Here's the review:
Gordon Lightfoot sounds as strong as ever
By Jim Harrington, CONTRIBUTOR
FANS WEREN'T SURE what to expect when Gordon Lightfoot took the stage Tuesday at Montalvo Arts Center.
It was the singer-songwriter's first concert in the Bay Area since undergoing emergency surgery for an abdominal hemorrhage that nearly ended his life back in 2002. The procedure was so serious, given that doctors had to temporarily displace some of his vital organs to perform the operation, that there were serious doubts whether Lightfoot would perform again.
Given the situation, Lightfoot's two-set concert at the Saratoga venue was nothing short of miraculous. The 66-year-old Canadian showed nary a sign of the long recovery that forced him to stay off the road for nearly three years.
Sure, his voice, now scratchy and weathered, is a far cry from its warm, lush peak exhibited on such early-'70s works as "Sit Down Young Stranger." But it's been that way for years.
Talking backstage with Barry Harvey, Lightfoot's manager of 17 years, he estimated that the singer is 98 percent back to his pre-surgery form. Yet, it was hard to figure out what 2 percent is still missing as Lightfoot definitely sounded as strong live as he did back in the mid-'90s, following the release of his excellent "Waiting for You."
Equally important, Lightfoot's songs have weathered the decades quite nicely. Credit a good deal of that to his longtime band — bassist Rick Haynes, guitarist Terry Clements, drummer Barry Keane and keyboardist Michael Heffernan — which delivered each song crisply and cleanly.
Fans came from all around the Bay Area to see the folk hero responsible for such hits as "Sundown" and "If You Could Read My Mind." Lightfoot, touring in support of last year's "Harmony," repaid their kindness by digging deep into "Gord's Gold" during both sets.
After drawing ample applause for a double-shot of the somber "Rainy Day People" and joyous "Cotton Jenny," the vocalist — who also happens to be a solid guitarist — really wowed the crowd by closing his first set with a threesome of "Sundown," "Carefree Highway" and "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
That trio of tunes clearly displayed Lightfoot's diverse abilities as a songwriter.
"Sundown" remains one of the most ominous-sounding love songs of all time, complete with some powerful imagery that really resonates in the mind. He draws the listener into "a room where ya do what ya don't confess" to meet a woman "lookin' fast in her faded jeans," only to warn what would happen if he finds "you been creepin' 'round my back stairs."
"Carefree Highway" was a drastic change of pace — as warm and fuzzy as "Sundown" was cold and steely. "Edmund Fitzgerald" managed to be neither as Lightfoot played it straight and took the time-honored role as folk-singer-historian to tell this tragic tale.
Following a 20-minute set break, Lightfoot was back to perform the immortal "If You Could Read My Mind." That's always a tough song to perform live, given that the strings-rich recorded version is an exquisite piece of studio wizardry that ranks with the best of the Beatles or Brian Wilson, but the singer did a fine job in retelling this harrowing story of quiet desperation.
He followed with a couple of lesser-known gems — "Restless" and Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells" — before tackling the classic "Early Morning Rain," an achingly beautiful tune that has been performed by the likes of Dylan, Elvis Presley and the Grateful Dead.
The second set drew to a close with "Old Dan's Records," one of Lightfoot's most convincingly lighthearted numbers, and it came as no surprise that the epic "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" served as the encore. The seven-minute "Trilogy" remains an amazing piece of music, so dense with imagery and history and, yet, it still spurs the audience to clap along to its occasional chugging train-like beat.
There was much to applaud about at this show. First and foremost is the not-so simple fact that Lightfoot was back on the stage.
You can write music critic Jim Harrington at
jimthecritic@yahoo.com.