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Lightfoot Band opens Lightfoot Days festival with 'fantastic' show
'Gord was an amazing man, so gifted, and he brought people together. What a talent,' said concert-goer and producer of new film about Orillia-born legend.
The incredible musicians of The Lightfoot Band toured and played with Lightfoot on many albums and in many places and are passionate about keeping his music alive.
Bassist Rick Haynes played with Lightfoot for 55 years and was a close friend. He is “the glue” of the band, according to lead vocalist Andy Mauck, who was brought into the band in 2024, after Lightfoot’s passing on May 1, 2023.
Haynes knew Mauck as a long-time fan who became a friend of Lightfoot’s. He told the band he felt Mauck could keep the music going, staying true to Lightfoot’s voice and the culture of the band and the fans that Lighfoot valued so much.
Mauck’s voice certainly does echo the golden baritone of Lightfoot’s heyday, occasionally with the rougher timbre of a somewhat older Lightfoot. The songs are the truest to original Lightfoot arrangements and sounds as you can get, given that this is truly Gord’s band.
The band mixed up the evening of Lightfoot hit after hit with funny stories about Lightfoot, including when New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner asked Lightfoot to sing the national anthem at a spring training game between the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays, in Tampa, Florida.
Drummer Barry Keane recounted how Steinbrenner gave Lightfoot a Yankees jacket to wear during the anthem. Lightfoot left it on the bench in the dugout. “That’s my team right over there,” he said to Steinbrenner, pointing to the Jays’ dugout.
“Gord supported home and Canada, always,” said Keane.
Haynes pointed out that Lightfoot was a multi-dimensional songwriter; he wrote about everything.
“He once told me, I have seen North America through a car windshield,” said Haynes. “Gord paid attention to everything, and a lot of songs came from that, came out of left field.”
Right away, the band launched into Baby Step Back, to illustrate the point.
Other fantastic Lightfoot hits played during the over two-hour show included Early Morning Rain, Shadows, Sundown, Sit Down Young Stranger, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, Beautiful, Cotton Jenny, Daylight Katy, Rainy Day People, and many more, including The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
This weekend’s Lightfoot Days Festival will pay homage to the song and the story of the ship, as it is the 50th anniversary of the wreck, which sank in Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975.
Friday’s interactive sessions of the festival include two on the Big “Fitz”, at 1 and 2:30 p.m. at Creative Nomad Studios, featuring the band members and the author of the book, The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, John U. Bacon.
Saturday, the film Lightheaded: A Gordon Lightfoot State of Mind, is being shown at Creative Nomad Studios from 1 to 4 p.m., as part of the festival.
“That concert was fantastic,” said John Corcoran, producer of the film, after the show at the Opera House. “That band was incredible. Gord was an amazing man, so gifted, and he brought people together. What a talent.”
Those sentiments were echoed by the hundreds of people who enjoyed an amazing musical experience at the Orillia Opera House Thursday night.
The Lightfoot Days Festival continues throughout the weekend. For more information, including the full schedule and information on the folk crawl throughout downtown, visit the website here.
The Lightfoot Band @ Lightfoot Days Festival-Orillia-Oct.30 2025
