Gordon Lightfoot Forums - April 2008-Ottawa SUN review

http://www.ottawasun.com/Showbiz/Col...34781-sun.html

Allan WigneySun, April 20, 2008

Lightfoot lives on

Despite frail vocals Canadian legend delivers spellbinding show
By ALLAN WIGNEY

There was a time in this fair land when Gordon Lightfoot did not sing. Long before Sundown and In the Early Morning Rain. When the Canadian popular-music scene was too silent to be real.

Yet, as recently as four years ago, it seemed likely the voice of the keeper of the Great Canadian Songbird may never again be heard. Years of hard living and corresponding health problems had caught up to Lightfoot, and the man who likely never expected to see his 70th birthday was forced to begin again, frailer and thinner of voice. But with a renewed conviction evident at each subsequent live performance.

This year, Lightfoot will turn 70. And he'll celebrate by maintaining a touring schedule that would challenge a man of much younger years.

Not that anyone needs to remind the man. "Show number 26 this year," he proudly stated a few songs into the first of two lengthy sets at the National Arts Centre's Southam Hall last night. There will be another packed house tonight.

And if the body is frail, the voice sometimes faltering, no one in attendance either night will be heard to complain. We are grateful simply to have a bona fide legend in our midst.

Moreover, the singer-songwriter's first date on Canadian soil in 11 months comes less than 18 months after a similar two-night stand at the same venue. Hence, few in last night's audience seemed unprepared for the tenor's less-than-commanding vocals -- choosing instead to be grateful for what they were about to receive.

There were, therefore, few surprises -- especially for those who caught one of the 2006 shows -- to be gleaned from a performance that concentrated on Lightfoot's remarkable back-catalogue.

Songs like Ribbon of Darkness, The Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Sundown and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. With each, Lightfoot's voice gained strength as he sang, starting off a whisper and growing to, well, the soft-spoken voice of an old friend.

It was enough to justify the standing ovation that greeted Lightfoot's arrival in front of a grey-power crowd peppered by a smaller representation of first-timers than befits a Canadian legend. (Though it's conceivable an ode to dancing all night to 78s may be a tad over the youngsters' heads.)

And if the audience showed love for the artist, the feeling appeared mutual. Long gone is the surly Lightfoot of his commercial glory days. Last night, amid the songs, there were one-liners, expressions of love for his homeland and good-natured comments on the singer's limitations as a guitarist. The evening closed with a pair of sincere bows and much shaking of hands.

As for his vocal limitations, Lightfoot coped well despite occasionally straining to reach notes. Each song was treated with the respect it deserves, however. Not for him, the abbreviated medley.

The highlights were, naturally, many. The Canadian Railroad Trilogy rang with as much wonder and awe as it did over 40 years ago when the songwriter penned it as a celebration of Canada's centennial year. And particularly striking was Beautiful, a song that gained even greater poignancy from Lightfoot's pained effort to capture each exquisite note.

At such times, the large hall became the most intimate of spaces, each patron rapt in awed silence.

Too silent, as a great man once said, to be real.