The Lightfoot Band Kicks Off The Festival
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October 30, 2024 Sunonline/Orillia City of Orillia, Creative Nomad Studios, Gordon Lightfoot, Lightfoot Band, Lightfoot Days, Mariposa Folk, Opera House, St. Paul's Center
By John Swartz
Last November SUNonline/Orillia broke the news Gordon Lightfoot’s band members had been working through the fall with a new singer, Andy Mauck and were planning a debut concert at Toronto’s El Macombo. With their Lightfoot Days Festival appearance at the Orillia Opera House October 31, it’s a good time to revisit the conversation of a year ago and see how things have panned out.
At the time bassist Rick Haynes was hoping they could continue touring and performing, but nothing was guaranteed. Based on what transpired in 2024, Rick believes they made the right choice to carry on.
Rick Haynes at the 2023 Mariposa Folk Festival
“Absolutely, we believe the songs are some of the best songs that have ever been written and they deserve to be played live for people,” Rick said.
They have been barnstorming around Ontario, played some dates in the Maritimes, and have shows lined up in December in the American Midwest.
“It’s been quite gratifying and it’s been, I think, quite successful so far. It’s a work in progress.”
They went for the obvious, having always been the Lightfoot band, they figured springing for a capital B would make a sufficient band name people would recognize. You’d think, but Rick discovered the public doesn’t always make connections they should.
“It’s a work in progress. We have a long way to go. We have the task of educating people that we are the original Lightfoot band and this is where to come to hear the real deal.”
“The most surprising thing is probably we have an uphill battle to educate the public that we are – because there’s so many tributes, there’s four Abba bands, there’s three Hotel Californias (etc., etc.) – we are trying to separate ourselves and get people to understand we are not a tribute band. We are the original band that recorded the songs and played on tour with Gordon for, amongst us all, about 150 years collectively. This is different. It’s probably the most surprising thing is getting people to understand that and getting promoters and venue operators and managers to understand that. It’s not easy. There’s a lot of competition out there”
The Lightfoot Band is playing the Orillia Opera House, Thursday, October 31. There is still time to get tickets online, with only 16 seats on the main floor and a little more than 100 in the balcony left.
Of course, the big question is how is that going to work without Gordon Lightfoot singing the songs? It turns out very well. The new guy is Andy Mauck. He’s a Floridian, originally from Ohio, who has been singing Gord’s tunes since he was in high school (he knows more than 150 of them), struck up a friendship with Gord’s guitarist Terry Clements more than 45 years ago, and since become friends with the rest of the band. His voice sounds remarkably like Gord’s and when the band started talking about the future, they naturally thought of bringing Andy in.
Andy Mauck
Last November Andy said, “A smarter guy would have joined a band in his own town.” He laughed when reminded he said that.
“Yeah, actually after about 15 trips back up to Canada and lots of frequent flyer miles, I still think that’s true, but I didn’t have any choice”
He already had a second – in retirement – career playing clubs in and around his home in Punta Gorda, which he left behind to become an expert flier. He keeps his Martin D18 and Gibson B45 12-string guitars (“Those are the same models that Gord played. To me it would be sacrilegious to play anything else,”) in Toronto and only travels with carry-on bags, so he can get off the plane and be at the curb in 5 minutes after landing.
Andy was riding a wave of adrenalin mixed with angst of their first gig in January. There are a few nervous states one goes through when approaching the season opener, so to speak, relief and pride when it’s over, nervousness about the execution and reception of each passing song and the what am I doing here? feeling waiting in the wings before being called to the stage.
“I didn’t give it a thought, it’s no big deal at all,” he laughed.
“I don’t know if I could ever describe a lot of it. I will say I had been practising with these guys so much, learning what I had to learn. They improved me as a musician so much. The guys have been patient. My head was full of technical thoughts, which probably helped to not get overwhelmed at the fact I’m stepping into the role of the guy who in my opinion and millions of others is probably the best singer of his generation, maybe of all time. I didn’t have to worry about writing the songs, so there was no pressure there, but to perform them so perfectly like he did, and his with his voice, if had thought too much about that I might have just become a puddle on the floor,” Andy said.
“Walking onto the stage (at the Elmo), what crossed my mind was my brain went back to 1972, the first time I ever saw Gord in a concert in Columbus, Ohio, he walked on the stage and Rick Haynes was walking behind him. Here I am walking on the stage to Gord’s role and here’s Rick behind me, and here’s Barry and Mike, I was almost dizzy for a second. Then when Barry counted the song off my brain went to OK, keep it on time, keep it right. It took a few seconds, maybe a verse or so to realize – OK, I didn’t freeze and it went OK.”
“What really helped, I could see faces right in front of me, including Kim (Lightfoot) and Meredith (Moon) and they were smiling and by the end of the song there were some cheers, so I kind of felt OK, it must have been OK.”
“I remember thinking; I think I did that pretty well. The very first time though, there were so many emotions going around. It was a warm room. I had 42 friends and family from all over the country. The band was calling it Mauck-a-palooza and Andyfest. That was helpful.”
The Elmo gig showed the band there was an appetite for people to want to see the band play. The first show sold out quickly and a second one the next day was added. What remained was how people would respond to Andy taking Gord’s place. It turns out they liked it.
“Absolutely,” Rick said. “It’s been like that from the get-go. We’ve been very well received. We’ve had a lot of standing ovations in the middle of shows and at the end of shows. Encores, real heartfelt encores. It wasn’t just a matter of take two steps away from the stage and come back. People want us to come back. We get people telling us they are going to come see us again because they thought we were so good. We have people telling us they weren’t sure how they were going to feel about seeing the Lightfoot Band without Gord. I have to say 99% of the time it’s very positive and heartwarming.”
“They are thrilled with the way Andy is handling Gordon Lightfoot material. I haven’t heard one negative comment. I’m not kidding, I’m not exaggerating. People are really surprised and very pleasantly surprised.”
“We’re not trying to make him sound like Gord. He is Andy. He has that kind of a voice, so it works out great. We are not trying to put up a clone of Gord or imitate Gord. Gord’s material is really hard to nail. It really is.”
When Gord was alive, he was the focus, on stage and off. Now he’s gone, audiences, the fans, give more attention to the band members who we rarely heard from. Not that the band members didn’t each have their clutches of admirers, but they now are the ones signing autographs and posing for pictures for everybody. It’s new territory for them.