Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - Hugh's Room-Lightfoot Celebration-Jan.2011-The Way We Feel-Report is posted!

charlene · 01-27-2011, 05:40 PM

this will take a few posts!
The Way We Feel – 9th Annual Celebration of Gordon Lightfoot
Hugh’s Room, Toronto
Friday January 21, Saturday January 22 and Sunday January 23, 2011

Lisa and I headed into Toronto and arrived at the hotel at 3:30. The ride into the city on the GO train was through a mix of weather systems on our 50 minute journey. We left dark grey skies, rode into some heavy snow squalls and then into sunshine as the skyline of Toronto came into view.

I can’t believe these will be the 9th annual shows! What an amazing array of artists that have taken their love and respect for Lightfoot tunes and shared their interpretations with the audiences over the years. I am very grateful to have shared so many of those special nights. The vision of celebrating Gordon Lightfoot by Jory Nash and Aengus Finnan has become a must see annual event heading into the 10th anniversary shows next January for FOUR nights! Jan.19-22, 2012. That Gordon Lightfoot attends and graces us with a few tunes is testament to the overall excellence of the shows. As I have mentioned before these shows have introduced me to so many diverse and superbly talented musicians that have their own careers, making their own music and touring their shows. It’s been a true blessing.

We headed by subway to Hugh’s, a very familiar route now for us. Waiting at the top of the stairs that lead to the dining area I noticed some other Canadian musical royalty at one table. Sitting there were Ron Hynes and The Good Brothers. I wondered if our Ron Jones knew Ron Hynes, his long time friend was here. We were seated at a table on the main floor in front of the soundboard and about 15 feet from centre stage. Great seats!
The room slowly filled with folks who also had dinner reservations and were busy looking over the menu and ordering dinner and drinks. All three nights were sold out and there were only a few SRO spots left for Sunday night. We spoke with Jory and David and said hi to a few of the performers.

The facility used to be a house but has been converted to a dining room/bar area with a small stage tucked into the back corner. Seating capacity is about 200 people and it gets quite crowded and noisy and hot but you can wander around up by the bar where there is room to move around and get some fresh air by the front door.

Shortly before the show started our own Ron Jones came in and we spent some time with him until the lights went down and the show started. Ron was there for all three nights and bought me a few glasses of merlot over those three nights.. Thanks RJ!

On Saturday night we were joined by our darling Kenyon and his fiancée Johanna! They had a table that was right up against the stage and since Ron had SRO spot he was allowed to tuck a chair in with Kenyon and Johanna when the show began. Lisa and I were just a couple of tables away from them. It was terrific to see the ‘about to be newlyweds’ and hear about their plans. As several of the ladies here know, we think of Kenyon as our ‘internet son’ so I know we’re all thrilled for him and how happy he is in his life. Johanna is a beautiful, friendly girl and they are extremely happy together. And that makes us happy.

I managed to take quite a few videos of most of the performances. I will note if there is video and what night it is from in the report..The lighting tends to be quite dark onstage and mostly red so it’s tough to get great videos unless you’re right in front of the stage. And my camera is not that great but they’re not too bad.. I also got the audio on most of night 2 and also night 3. The order of performers changed each night so I will make notes about Saturday and Sunday where appropriate. With so many videos you can see for yourself what each performer brought to the songs they did.

As usual the multi talented and truly lovely David Newland was the emcee and for all three nights he kept the show moving at a steady pace and providing insight into each performer as well as giving us some good laughs.
This year he was the lead off performer.

House Band –
David Woodhead - bass, banjo @ http://www.davidwoodhead.com
Dave Matheson – piano, accordion, guitar @ http://www.maplemusic.com/artists/dma/bio.asp
Christine Bougie - lap steel, percussion @ http://www.christinebougie.com/beaut...sical-response
Jason Fowler – assorted guitars @ http://www.jasonfowler.ca

01-27-2011, 05:40 PM	#22
charlene Moderator Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 15,885	Re: Hugh's Room-Lightfoot Celebration-The Way We Feel-Report is posted! this will take a few posts! The Way We Feel – 9th Annual Celebration of Gordon Lightfoot Hugh’s Room, Toronto Friday January 21, Saturday January 22 and Sunday January 23, 2011 Lisa and I headed into Toronto and arrived at the hotel at 3:30. The ride into the city on the GO train was through a mix of weather systems on our 50 minute journey. We left dark grey skies, rode into some heavy snow squalls and then into sunshine as the skyline of Toronto came into view. I can’t believe these will be the 9th annual shows! What an amazing array of artists that have taken their love and respect for Lightfoot tunes and shared their interpretations with the audiences over the years. I am very grateful to have shared so many of those special nights. The vision of celebrating Gordon Lightfoot by Jory Nash and Aengus Finnan has become a must see annual event heading into the 10th anniversary shows next January for FOUR nights! Jan.19-22, 2012. That Gordon Lightfoot attends and graces us with a few tunes is testament to the overall excellence of the shows. As I have mentioned before these shows have introduced me to so many diverse and superbly talented musicians that have their own careers, making their own music and touring their shows. It’s been a true blessing. We headed by subway to Hugh’s, a very familiar route now for us. Waiting at the top of the stairs that lead to the dining area I noticed some other Canadian musical royalty at one table. Sitting there were Ron Hynes and The Good Brothers. I wondered if our Ron Jones knew Ron Hynes, his long time friend was here. We were seated at a table on the main floor in front of the soundboard and about 15 feet from centre stage. Great seats! The room slowly filled with folks who also had dinner reservations and were busy looking over the menu and ordering dinner and drinks. All three nights were sold out and there were only a few SRO spots left for Sunday night. We spoke with Jory and David and said hi to a few of the performers. The facility used to be a house but has been converted to a dining room/bar area with a small stage tucked into the back corner. Seating capacity is about 200 people and it gets quite crowded and noisy and hot but you can wander around up by the bar where there is room to move around and get some fresh air by the front door. Shortly before the show started our own Ron Jones came in and we spent some time with him until the lights went down and the show started. Ron was there for all three nights and bought me a few glasses of merlot over those three nights.. Thanks RJ! On Saturday night we were joined by our darling Kenyon and his fiancée Johanna! They had a table that was right up against the stage and since Ron had SRO spot he was allowed to tuck a chair in with Kenyon and Johanna when the show began. Lisa and I were just a couple of tables away from them. It was terrific to see the ‘about to be newlyweds’ and hear about their plans. As several of the ladies here know, we think of Kenyon as our ‘internet son’ so I know we’re all thrilled for him and how happy he is in his life. Johanna is a beautiful, friendly girl and they are extremely happy together. And that makes us happy. I managed to take quite a few videos of most of the performances. I will note if there is video and what night it is from in the report..The lighting tends to be quite dark onstage and mostly red so it’s tough to get great videos unless you’re right in front of the stage. And my camera is not that great but they’re not too bad.. I also got the audio on most of night 2 and also night 3. The order of performers changed each night so I will make notes about Saturday and Sunday where appropriate. With so many videos you can see for yourself what each performer brought to the songs they did. As usual the multi talented and truly lovely David Newland was the emcee and for all three nights he kept the show moving at a steady pace and providing insight into each performer as well as giving us some good laughs. This year he was the lead off performer. House Band – David Woodhead - bass, banjo @ http://www.davidwoodhead.com Dave Matheson – piano, accordion, guitar @ http://www.maplemusic.com/artists/dma/bio.asp Christine Bougie - lap steel, percussion @ http://www.christinebougie.com/beaut...sical-response Jason Fowler – assorted guitars @ http://www.jasonfowler.ca