This band is keeping a great Canadian legacy alive.
https://www.thespec.com/entertainmen...d0aa56e4e.html
October 10 2024
The Lightfoot Band comes to Burlington Oct. 25 and Hamilton Nov. 2.
By Graham Rockingham. hamilton spectator
Graham Rockingham is a former music editor, now contributor, with the Hamilton Spectator.
grahamrockingham@gmail.com
Gordon Lightfoot’s connections to the city of Hamilton remain deep.
Hamilton was home to his favourite place to record, Grant Avenue Studio. Bob Doidge, former owner of the studio, was Lightfoot’s go-to producer for his later albums.
And McMaster Medical Centre was the place that saved Lightfoot’s life after the iconic singer-songwriter suffered a near fatal abdominal aneurysm in 2002.
Then there’s Carter Lancaster, the Burlington native and longtime Hamilton resident who performed as Lightfoot’s lead guitarist for almost 14 years. During that time, Lancaster performed more than 1,000 concerts all over the world with Lightfoot and the three other members of the band.
Lancaster, now in his 60s, was always considered “the kid” in the band. For good reason: keyboard player Mike Heffernan played with Lightfoot for 44 years; drummer Barry Keane, 47 years; and bassist Rick Haynes, more than 55 years.
Together, they knew the work of the great songwriter better than anyone, except maybe, Lightfoot himself. The Lightfoot band was like a family.
After Lightfoot died in May 2023, at the age of 84, that family was in danger of falling apart.
“We had become a close-knit group and we all looked out for one another as a band,” Lancaster said in an interview with The Spectator. “Not only did we lose Gord, and there was a huge void for us, but I was no longer in touch with my friends who I had been travelling with for 13 years.”
About three months passed before Haynes, the band’s senior member, called the guys together for lunch at a Mississauga restaurant. They started swapping stories and soon discovered that fans had reached out to all of them, imploring them to keep Lightfoot’s music alive.
“It became obvious almost immediately that we needed to put this back together and we needed to do it with a new singer,” Lancaster said.
Haynes found the new singer in Andy Mauck, a longtime fan from Florida who had been singing Lightfoot songs as a solo artist for decades.
“He learned how to play guitar by listening to Gordon Lightfoot songs and he learned how to sing by trying to copy Gordon Lightfoot’s vocal,” Lancaster says of Mauck. “He’s not trying to be Gordon Lightfoot, but it’s obvious that he has the same timbre in his voice.
“Andy has the voice of Gord in the ‘70s. He has this huge large-than-life Gordon Lightfoot timbre, that Gord used to have circa 1972. If you’ve heard the 1972 BBC tapes, that’s Andy’s voice. It’s scary.”
The Lightfoot Band returned to the stage in January as house band for an all-star tribute to Gordon’s music, featuring among others, Blue Rodeo, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, Tom Cochrane and Burton Cummings, as well as Hamilton’s Tom Wilson, Bob Doidge and Caroline Wiles.
The Lightfoot Band then set out on a Canadian tour, winding through Eastern Canada, with Mauck on vocals. The tour comes to the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on Oct. 25, Hamilton’s Westdale Theatre on Nov. 2 and Kitchener’s Centre in the Square Nov. 16.
Lancaster said the turnouts have been good and the fans appreciative.
“There are times in which you can close your eyes and think, that’s just unbelievable. And the fans are picking up on that. It’s quite a treat, not only for the band to resurrect these songs, but also for the fans who are absolutely loving this.”
The audition of Mauck has added new life to the old songs. During his later years, Lightfoot lost some of his vocal range and was unable to perform some of his best songs. Other tunes had to be rearranged to accommodate his age.
With Mauck at the microphone, the band has been able to return to original arrangements as well as old favourites, like “The Circle is Small,” that hadn’t been performed in many years.
Lancaster has made Hamilton home for almost 30 years. He wasn’t always aware of Lightfoot’s ties to the city, but takes pride in them now. He notes that Bernie Fiedler, who managed Lightfoot since the 1960s and continues to manage The Lightfoot Band, recently moved to Ancaster.
And so how did a relatively unknown guitarist become a member of the Lightfoot Band? He remembers the events like they were yesterday.
Back in 2011, Lancaster was putting the finishing touches on a solo instrumental album he had recorded at Grant Avenue. He dropped by the studio one day to ask Doidge how things were going with the project.
Lancaster found Doidge in his upstairs office on the telephone, engaged in an important conversation with none-other than the great Gordon Lightfoot. Terry Clements, who had been Lightfoot’s lead guitarist since 1971, was in poor health. Lightfoot was asking Doidge if he knew anyone who could serve as a backup.
Still gripping the phone, Doidge turned to the doorway where Lancaster was standing.
“All of a sudden his eyes went as big as saucers and his chin hit his desk” Lancaster recalls. “He said, ‘I have to call you back, Gord, I think our answer just walked in the door.’”
Hamilton Spectator article-Oct.2024
