banner.gif (3613 Byte)

Corner.gif 1x1.gif Corner.gif
1x1.gif You are at: Home - Discussion Forum 1x1.gif
Corner.gif 1x1.gif Corner.gif
      
round_corner_upleft.gif (837 Byte) 1x1.gif (807 Byte) round_corner_upright.gif (837 Byte)

Go Back   Gordon Lightfoot Forums > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 01-19-2024, 11:18 AM   #1
charlene
Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 15,877
Default Kenyon Wallace-Toronto Star article-THE LIGHTFOOT BAND

The long-time musicians play a pair of dates at the El Mocambo this month: "We have a lot of music left in us."
By Kenyon Wallace. Investigative Reporter
Friday, January 19, 2024
The late, legendary Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot was known not only for his decades of hit-making, but also for his dedication to his audience: he often spent hours after concerts doing meet-and-greets with fans.
Lightfoot's loyalty also extended to the members of his long-time band, who helped create so many of the songs that became part of the fabric of popular music.
Most of the musicians in the Lightfoot Band toured the globe with him for more than four decades and played on his biggest hits.
So when Lightfoot died on May 1 of last year at the age of 84, it was a particularly tough blow for bassist Rick Haynes, drummer Barry Keane, keyboardist Mike Heffernan and lead guitarist Carter Lancaster, who not only lost their boss, but also their friend of many years.
“It was a big shock to us,” said Haynes, who played and toured with Lightfoot for more than 50 years. “We had a few health scares with Gord which he recovered from and we all felt he had a really strong constitution. Frankly, we expected him to live quite a few years longer.”
Lancaster says that, after Lightfoot’s death, the bandmates began calling each other at home more often to talk, a process that brought them closer. Over time, the idea of going back out on the road started to crop up in discussions. Could it work? And what would it look like if it did?
Encouraged by both music industry folks and fans, the group started to consider the idea seriously. After all, these were the guys who not only toured with Lightfoot, but also played on the albums and even worked out the parts of some of his most famous songs, such as “Carefree Highway” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The material they had to work with was strong. So was Lightfoot's legacy: he continued to have a large and loyal following, particularly in the United States, right up until his death.
“We work together so well, it would be a shame to not try to retain some of that,” said Heffernan, recalling that time.
Last fall, the guys finally got together for a sit-down meeting and decided to give it a shot.
“It was kind of strange how it happened because we didn’t set out intending to do this,” added Haynes. “It kind of evolved.”
“We all have a lot of music left in us,” said Lancaster. “We thought we owed it to Gord — and the songs — to carry on.”
And so, the “The Lightfoot Band presents the Songs of Gordon Lightfoot” was born.
Drummer Keane stresses a Lightfoot tribute this is not; this is the original band.
“We felt like Gord’s great songs should be performed the way Gord wanted them performed,” he said.
The next challenge: finding a singer.
____
In a south Etobicoke rehearsal studio one unseasonably warm December afternoon, Haynes, Lancaster, Keane and Heffernan introduced the Lightfoot Band’s newest member: singer and guitarist Andy Mauck.
Originally from Ohio, Mauck now makes his home in Punta Gorda, Florida, and is a long-time Lightfoot fan who has known the band since the late 1970s.
On this day the band was running through selections from the set list they will present at their first show at Toronto’s El Mocambo on Saturday Jan. 27 and Sunday Jan. 28. (The Saturday show is sold out, but there are still tickets available for the Sunday show.) The band also has dates booked for Feb. 28 at Guelph’s River Run Centre and March 28 at the Flato Markham Theatre.
They ran through a new arrangement of “The Circle Is Small,” which Lightfoot stopped performing in the late 1970s, a note-perfect “Song for a Winter’s Night” and an ethereal version of “14 Karat Gold.”
Mauck still remembers the first time he managed to get backstage and introduce himself to Lightfoot and the band: July 20, 1976 at the Blossom Music Centre, a 20,000-seat venue in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
A week before the show, Mauck’s Martin D-18 six-string guitar had been stolen in the Bahamas, where he was working as a scuba instructor. When he got backstage, he saw that Lightfoot’s then-lead guitarist, Terry Clements, not only had the same model of guitar, but the serial number was just two digits different from his own. (Clements died in 2011.)
“I told Terry the story of my stolen guitar and he goes, ‘Oh man, play mine.’ We had a great conversation,” Mauck recalled.
The next summer, the band returned to the venue and Mauck managed to meet the guys again during a pre-show tuning session behind the stage. To Mauck’s astonishment, Lightfoot and Clements both remembered him from the previous year.
“Terry and I exchanged phone numbers and he started calling me when they were going to be somewhere I might show up,” he recalled. “Forty-seven years later, I’m playing with these guys.”
While Mauck is naturally thrilled to be playing with the musicians he idolized for so many years, he stresses he would have preferred if it wasn’t happening at all “for the obvious reason.”
“Nobody can replace Gordon Lightfoot,” Mauck said. “I’m just here to fill a role so that the songs can be played onstage the way the fans like them.”
How does one get into the position where joining the Lightfoot band would even be a possibility?
About eight years ago, Mauck had an unofficial audition of sorts. After every series of Lightfoot concerts at Massey Hall, a group of fans from all over the world who had made the trip to Toronto for the shows would gather across the street at the Pantages Hotel bar. Sometimes the band would show up too.
One night, Haynes heard Mauck sing the 1971 Lightfoot classic “10 Degrees and Getting Colder” at the bar. He was impressed by what he heard. Haynes encouraged Mauck to keep performing publicly, advice that Mauck took to heart. When he returned home, Mauck started playing in bars regularly.
He knows about 150 Lightfoot songs by heart and says people began to refer to him as “the Lightfoot guy” in the bars where he played.
When the band was thinking about putting something together, Haynes thought of Mauck and gave him a call. Would he like to come up to Toronto to play some songs and see how it went?
One rehearsal led to a second a few weeks later. During a break during the second session, Mauck left the studio for a few minutes while the band huddled.
“I went to the lobby to chill out,” Mauck recalled. “About 10 minutes later, Keane comes out and says, ‘Mr. Mauck, would you like to come in for your verdict?’ I walked in and Heffernan says, ‘Welcome to the band.’ It was a big moment in my life.”
As for what audiences can expect with this new iteration of the band, Heffernan says fans will not only hear the hits, but some songs that Lightfoot hadn’t played live in some time, such as "Summer Side of Life" and "Canadian Railroad Trilogy." They’ll also hear some of the stories behind the songs and what life with Lightfoot was like on the road.
The keyboardist says he’s working on making the string arrangements more elaborate to match many of the original recordings and is bringing back grand piano, which he says Lightfoot didn’t favour in concert.
“It was sometimes tough to blend grand piano with acoustic guitars onstage, but we used it on albums, so I’m going to put that element back in,” he said.
Haynes says audiences can also expect to hear more of the acoustic guitar interplay that defined the Lightfoot “sound” in the early days.
“I personally feel like a lot of the songs that Gord has written are more than good songs; they’re like gold standards in music,” he said. “The most important thing about all this is we really want to treat these songs with the dignity and strength that is appropriate for them. It’s such strong material and we want to present it in a way that Gord would be proud of."
(Steve Russell photos to come)
charlene is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-19-2024, 12:28 PM   #2
charlene
Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 15,877
Default Re: Kenyon Wallace-Toronto Star article-THE LIGHTFOOT BAND

20240119_112033 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

20240119_112015 by char Westbrook, on Flickr
charlene is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-19-2024, 12:29 PM   #3
charlene
Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 15,877
Default Re: Kenyon Wallace-Toronto Star article-THE LIGHTFOOT BAND

20240119_112052 by char Westbrook, on Flickr

20240119_112129 by char Westbrook, on Flickr
charlene is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-19-2024, 05:56 PM   #4
charlene
Moderator
 
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 15,877
Default Re: Kenyon Wallace-Toronto Star article-THE LIGHTFOOT BAND

THE LIGHTFOOT BAND AT THE EL MOCAMBO in TORONTO - LIVE ON CP 24 TORONTO - January 19 2024.
VIDEO: LIGHTFOOT BAND at 14:15 to 14:21 on video.
https://www.cp24.com/video?clipId=68595#2850209
charlene is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:31 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
downleft 1x1.gif (807 Byte) downright