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Lightfoot's show simple but effective
PHOTO PROVIDED
Gordon Lightfoot
By Georgette Braun
GateHouse News Service
Posted Mar 13, 2009 @ 01:45 PM
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ROCKFORD, Ill. — Folk-rock balladeer Gordon Lightfoot is known best for hits in the early and mid-’70s that were high on the list of Billboard’s Pop Singles chart: “If You Could Read My Mind,” No. 5 in 1971; “Sundown,” No. 1 in 1974; and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” No. 2 in 1976.
His favorite: “If You Could Read My Mind.” “It’s wonderful to play on stage, has great vibes, and I always save it until near the end (of a concert),” Lightfoot said in a telephone interview with the Rockford Register Star on Feb. 26 from his Toronto home.
Lightfoot will sing and play guitar March 21 at the Coronado Performing Arts Center.
Here’s what concertgoers can expect:
No opening act. It’ll be just Lightfoot and four other musicians backing him up on stage. The show will last two hours, including a 20-minute intermission. Lightfoot doesn’t bring merchandise to sell to his shows.
“And I don’t do much talking,” he said. “It’s mostly the music, all strung together. ... Lots of good rhythm tunes.”
Critics describe Lightfoot’s voice as rich and warm, his guitar technique as nimble and his songwriting as poetic journeys. He’s had five Grammy Award nominations. And he recently was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Who are some of his favorite singer/songwriters? Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Goodman, Bryan Adams, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Harry Chapin, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.
Cash covered Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind,” which was released after Cash died. “It was good,” Lightfoot said. “He brought a new perspective to the song.”
Georgette Braun can be reached at
gbraun@rrstar.com.
If you go
What: Singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot in concert
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 21
Where: Coronado Performing Arts Center, 314 N. Main St., Rockford
Cost: $52.50 and $42.50
Information: coronadopac.org, (815) 968-0595 and the Coronado box office
Rockford Ill. article
