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Gordon Lightfoot set for Saenger show in downtown Mobile
Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 6:25 AM
Lawrence F. Specker, Press-Register
Lightfoot will perform at the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, Ala., on Aug. 26, 2010.
It pays to write a good song: If you’re going to spend 20 or 30 years singing it, it helps to like it.
“Make that 40,” said Gordon Lightfoot, laughing as he responded to the observation. He figures he wrote “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and “Early Morning Rain” as far back as 1965.
And yes, they just might be part of the program when Lightfoot visits the Mobile Saenger Theatre next week. Also likely to be on that list are several other songs whose names instantly spring to mind when Lightfoot’s name is mentioned: “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
Lightfoot, 71, has had an enviable career: He’s had several Grammy nominations and won a pile of Juno Awards in his native Canada. His songs have been recorded by others such as Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Peter Paul & Mary and even Jane’s Addiction, yet he’s also earned a place on the charts with his own voice.
These days, it seems, sheer longevity gives him as much pleasure as any of it. He survived an acute abdominal aneurysm in 2002 and has continued to play upwards of 70 shows a year.
“We really are doing really well, getting a great response out there,” he said.
What audiences get in return, he said, is a fast-paced show that runs about two hours, including an intermission. He’s got “a few little things” that he likes to say about the songs, by way of introduction, he says, but in general he prefers to focus on the music and “keep the dialog sort of to the minimum.”
“They’re going to get a real good feel,” he said. “It’s a very entertaining show. It’ll get them tapping their shoes, I hope. We’ve got lots of toe-tappers.”
“We’ve got a really good repertoire too. We do all the ones they would expect to hear.”
What might surprise listeners, he said, is a focus on instrumental precision that one doesn’t always find in folk music. In recent years, he’s become a stickler for things like intonation, which sometimes suffers when the guitarists are using capos.
The five-piece band practices seriously, he says, and focuses on its instrumental work.
“Most of them have been with me over 30 years,” he said of his fellow musicians. “So it’s a pretty tight little band. And they actually take it quite seriously. We work at it in the meantime.”
“I really love doing the shows,” he said.
Surprisingly enough, there’s still an element of novelty to it that keeps him going.
“I love it every time I see a new face,” he said. “I really do. I love it when we get new people. And we do. We get lots of new people.”
Information
Gordon Lightfoot will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26 at the Mobile Saenger Theatre. Tickets are $34.50, $44.50 and $64.50 plus service charges. Tickets are available at the Saenger box office and other Ticketmaster outlets. To order by phone, call 800-745-3000; online orders can be placed at
www.ticketmaster.com. For more information call the Saenger box office at 251-208-5600.
Mobile Alabama article-Aug.19-2010
