I saw Gordon at SUNY/Prurchase on March 25th, and I just have to say for the record, he was awesome! From the very beginning his voice was clear and strong, and I was impressed at how he's managed to preserve his voice after all these years. I did notice his voice was thinner, not as full and rich as before, but I expected that, and chalked that up to his age. He still had the essential Gordon quality in his voice though, still had that distinctive style all his own, and the thing that really did it for me was hearing the songs I've loved for so long coming straight from the source. I felt like I was truly witnessing a legend. So many of his songs are real masterpieces, so it was quite a joy to have The Master himself perform them for me. And he really didn't seem bored to me, like you would imagine someone would be if they've sung the same song a million times. Maybe I was just too much in awe to know better, but I got the sense that the songs still meant something to him, and it seemed to me he was putting himself into the music.
And then I noticed that as the concert wore on, and his voice warmed up, he sounded fuller and richer, much like the Gordon on my old recordings. Not exactly like it, but close. The band didn't always have a lot to do, but that's the nature of Gordon's music, and I like it that way. I can't blame them for being less than passionate about playing "If you could read my mind" for the umpteenth time. I credit them with sticking with Gordon for so long, because they do contribute the instrumentation that is part of Gordon's unique sound, and it would probably be easy enough for them to find other things to do.
One of the highlights of the concert for me was when Gordon did "Canadian Railroad Trilogy." What an incredible song!! A legendary song from a legendary performer. That right there alone was worth the entire price of the ticket. So I left the concert very satisfied, and glowing from the experience.
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