Singer Gordon Lightfoot to perform Monday in Manitowoc
By Suzanne Weiss • Herald Times Reporter • October 7, 2010
— Contrary to a Twitter rumor earlier this year, award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is not dead. Imagine his surprise when a radio station broadcast that rumor as fact.
"I was driving from my dentist to my office and I was about halfway there," recalled Lightfoot, 71, in a phone interview from Toronto. "I heard my own obituary being read on the radio … the first thing I did was got on the phone to the radio station, and the next thing I did was call my kids."
Not only is Lightfoot very much alive, but October will be a busy month for him.
He will make a rare appearance as a musical guest on the David Letterman show to be broadcast at 10:30 p.m. Friday on CBS, performing "If You Can Read My Mind" with his band.
Lightfoot also is completing his 2010 tour of 81 shows, including a concert at 8 p.m. Monday at the Capitol Civic Centre, 913 S. Eighth St.
"We're doing more concerts this year than we've done (annually) in the past 25 years," he said.
Audiences can expect to hear many of his classics, said Lightfoot, who has released more than 20 albums and written and recorded such songs as "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," "Sundown," "Early Morning Rain," "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Carefree Highway."
Lightfoot, who has had two real brushes with death in the past decade, says he tries to keep in good physical shape by training five or six times a week by weightlifting, stretching and fast walking: "I discovered it helped my singing, it was good for my lungs. It makes my lungs stronger."
During times of illness, music has been a refuge. Lightfoot's 2004 album, "Harmony," is a testament to that.
Two years before its release, he underwent emergency surgery for an acute abdominal aneurysm and slipped into a coma for six weeks. It was during his recovery that the album began taking shape.
Months before, he had recorded a number of fresh songs that formed the basis for the album and "for the first time ever, I had an opportunity to proceed with an album while lying on my back," he said in the liner notes. The album ends on a song of hope and dreaming with the song "Sometimes I Wish."
In 2006, more health problems arose. Lightfoot suffered a minor stroke and had trouble using his right hand.
"I remember I was getting better and recovering from the first episode in 2002. When I was coming back from that I was doing a lot of practicing. When I had that stroke, I did a lot more practicing. As a result I think my playing has improved from practicing more," Lightfoot said.
"The reason why I do this is because I love the work. I always have. It started when I was 10 years old singing at weddings and singing in the church choir. When I was 20, I worked for the Royal Band of Canada. I got offered a chance to sing in a choral group on a country music television show," he said. "I started performing songs at coffee houses and drinking establishments. Then the folk revival came into the picture. My songwriting improved and the next thing I knew I was at the Newport Folk Festival performing with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Peter, Paul and Mary, Donovan, Pete Seeger and Joan Baez."
Artists who have recorded Lightfoot's songs include Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Richie Havens, Glen Campbell, Anne Murray and Peter, Paul and Mary.
Lightfoot has five Grammy nominations and 17 Juno Awards in his native Canada. In November 1997 he was presented the Governor General's Award his international efforts in spreading Canadian culture. He also was inducted into The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He says he's feeling well, enjoying touring and just finished writing a song for Spike Lee.
Tickets to his Manitowoc show are $55 and $46. For tickets, stop at the box office, call (920) 683-2184 or visit
www.cccshows.org.
note from moderator - Spikes father Bill played bass on “LIGHTFOOT” album -- he was a jazz musician.…
2 years ago -
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...all-that-jazz/