GORDON LIGHTFOOT going with the flow

There are few artists who can be mentioned in the same realm as legendary songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. However, there are fewer who Dylan has deemed to have essentially a perfect songbook. “I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like,” Dylan was once quoted as saying. “Every time I hear a song of his, I wish it would last forever.”

More than half a century after getting their proverbial feet wet in the music industry, both Dylan and Lightfoot continue to tour. And as for Lightfoot, the musician says he never rests on his laurels when taking the stage.

“I’m always well prepared,” Lightfoot, now 84 years young, says from his Toronto home. “I’m always ready to get onstage. I have three of the band members coming to the house here tomorrow here in Toronto. We rehearse in my music room in my house. We stay warmed up, keep our chops up and keep the interest level high. It’s not hard to do. I enjoy the work!”

Lightfoot, who launches a nine-date trek March 13 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall in Fort Myers, penned several signature songs over his career from “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” to “Early Morning Rain,” “Ribbon of Darkness” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” After performing as a child in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario, the singer headed to Los Angeles after high school, where he enrolled in the Westlake College of Music.

“I learned about scales and how to recognize intervals, sight-reading and keyboard,” he says. “I took about seven or eight different subjects at Westlake. We learned about that from DownBeat magazine in high school. In high school I was in with a small group of people who liked jazz music. We were a minority because at the time not many people were into jazz, but it was there. I was a Dave Brubeck fan and fan of Stan Kenton’s large orchestra. So taking the music courses was an extension of that interest in being a jazz lover.”

Lightfoot says he realized he could make a career in music in his late teens when he began writing songs. He says the discipline needed for the songwriting craft was developed early on.

“I would say that once I got into the flow of doing it, it got to be sort of a routine,” he says. “You had to do it, but by that time I was under contract.

by Jason MacNeil

“I’m always ready to get onstage. We rehearse in my music room in my house. We stay warmed up, keep our chops up and keep the interest level high. It’s not hard to do. I enjoy the work!”

I was under contract very early as were some of the people that I worked along with at the time. I followed the same footprints, so of speak, like several people who are Canadian artists, or dozens of people who are American artists. Once they were committed to songwriting they would make it a part of their routine—just writing songs. That’s how we did it. I wanted to write my own stuff and so did all of the rest of us. We wanted to follow Dylan’s example and write our own stuff.”

So write he did. From his 1966 debut, Lightfoot!, to his 19th studio album, Solo, in 2020, Lightfoot has rarely relied on other songwriters.

“I did seven cover recordings of other artists,” Lightfoot states factually. “The rest I wrote on my own. It’s what I did. There are 220 of them on record. I had recordings covered by major artists like Peter, Paul & Mary and Marty Robbins on the country side. I had major hits by these artists. I got my leg in the door through the songwriting. The songwriting was what carried me through in the beginning.”

The musician also says he knew innately—for the most part—when a song was done. “When they were finished, they were finished,” he says. “Sometimes, I would rework something a little bit, but not very often. Usually, when the song was done it was done.”

He adds, “Also, the key is not to repeat yourself. That was really one of the main things. Every song was like a snowflake—every one had to be different, and you wanted it to be that way.”

It would be exhausting to name every artist who has covered a Gordon Lightfoot song, but here are a few demonstrating how timeless and expansive his catalogue has been: The Grateful Dead, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, Dylan, Jimmy Buffett, and Harry Belafonte. And while Lightfoot had penned and released a handful of great songs in the late 1960s, it was a parade of hit songs in the 1970s that made Lightfoot an international household name.

“The song ‘Sundown’ made it up to number one on the Billboard charts,” he says. “Before that I had another big one called ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ and the third one was ‘Carefree Highway.’ Then I had a topical song about a ship that was found in Lake Superior, ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.’ That came from out of nowhere because nobody thought it would become a popular song, but it did. I had seven or eight pretty good ones in there. At the same time I was running an orchestra, we were touring and writing. It was a very busy time.”

Now with the pandemic restrictions lifted, Lightfoot is back on the road. He says he’ll follow the March tour with another leg slated for California in April. Despite the hundreds of theatres, halls and outdoor venues he’s played in over his illustrious career, one venue in particular is often cited as Lightfoot’s home: Toronto’s Massey Hall. The venue, on par with London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall, has hosted Lightfoot well over 160 times. A roughly 18-month cycle has traditionally separated a Massey Hall stand in the spring and a fall run the following year.

To show his status, the venue underwent a massive, multi-year renovation, but not before Lightfoot closed Massey Hall on July 1, 2018 and christened the renovated venue on November 25, 2021 for its grand reopening.

“It just worked out that I was there when they closed it and I was there when they opened it,” he says modestly. “When we went back and did the opening I had broken my wrist, so we were working with some very fine artists opening these shows for me. One of them was Tom Rush. I was impressed with the talent.”

Some musicians of a similar vintage of Lightfoot, such as The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell, have performed in the last couple of years post-pandemic. However, the passing of time has also seen a number of those contemporaries pass on. Ian Tyson, one of Lightfoot’s biggest influences and who Lightfoot considered almost an ‘older brother,’ died in January 2023. Tyson, one half of the 1960s folk duo Ian & Sylvia, was perhaps best known for the song ‘Four Strong Winds.’

Another iconic musician, David Crosby, also passed away in January. Lightfoot says he crossed paths with Crosby several times over the years.

“Yes, I knew David quite well,” he says. “I met him in Los Angeles and we met here in Toronto. I met him in Toronto when he was with Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. In Los Angeles, it was more casual and we did a couple of events. We’d be at the same event and got to know each other. He was an interesting fellow and we got along quite well together. I was sorry to hear he had died.” •

by Jason MacNeil

IT’S a late January afternoon and acclaimed jazz arranger and trombonist, Delfeayo Marsalis is swamped with phone calls, requests and trying to tie up a few loose ends. The following day he’ll be en route to Bangkok, Thailand for a three-night stand with saxophonist Javon Jackson performing with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. In early February he’ll release a new studio album with the Uptown Jazz Orchestra called Uptown on Mardi Gras Day So you can easily forgive him if a date five weeks away in Naples at the Daniels Pavilion isn’t immediately atop his to-do list.