{"id":19155,"date":"2020-08-07T05:30:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T09:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19155"},"modified":"2020-07-27T13:58:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T17:58:37","slug":"why-not-give-it-a-try-gordon-lightfoot-goes-solo-part-3-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/07\/why-not-give-it-a-try-gordon-lightfoot-goes-solo-part-3-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Not Give it a Try: Gordon Lightfoot Goes \u2018Solo\u2019 (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part Two<\/a> \u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

Things took off from there. His long string of hits would include many highlights, including \u201cSundown\u201d and \u201cCarefree Highway,\u201d both from 1974\u2019s Sundown<\/i> LP, and the haunting \u201cThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald\u201d from Summertime Dream<\/i> in 1975. Canada\u2019s Juno Awards \u2013 that country\u2019s equivalent to the Grammys \u2013 are a tangible testament Lightfoot\u2019s beloved status in his home country. He was named Best Folk Singer nine out of 13 consecutive years, Best Male Vocalist five times between 1967 and \u201873, and Composer of the Year twice.<\/p>\n

Lightfoot has also earned five Grammy nominations and four ASCAP songwriting awards, and he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986. More recently, a 2019 documentary film Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind<\/i> chronicled his life and career.<\/p>\n

The Tour That Isn\u2019t<\/b>
\nMany songwriters frame their music and lyrics as self-expression; for them, music is primarily about getting across the things that they\u2019re thinking and feeling. For others, music is a means of forming a bond with their audience. Gordon Lightfoot is squarely in the latter camp. \u201cI really enjoy the connection and the communication,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When we spoke in mid-March, Lightfoot was looking forward to adding a selection of songs from Solo<\/i> to his scheduled concert dates. But he seems intent on not tinkering too much with a successful formula. \u201cI\u2019m going to do a couple of them,\u201d he says. \u201cThree, or something. We have a very strong show, and we\u2019re not going to mess with it. If I start to fit [the Solo<\/i> songs] in \u2013 which I will \u2013 we\u2019re going to have to lose some stuff, because everything gets done in a time frame.\u201d<\/p>\n

After decades playing to audiences, the man knows what they want to hear, and how they want to hear it. \u201cThis is not a solo tour,\u201d he says. \u201cYou need to get all this stuff packed into it, into the right length of time for people to sit and listen to you. We\u2019re lucky they\u2019re there in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lightfoot\u2019s an exemplar of the sensitive singer-songwriter model, he also recognizes that he\u2019s an entertainer. \u201cBasically, we do what we do; that\u2019s what the people want,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are a certain number of tunes that we\u2019re doing every night, and the rest are in their own orbit around that.\u201d But even working within those parameters, he and his band don\u2019t churn out the same set every tour, every night. \u201cIt changes,\u201d he says. \u201cI have to think about that each time: \u2018Well, what did we do last time?\u2019 We keep track of all that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as he\u2019s proud of the Solo<\/i> album, Gordon Lightfoot is pleased to be fronting a band when he performs. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a band, and I\u2019ve still got a band, a five-piece band,\u2019 he says with audible pride. \u201cAnd we put out a heck of a big sound. We play in concert halls and casinos, and sometimes in sports complexes and at festivals. You know, I\u2019ve been around for a long time in this business. In 59 years, I\u2019ve covered some ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while his \u201c80 Years Strong\u201d tour is on hold for the time being, it seems quite likely that as soon as he\u2019s able Gordon Lightfoot will be back onstage. \u201cI really enjoy the work,\u201d he says. \u201cI love the sound. I like staying prepared, and I like being ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two \u2026 Things took off from there. His long string of hits would include many highlights, including \u201cSundown\u201d and \u201cCarefree Highway,\u201d both from 1974\u2019s Sundown LP, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,41,49,51],"tags":[3802],"class_list":["post-19155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","tag-gordon-lightfoot","cat-30-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19164,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19155\/revisions\/19164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}