http://www.masslive.com/entertainmen...l#incart_river
By Ray Kelly |
rkelly@repub.com
on July 13, 2014 at 11:30 PM, updated July 13, 2014 at 11:50 PM
NORTHAMPTON – Gordon Lightfoot's current concert trek is named "50 Years on the Carefree Highway Tour."
But the ride has not always been carefree for the 75-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter, who performed at the Calvin Theatre on Sunday night. He has come back from a six-week coma in 2002 and stroke in 2006, which would have sidelined lesser men.
"I am Gordon Lightfoot and the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," he quipped near the start of the night.
If Lightfoot's gentle baritone is not as lush as it was when he defined the folk-pop sound of the early 1970s, it is the mileage and not the years, as Indiana Jones once remarked.
Backed by his crackerjack four-piece band, Lightfoot performed a 45-minute set, followed by a 55- minute second half. All told, he took the nearly 1,000 listeners through 26 songs, capping the night with an encore of "Cold on the Shoulder."
The first half was peppered with some of his best known works: "Rainy Day People," "Beautiful," "Carefree Highway" and "Sundown" – all well-received by the crowd.
However, the second half of the night proved more rewarding.
Lightfoot opened strong with "Sweet Guinevere" from his often overlooked 1978 album "Endless Wire." He quickly followed it with the magnificent sea chantey "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
Songs like "Wild Strawberries," "Let It Ride" and "Make Way for the Lady" followed before the highpoint of the night, "If You Could Read My Mind."
Lightfoot was an amusing storyteller throughout the night, whether making sly references to the crack problems of his hometown mayor, Toronto's Rob Ford, or recalling how he nearly met Elvis Presley.
The tale of the near-meeting with The King served as an intro to "Early Mornin' Rain," which appeared on his 1966 debut album "Lightfoot!" and was covered by Presley on his 1972 album "Elvis Now."
As he has at other shows, Lightfoot remarked, "We love the work." It clearly shows.