An Evening With Gordon Lightfoot in Vancouver

It's been 6 years since Gordon Lightfoot has been in Vancouver and as the newspaper said advertising his tickets: "It's been far too long. But the drought is over. Canadian folk legend and award-winning singer-songwriter Gordon
Lightfoot returns to Vancouver". Despite the stormy weather the Orpheum looked packed from where we sat. At precisely 8 pm Gordon walked across the stage wearing a long sleeved gray shirt, bluejeans and tan cowboy boots, starting the concert off with 14 Karat Gold. I wasn't able to write the songs down as he sung them but this is what I can remember (not in order, sorry): Early Morning Rain, Never Too Close, Same Old Obsession, Boathouse, Watchman, Don Quixote, Uncle Toad, Painter Passing Through, Cotton Jenny, a bit of Carefree Highway, a bit of Drifters, Make Way for the Lady, Red Velvet (Ian Tyson's), Blackberry Wine, Big Blue (I thought he might do that one here), If You Could Read My Mind, Baby Step Back, Canadian Railway Trilogy, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I'll Prove My Love, Sea of Tranquility, Sundown, Rainy Day People, Waiting For You, In My Fashion and Beautiful. During the intermission he changed into a black t-shirt and black jeans and white sneakers and he seemed more relaxed.
If I could have changed anything about the concert, I wish people in the audience wouldn't have called out songs while he was talking. He is rather soft-spoken and I had a hard time hearing him when he did speak. But other than that the concert was great!! I hope we won't have to wait so long before he comes back again. After tonight in Victoria - look out Canada he's heading east!!

It's been 6 years since Gordon Lightfoot has been in Vancouver and as the newspaper said advertising his tickets: "It's been far too long. But the drought is over. Canadian folk legend and award-winning singer-songwriter Gordon
Lightfoot returns to Vancouver". Despite the stormy weather the Orpheum looked packed from where we sat. At precisely 8 pm Gordon walked across the stage wearing a long sleeved gray shirt, bluejeans and tan cowboy boots, starting the concert off with 14 Karat Gold. I wasn't able to write the songs down as he sung them but this is what I can remember (not in order, sorry): Early Morning Rain, Never Too Close, Same Old Obsession, Boathouse, Watchman, Don Quixote, Uncle Toad, Painter Passing Through, Cotton Jenny, a bit of Carefree Highway, a bit of Drifters, Make Way for the Lady, Red Velvet (Ian Tyson's), Blackberry Wine, Big Blue (I thought he might do that one here), If You Could Read My Mind, Baby Step Back, Canadian Railway Trilogy, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, I'll Prove My Love, Sea of Tranquility, Sundown, Rainy Day People, Waiting For You, In My Fashion and Beautiful. During the intermission he changed into a black t-shirt and black jeans and white sneakers and he seemed more relaxed.
If I could have changed anything about the concert, I wish people in the audience wouldn't have called out songs while he was talking. He is rather soft-spoken and I had a hard time hearing him when he did speak. But other than that the concert was great!! I hope we won't have to wait so long before he comes back again. After tonight in Victoria - look out Canada he's heading east!!

[Wes Steele]

Annette, it sounds like Vancouver was smokin' last night! I can't beleive he hasn't been out there for six years. You people have really been in a GL drought!
That "Watchman's Gone" is a haunting song. I haven't heard that one live in over 15 years. I also like that "Red Velvet" even though he didn't write it. He does it well.
Years ago here in Cleveland everyone would be yelling for a particular song at the concert and it was annoying. This last concert here it was stone silent though. I was going to call for "Nova Scotia Farewell" but I backed off.
I enjoyed the review, it has been an honor as well as a pleasure,
Wes

[Florian]

Dear Anette,

Thank you for the nice concert review.

Florian

If you are interested, here is the review from the Vancouver Sun, November 1st.
"Lightfoot Delights Rainy Day People" by Larry Pynn (Sun Country Music Critic)
When our nation's last airline has finally headed south, along with our professional sports franchises and our precious last drops of fresh water, let's hope Gordon Lightfoot is still around to remind us of what Canada is all about.
For two hours Friday night, the legendary Toronto folk artist captivated a near-capacity crowd of 2500 at the Orpheum Theatre, spinning one tale after another about life, love and the Canadian landscape. As he approaches 61, Lightfoot seems to have lost little vocally (although I would have preferred more volume) and appears in remarkably trim condition, although some might say his drawn face suggess he could do with a few more pounds. Casual and unpretentious, Lightfoot played in blue jeans and cowboy boots during the first half of the concert - which began precisely at 8 pm leaving dozens of people scrambling clumsily for their seats - gearing down post-intermission to a T-shirt and white sneakers. He sang standing rigidly at the microphone, focusing somewhere in the darkness around centre aisle, his face a complexity of expressions - wild-eyed one moment, eyebrows furrowed or locked in an emotional grimace the next. Lightfoot never really played to the crowd, although he would occasionally walk to the edge of the stage during an acoustic instrumental, peer wierdly at the front row or just stare down at this own guitar picking, then walk back again. He kept up the dialogue, though, preceding his songs with a short comment or anecdote - often disjointed or mumbled off microphone - such as the time he performed before a New York Yankees pre-season game and apparently declined to wear a Yankees jacket because they were playing the Toronto Blue Jays.
A four piece band - Rick Haynes on bass, Terry Clements on lead guitar, Barry Keane on drums and percussion, and Mike Heffernen on keyboards - were almost invisible, quietly providing backup without working up much of a sweat. The largely middle-aged audience wasn't as boisterous as I would have expected for Lightfoot's first Vancouver concert in almost seven years. They seemed in awe more than anything else, and could have cared less about the occasional performance glitch, including the time Lightfoot launched into a song, stopped himself with self-admonition "Oh-boy", then moved onto the next number. The audience saved their biggest applause for familiar tunes such as Early Morning Rain, If You Could Read My Mind, Canadian Railway Trilogy, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (as the rain and wind howled outside, I swear a cold chill passed through the theatre as he sang "Superior, it's said, never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early.")
Fans probably would have preferred a steady diet of hits, judging by the familiar requests constantly lobbed at him, but Lightfoot instead chose to balance the classics with lesser-known or newer songs. Among them, Blackberry Wine and several numbers from his 1998 album, A Painter Passing Through, including the title cut, Uncle Toad Said, I Used to Be A Country Singer and the Ian Tyson cover, Red Velvet.
Given the weather conditions raging outside, Lightfoot appropriately enough warmed his Vancouver fans with a perfect capper for his second standing-ovation-encore, Rainy Day People - you know, the ones who "don't talk/they just listen til they've heard it all."

If you are interested, here is the review from the Vancouver Sun, November 1st.
"Lightfoot Delights Rainy Day People" by Larry Pynn (Sun Country Music Critic)
When our nation's last airline has finally headed south, along with our professional sports franchises and our precious last drops of fresh water, let's hope Gordon Lightfoot is still around to remind us of what Canada is all about.
For two hours Friday night, the legendary Toronto folk artist captivated a near-capacity crowd of 2500 at the Orpheum Theatre, spinning one tale after another about life, love and the Canadian landscape. As he approaches 61, Lightfoot seems to have lost little vocally (although I would have preferred more volume) and appears in remarkably trim condition, although some might say his drawn face suggess he could do with a few more pounds. Casual and unpretentious, Lightfoot played in blue jeans and cowboy boots during the first half of the concert - which began precisely at 8 pm leaving dozens of people scrambling clumsily for their seats - gearing down post-intermission to a T-shirt and white sneakers. He sang standing rigidly at the microphone, focusing somewhere in the darkness around centre aisle, his face a complexity of expressions - wild-eyed one moment, eyebrows furrowed or locked in an emotional grimace the next. Lightfoot never really played to the crowd, although he would occasionally walk to the edge of the stage during an acoustic instrumental, peer wierdly at the front row or just stare down at this own guitar picking, then walk back again. He kept up the dialogue, though, preceding his songs with a short comment or anecdote - often disjointed or mumbled off microphone - such as the time he performed before a New York Yankees pre-season game and apparently declined to wear a Yankees jacket because they were playing the Toronto Blue Jays.
A four piece band - Rick Haynes on bass, Terry Clements on lead guitar, Barry Keane on drums and percussion, and Mike Heffernen on keyboards - were almost invisible, quietly providing backup without working up much of a sweat. The largely middle-aged audience wasn't as boisterous as I would have expected for Lightfoot's first Vancouver concert in almost seven years. They seemed in awe more than anything else, and could have cared less about the occasional performance glitch, including the time Lightfoot launched into a song, stopped himself with self-admonition "Oh-boy", then moved onto the next number. The audience saved their biggest applause for familiar tunes such as Early Morning Rain, If You Could Read My Mind, Canadian Railway Trilogy, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (as the rain and wind howled outside, I swear a cold chill passed through the theatre as he sang "Superior, it's said, never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early.")
Fans probably would have preferred a steady diet of hits, judging by the familiar requests constantly lobbed at him, but Lightfoot instead chose to balance the classics with lesser-known or newer songs. Among them, Blackberry Wine and several numbers from his 1998 album, A Painter Passing Through, including the title cut, Uncle Toad Said, I Used to Be A Country Singer and the Ian Tyson cover, Red Velvet.
Given the weather conditions raging outside, Lightfoot appropriately enough warmed his Vancouver fans with a perfect capper for his second standing-ovation-encore, Rainy Day People - you know, the ones who "don't talk/they just listen til they've heard it all."

Oops! Sorry Florian! This is a little embarrassing but before I typed out the review from the Vancouver Sun I checked your news clip section. Since I didn't see it, I typed it out here on the discussion board. Now, low and behold it's in two sections (here and the news clips) - could we have been typing it at the same time? Anyway if it is taking up too much space here please feel free to delete it and this message. Thanks!

Oops! Sorry Florian! This is a little embarrassing but before I typed out the review from the Vancouver Sun I checked your news clip section. Since I didn't see it, I typed it out here on the discussion board. Now, low and behold it's in two sections (here and the news clips) - could we have been typing it at the same time? Anyway if it is taking up too much space here please feel free to delete it and this message. Thanks!

Hi Folks. I've just discovered this post and it's easy to see that I'm one of those ""lost in the sixties tonight guys." My wife Marian and I were there at that concert and we both were "over the top." It was an amazing performance. Gord made the reference that Vancouver was the most beautiful city in the country, and being a Toronto boy that took a lot of courage. He came onto the stage with his 12 string and began the show with " The Watchman's Gone." I remember turning to Marian and saying "wow! this is amazing, I've never ever heard him begin a concert with that song before." It sure set the tone and yes the weather was "Vancouver." Ron Jones

Hi Folks. I've just discovered this post and it's easy to see that I'm one of those ""lost in the sixties tonight guys." My wife Marian and I were there at that concert and we both were "over the top." It was an amazing performance. Gord made the reference that Vancouver was the most beautiful city in the country, and being a Toronto boy that took a lot of courage. He came onto the stage with his 12 string and began the show with " The Watchman's Gone." I remember turning to Marian and saying "wow! this is amazing, I've never ever heard him begin a concert with that song before." It sure set the tone and yes the weather was "Vancouver." Ron Jones