Gordon Lightfoot woos spirited audience at Viking Hall
http://www2.tricities.com/entertainm...hal-ar-571647/
Credit: By CHRISTOPHER BRADSHAW/Special to the Herald Courier
Photo By CHRISTOPHER BRADSHAW/Special to the Herald Courier - Gordon Lightfoot performs in Bristol Sunday.
By Joe Tennis
Published: October 19, 2010
BRISTOL, Tenn. – He took a shipwreck to the top part of the charts in 1976. And, if the enthusiasm of his faithful flock of fans were any indication Sunday night, Gordon Lightfoot could do as much again.
Quite quietly.
Sunday’s sparse but spirited audience of 1,800 patrons shouted, “We love you, Gordon,” at Viking Hall Civic Center.
In turn, the Canadian crooner bowed, graciously, like a folk hero from a long-gone era.
But not just a relic.
Lightfoot – that 71-year-old hitmaker from the ‘70s – warmly rewarded his well-dressed audience with respectful performances of “Cotton Jenny” and an abbreviated “Carefree Highway.”
He sounded subtle in his intimate portrayals of “Christian Island,” “Beautiful” and “Sweet Guinevere.”
His biggest hit, “Sundown,” lacked the bombast of the rock’n’roll version that propelled it – and its namesake record album – to the top of the charts in 1974. Yet just hearing the familiar strain of “Sundown” wowed the Sunday night crowd, as did a slightly superior performance of the next tune, “The Watchman’s Gone,” an album track from the “Sundown” album.
On a couple of long songs, Lightfoot simply soared. He launched his second set with “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” that shipwreck classic from ‘76. Then he closed that same set by fielding a request for “Canadian Railroad Trilogy.”
His vocal chops weren’t as smooth as they were 40 years ago. But his penchant for perfection, and the touching tone of “If You Could Read My Mind,” more than earned his standing ovation.
Like a recital, the magical music of Lightfoot – and his four-man band – defined the man’s greatness.
A folk singer that made his first albums in the mid-1960s, Lightfoot emerged as a major entertainer during the singer-songwriter era of the early 1970s.
“If You Could Read My Mind” was his breakthrough hit.
Still, he never possessed the party-hearty anthems of Jimmy Buffett nor the sometimes-silly story-songs of Jim Croce. And he didn’t thank God he was a country boy in knee-slapping fashion, like John Denver, nor did he have Carly Simon at his side, like James Taylor.
“I think he falls into another category,” said 67-year-old Phil Powell, a retired disc jockey from Johnson City, Tenn.
Powell and his wife, Ina, attended Sunday’s show – their fifth time seeing Lightfoot in 40 years. The Powells acknowledged that some of the smooth, romantic tone had faded from Lightfoot’s larynx. But that didn’t matter. This was the man who wrote all the songs they admired and heard again Sunday, live: “Beautiful,” “Don Quixote,” “Ribbon of Darkness.”
“If he gets close, we’ll go see him,” Phil Powell said. “He can be 90 years old. But if he can get out to that microphone, we’ll be there.”
jtennis@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0704
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