7:30 p.m. Monday, Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave., $43-$68;520-7469, ticketswest.com.
Gordon Lightfoot knows what his fans want: the cream of the crop.
Gordon Lightfoot will perform at the Pikes Peak Center on Monday.
The longtime performer is famous for his extensive playbook of beloved folk and pop songs from the 1960s and '70s, including "Sundown," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "Carefree Highway." He performs at the Pikes Peak Center on Monday.
"We do all the standards," says Lightfoot, 75, from his home in Toronto. "People come to see us. I don't want to go too long. I don't want them to get antsy."
Does he have a favorite?
"'If You Could Read My Mind'," he says. "That's my best one, I think. It's got really great momentum, from start to finish. Just like some of those Beatles songs."
The singer and guitarist has had his share of troubles over the last few decades. He gave up drinking in the early '80s, spent six weeks in a coma in 2002 after suffering an abdominal aortic aneurysm and had a small stroke while performing in 2006. Nowadays, though, he does about 70 to 80 shows a year.
"I'm good. I feel good. I feel strong," he says. "I keep a regular exercise regimen. I've learned the secret of working out - don't lift anything heavy."
His songs have been covered by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand, to name a few, but he doesn't write much anymore.
"I can still write songs," he says, "but the trouble is I don't have enough time to write any. I have an extended family, and that requires a lot of time.
He's got plenty of material to work from - more than 20 albums. His last original album was 2004's "Harmony."
On the Allmusic.com website, critic James Christopher Monger wrote: "By no means as inspired as the classics 'Summertime Dream' and 'If You Could Read My Mind,' 'Harmony' listens like a good book, and fits snugly into the impressive Lightfoot canon."
Lightfoot has said his songs can stand the test of time. There's a trick to it, though.
"A song has to have momentum as it goes from beginning to end," he says. "It has to have a forward sort of feel to it. I've written sad, sad songs, too. I'm guilty of that. I try to keep things optimistic in all of my songs now."
JEN MULSON, THE GAZETTE, 636-0270,
JEN.MULSON@GAZETTE.COM
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