http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.d.../ENT/320157192
Posted on Thu. Mar. 12, 2015 - 12:01 am EDT
Gordon Lightfoot just 'ordinary man' taking the 'carefree highway'
By Sheryl Krieg of The News-Sentinel
Talking with Gordon Lightfoot is like reminiscing with an old friend. After awhile, one wonders where the time went.
For Lightfoot, it's been 50 years — 50 years of songwriting, recording and performing — and he's anxious to reminisce with audiences with a new cross-country tour.
“Gordon Lightfoot — 50 Years on the Carefree Highway” makes a stop March 19 at Embassy Theatre. The concert features his hit songs and deep album cuts woven together with behind-the-scenes stories and personal anecdotes.
Lightfoot's hits include “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” the song that rejuvenated his career in 1976.
Lightfoot, 76, spoke via phone recently from his home in Toronto, Canada, where the weather was comparable to northeast Indiana.
While he's performed 12 shows already, the tour is broken up into segments so that he can manage family responsibilities, which include a new wife, Kim Hassey, whom he has known for seven years and married in December.
“She came to the Great White North to marry me,” he said. “We met while I was playing a gig in Florida. She traveled from California to meet me.” Fans travel great distances to attend his concerts, Lightfoot added.
Lightfoot said he'll go out on tour about seven more times this year, playing venues all over North America with his band, which includes bassist Rick Haynes, who has been with Lightfoot for 46 years.
For the singer-songwriter who always knew he wanted to sing, the term “legend” seems so inadequate in describing him, yet he lets the term slide off his back.
“I just don't think in those terms,” he said. “I just like to carry on and work. ... Let the legend look after itself.”
Lightfoot grew up listening to country and popular music (Frank Sinatra) as well as folk music, the genre that has defined much of the musical style during his career. He also has kept in touch with his roots, as he learned how to sing in church and still performs a solo in church every year.
“Really, everything I do is different from everything else,” he said. “It became evident everything had to be different.”
Many singers have performed Lightfoot's songs, including Glen Campbell, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand and Peter, Paul and Mary, who had their first hit single with the song “For Lovin' Me.” He estimated there have been more than 100 cover recordings.
“I never heard a cover I didn't like,” he said. “I was so deeply honored. I must have done it right for someone else to do it.”
Lightfoot said his songs often are based on real-life events.
“I can get working on an idea and have the scenario fall into place,” he said. “I can later attribute it to something that happened. That was when so-and-so happened. Funny, because you start with a blank page, too.”
One real-life event that had a tremendous impact on Lightfoot's career was the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which took its entire crew of 29 men on Nov. 10, 1975, about 17 miles north-northwest from Whitefish Point, Mich. He still keeps in touch with crew members' families as well as consults the ladies committee (comprised of the crew's relatives) in Madison, Wis., whenever anyone wants to reproduce the song.
“Just as I was on the verge of writing it, I had to go back and get the (news)papers,” he said. “I was the first to imply hatch covers were to blame, then the headline misspelled it (the name Edmund). I said somebody's got to do the song.”
While the song followed the chronological order of the disaster, Lightfoot was quick to add that an expedition to the wreck about five years ago proved that the ship went down because it broke into two pieces, and the hatch covers were not to blame after all.
Yet the success of the song he wrote in 1976 caught him off guard.
“As a folk song, it was as much a surprise to us,” he said. “It rejuvenated my career. I was in decline. ... What can I say? It carried a weight of responsibility. I'm keenly aware that it probably saved my career.”
Lightfoot, who last played here in 2009, has survived a couple of health scares: an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2002 and a mini stroke in 2006. He said he doesn't remember much from the aneurysm he suffered because he was unconscious for six weeks and off the road for 2 1/2 years. He said those health issues are now behind him.
At 76, his only complaint is tiredness, but he insisted that doesn't affect him during concerts.
“When I get on stage, I'm anything but tired,” he said. “I rise to the occasion with full vigor.”
skrieg@news-sentinel.com
FORT WAYNE, IN. interview - March 12,2015
