http://newsdurhamregion.com/entertai...article/157282
Will's pumped to see Gordon Lightfoot
Mariposa in Orillia July 9 to 11
Jul 01, 2010 - 04:30 AM
So Meat Loaf is playing the GM Centre July 6, but whatever your politics are on that Bat man, don't go looking for them here, for you won't find much about him.
In this corner I'm hoping to try and figure out the music of my adopted land, Canada. Canadian music is the focus: local, regional, national and, in particular, that which helps us define ourselves within this geography.
Next weekend sees the 50th anniversary of a festival that contributed immensely to this sense of a musical continuum, a definition even. This year's Mariposa in Orillia will showcase that lineage from past through to a very much present present. A present that at the moment rivals in excellence all those great past presents that began in coffee houses around Toronto and grew out to international stages from where I originally found them, heard them.
I've been waiting a long time to see Gordon Lightfoot and thanks to the good folks of Mariposa I will get to hear him in the most perfect setting, outdoors on the Sunday night on the shores of Lake Couchiching. Ian and Sylvia will also play that night. Between the three of them we get the ground zero of the Canadian Sound.
All who play with them at this year's celebrations get a certain authenticity bestowed upon them, as if they are carriers of the torch, keepers of the flame. And what a relay will be played out over the three days: Downchild Blues Band, Murray McLauchlan, Ashley MacIssac, James Gordon. Also Dennis Lee and Sharon Lois and Bram; Serena Ryder, who chose Cuff The Duke as her backing band on her American tour; Jason Collett, who plays in Broken Social Scene; Dan Mangan, who I believe will win the 2010 Polaris Prize; and Elliott Brood, who are simply magnificent. Also, look for The Wooden Sky, who played an intimate show last summer at Geordie Lishman's place in Ajax, and Ohbijou, who run with my pals in Evening Hymns, Forest City Lovers and the D'Urbervilles, Holmes Hook, who I recall was a factor in the Vital Spark Folk Club when it began in Whitby and now books Hugh's Room in T.O., Dave Gunning and Zeus.
So as the singer of the song sings, "while away the summer by Lake Couchiching." The festival runs July 9, 10 and 11. There's camping, and in-town accommodations. Full details are on their website (mariposafolk.com), but for me its just about the most perfect way to spend a weekend - GORDON LIGHTFOOT! Yes!!
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William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at
wmacg@yahoo.com.
Local writer seeing Lightfoot at Mariposa
