Here's another article from the Chronicle Herald (Halifax):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published: 2007-05-10
Legendary Lightfoot
Canadian icon opened Metro Centre 30 years ago; Saturday he returns, and Sunday he makes his Membertou debut
By ANDREA NEMETZ Entertainment Reporter
GORDON LIGHTFOOT has penned hundreds of songs, released 19 albums and completed two anthologies.
So it might be hard to predict what the Canadian folk icon will sing when he takes the stage at Halifax Metro Centre on Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., and the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre in Sydney on Sunday, at 7:30 p.m.
But three songs are certain to make it onto the play list, says the genial singer-songwriter from his home in Toronto: If You Could Read My Mind, which in 1970 became his first top-10 hit; Sundown, which topped the charts in 1974; and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a six-and-a-half minute ballad about the deaths of 29 men aboard an ore carrier. It spent 21 weeks on the charts in 1976.
The success of the song, which appeared on the album Summertime Dream, came unexpectedly for the now 68-year-old singer.
He wrote the tune after reading about the tragedy on Lake Superior in a newsmagazine.
"I knew I better get it in chronological order, I’d better do it right, because I have a lot of fans around the Great Lakes, it took a little bit of research," he admits, acknowledging he enjoys history.
The winner of 15 Junos, who has also earned four Grammy nominations, has a personal history with Nova Scotia.
He closed out the weeklong Theatre Arts Festival International at Acadia University in Wolfville in 1974, played a three-night stand at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in 1987 and was the very first act to play at the Halifax Metro Centre when it opened in 1978.
"I was thrilled by the prospect of doing it," he recalls of the Feb. 18, 1978, concert put together by Concert Productions International. "I was very honoured to be asked and I remember it very well."
His return to the Metro Centre, nearly 30 years later, completes a concert date in town he was unable to make when he nearly died after suffering a burst abdominal aneurysm. On Sept. 7, 2002, Lightfoot collapsed shortly before he was scheduled to perform in his hometown of Orillia, Ont. and was airlifted to hospital with an abdominal hemorrhage. He began a recovery process that was to take 19 months including three surgeries.
After his final surgery, a week after they took his last tube out, the one they used to administer saline solution at home, he returned to the gym, he says gravely.
Though he’s known for a strict diet and exercise regimen he began in 1982 after giving up alcohol, Lightfoot denies being a health fanatic.
"I go to the gym to give myself energy to go onstage with, it’s all part of the job. I want to build up an energy reserve. I’m almost 70 years old and I get that energy reserve when I get on the stage. I can feel that, I want the people to feel that. I want to do a good job. Doing a good job for me is the most important thing there is. I have to drive this persona all the time, the Gordon Lightfoot they see doesn’t just happen by itself, it has to be worked on. A lot of preparation goes into it on the music side as well.
"Touring is an easy thing to do. Staying prepared for it is the hard part. You have to stay sharp, we practice a lot, we work on detail, work on improving little things, tinker with things. We have a rehearsal once a week."
His band, which usually includes Rick Haynes on bass, Michael Heffernan on keyboards, Barry Keane on drums and Terry Clements on lead guitar, has been with him for decades.
"The band do the job so well I wouldn’t replace any of them," he says, adding the "people who play in my orchestra are really interested in music. We all like playing in music. It’s a real challenge. We’re working with all acoustic instruments, so we have to be concerned about tuning and intonation all the time, it becomes like a hobby."
Lightfoot says his favourite guitar, a Martin D-18, built in 1948, is already on its way to Halifax, travelling with the rest of his gear on a tractor-trailer, for his five-date swing through Atlantic Canada. The crew goes by bus, while the band goes by plane.
He’ll arrive around 1 p.m. on the day of show, go directly to the Metro Centre to start getting ready and the band will come in for a soundcheck between 4 and 6 p.m., playing mostly bits and piece of tunes.
"By about 5:30 p.m., we’re ready to rock," he says, adding he tunes his guitars last, between about 5:30 and 6 p.m.
Around 6 p.m. he’ll have dinner sent in, though he can’t eat much as it will affect his singing. If he was to pig out on the road, pasta would be his delicacy of choice, and he loves a chocolate bar with coffee on the plane on the way to the next gig.
An inaugural inductee into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, he has just returned from a 10-show, 12-day tour of northeastern U.S., and says the key to enjoying touring is to do it in short batches.
Lightfoot, who released his self-titled debut album in 1966, says he has two different ways of approaching his show, each one with a rotation of songs.
"Most of the stuff you’ll recognize," he says tossing off the names of hits like Early Morning Rain, the Canadian Railroad Trilogy, In My Fashion, Don Quixote, Rainy Day People, Cotton Jenny, and Carefree Highway that are likely to make an appearance in a show that will have two sets with a 20-minute intermission.
"Most of the stuff (audiences) will recognize. A lot haven’t been released as singles, a lot are from albums, what we think are really well-managed performances of album cuts, which go over very well."
Part of the coffee-house scene in Toronto in the ’70s that included performers like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, he also recalls American stars like James Taylor, Carly Simon, Tim Hardin, and Maria Muldaur passing through the Yorkville area.
"It was a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. It was nice to be on the inside looking out, to stand back and watch. I spent most of my time getting tuned up for my next set," he says, noting at the time he was married and stayed home with his family and drove into the village to play. "The club was so hot where I worked, my guitar was always out of tune."
Lightfoot’s favourite song, If You Could Read My Mind is one of the most covered songs in history with versions performed by Dylan, Elvis Presley, Olivia Newton-John, Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Petula Clark and Johnny Cash (it was released on Cash’s posthumous album American V), among others.
But he’s still humble about hearing his work recorded by others.
"I feel honoured every time anybody does one of our songs. I don’t care how they do it, I don’t care what interpretation they put on it. I don’t even care if they were half asleep when they did it. I love everything everyone records that is mine. I’m honoured.
"Anne Murray gave me a great job on Cotton Jenny," he says proudly. "It was a big hit for her and didn’t hurt us any either."
And he’s very impressed with Cape Breton native J.P. Cormier’s ECMA-winning album The Long River: A Personal Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot. Multi-instrumentalist Cormier, who calls Lightfoot his favourite songwriter, released the 18-song disc in 2005.
"I have a very deep respect for Mr. Cormier. He did an admirable job in the material of mine that he’s done. I’ve met him and I admire his work."
Tickets for Lightfoot’s show in Halifax are $61 each including tax and service charge and are available at the Ticket Atlanticbox office at Halifax Metro Centre, by phone at 451-1221 at the 17 participating Atlantic Superstore outlets or online at
www.halifaxmetrocentre.com.
Tickets for the Sydney show are $58 to $73 and are on sale at the Membertou Trade & Convention Centre box office or by calling 539-2300.
(anemetz@herald.ca)