[RM]

Although I couldn't find an answer to your question, the search was fascinating. I unearthed an interview with Bruce Langhorne, who was a regular performer at Gerdes Folk City (and also the inspiration for Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, although he was mainly a renowned session guitarist). His take on GL : (the interviewer's questions are in bold)

Gordon Lightfoot -- I find his case pretty interesting, because he really kept more feet in folk than rock, but there was still some folk-rock influence to his records. He did expand his sound a little, and you were on some of his early songs.

I didn't work or hang that much with Gordon. I did record with him. I think he did keep his feet more in folk, and I think he went on to do, like, country, which had its own evolutionary path, which also adopted electric music, which also expanded on folk roots. Which incorporated, like, traditional folk ballads -- a synthesis between Irish-English folk ballads with guitar and banjo and bluegrass, which, bluegrass got to be quite sophisticated. Just incredible virtuoso performances, and still some of the best virtuoso players nowadays are in Nashville.

You don't have to answer this if your contact with Gordon was pretty brief, but did you get any sense of what he thought of going from his folk-country roots to something more electric or contemporary?

No, I don't really know. I didn't know Gordon that well.