http://www.orilliapacket.com/2014/11...t--laugh-a-lot
Monday night, 50+ Poems for Gordon Lightfoot was launched at Hugh’s Room in Toronto. Fred Addis put together a great program of readings mixed with music.
What will go unnoticed by many, until now, is Addis created a gradually intensifying night. Each reading and musical number got better, capping with Ron Sexsmith doing a fantastic rendition of Lightfoot’s Beautiful.
Jason Fowler also knocked off a version of I’ll Tag Along that was almost indistinguishable from Lightfoot’s original.
As chance would have it, I ended up sitting next to Lightfoot for the evening and he expressed approval of many of the poems and, in particular, the musical bits.
Fowler had mentioned he’d never seen Lightfoot in concert when I’ll Tag Along wasn’t performed, so I said to Lightfoot, “He’s right; I can’t think of any concert I’ve seen when you haven’t done that song.
“Well, you know, it fits so nicely with a group of about five other songs that I enjoy playing,” he said.
Cyrus Sundar Singh was there to accompany George Elliott Clarke’s reading of his poems and because he’s also a Gemini Award-winning filmmaker, he shot a fair amount of video that will become a short about the event.
The CBC is planning to post some of the poems on its website as well.