-03...ve-and-singing
Gordon Lightfoot is alive and singing
Folk music icon Gordon Lightfoot to play at the Johnny Mercer Theatre on Tuesday
Posted: March 3, 2010 -
Canadian folk singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot will perform Tuesday at the Johnny Mercer Theatre.
By Emily Goldman
Despite recent rumors of his death, Gordon Lightfoot is alive and well and will be performing in Savannah on Tuesday.
Lightfoot, on his way to a business meeting on Feb. 18, heard of his own demise on the radio.
"I just put my foot on the gas," Lightfoot said. "When I got to my office, all of our phones were jammed from calls coming in, then I started trying to get a hold of my kids."
The Canadian folk music icon got on the phone, then the radio, then TV as fast as possible to dispel the rumor.
"Isn't that silly?" Lightfoot said. "That caused quite a rumpus, fortunately I was able to jump in there real quick."
Though he himself doesn't tweet, Lightfoot thinks the rumor started on the social networking Web site Twitter.
"I hardly know anything about it," he said. "I don't think I've gotten with the 21st century yet, I don't even have a cell phone."
Lightfoot, who has received more than 15 Juno Awards - Canada's music awards - and has been nominated for five Grammy awards since 1965, took the whole situation in stride.
"I kept thinking about what Mark Twain said, 'Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated,' " he said with a laugh.
Lightfoot, who released his 20th album "Harmony" in 2004, has been concentrating on his live performances, playing more than 70 shows per year.
Lightfoot is known for his hits "If You Could Read My Mind," "Sundown," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "Carefree Highway" and "Early Morning Rain," among others, and still performs them during his concerts.
"Fortunately they have stood the test of time," he said.
The songs still bring him back to where he was when he wrote them, he said.
Even "Sundown," a song he wrote about a woman he was seeing in 1972.
"It was a result of her going out and me staying home and writing," Lightfoot said. "She was the kind of girl who could flutter her eye lashes pretty good and I guess maybe I was a little bit jealous."
For him, the memories are welcome.
"You think about those things and you think about some of the sad parts, the emotional trauma," Lightfoot said. "At the same time, it's kind of uplifting in a way."
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