Gordon Lightfoot
National Arts Centre
April 9
3/5 stars
“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” Gordon Lightfoot said who, at 71, is far from death still playing over 70 shows a year.
Lightfoot is a famous Canadian folk singer/songwriter whose songs have been covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Johnny Cash. While he may have grown older, he has not lost any of his appeal.
“I remember seeing him in 1975,” I overheard one audience member say.
Unfortunately, this performance was not like the concerts that people might have envisioned based off of his recordings in the ’70s. The signature wavering of Lightfoot’s voice came across as weak and fell into slurs of words from the beginning of his set.
Audience members didn’t seem to mind the mumbling because they all knew the words to popular songs such as “Sundown,” “Rainy Day People” and “If You Could Read My Mind” that were met with wild applause.
Few changes have been made to Lightfoot’s formula. He played acoustic guitar with many of his old bandmates. People were there to hear the classics but the set also offered modern twists.
“Clouds of Loneliness” had a more electronic feel with the chimes of Mike Hefferman on keyboard. Tasteful lighting projected onto draping curtains enhanced the performance with some modern visuals. One change that Lightfoot was proud to announce was a lyric in “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” because new evidence has proved that the crew was not responsible for its sinking, as his original song suggested.
Throughout the concert, Lightfoot got nostalgic about his daughter growing up and made many references to his age. He continued to joke about his death as he tried to find his instruments.
“It’s getting closer when I can’t find my way around the stage,” he said.
Lightfoot ended the show with an encore performance of “Bottle of Wine”. The entire crowd gave him a standing ovation but what they were applauding was his legacy, not his performance that night, which is one thing that will never die.