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El mocambo, toronto on. - january 27, 2024 - sold out.

https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/the-lightfoot-band-presents-the-under-the-neon-palms-at-tickets/13259623?pl=elmocambo

El Mocambo, Toronto ON. - January 28, 2024

https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/the-lightfoot-band-presents-the-under-the-neon-palms-at-tickets/13447553?pl=elmocambo

Guelph River Run Centre, Guelph ON. - February 29, 2024

https://riverrun.ca/whats-on/the-lightfoot-band24/

Flato Markham Theatre, Markham ON. - March 28, 2024 - SOLD OUT

https://flatomarkhamtheatre.ca/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=whats-on&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=

Brockville Arts Center, Brockville ON. - April 19, 2024

https://www.bactickets.ca/TheatreManager/1/tmEvent/tmEvent1763.html

Empire Theatre, Belleville ON. - April 20, 2024

https://theempiretheatre.com/live/the-lightfoot-band/

Blyth Memorial Hall, Blyth ON. - April 26, 2024

https://blythmemorialcommunityhall.ca/the-lightfoot-band/

Sarnia Imperial Theatre, Sarnia ON. - April 27, 2024

https://www.imperialtheatre.net/show/the-lightfoot-band/

Regent Theatre, Oshawa ON. - May 15, 2024

https://tickets.regenttheatre.ca/eventperformances.asp?evt=996 

The Roxy Theatre, Owen Sound ON. - May 17, 2024

https://tickets.roxytheatre.ca/TheatreManager/1/tmEvent/tmEvent1689.html

Massey Hall - Celebrating Gordon Lightfoot, Toronto ON. - May 23, 2024

https://masseyhall.mhrth.com/tickets/celebrating-gordon-lightfoot/

Capitol Theatre, Chatham ON. - Rescheduled - September 21, 2024

On sale soon!

Orillia Opera House - Lightfoot Days, Orillia ON. - October 31, 2024

https://secure1.tixhub.com/orillia-oh/online/b_otix.asp?cboPerformances=5221&cboEvent=2318&width=2048 

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Gordon Lightfoot

• Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 8:00 PM Add to Calendar Add to cal Get Tickets Add to Calendar Add to cal

80 Years Strong Tour

Legendary singer-songwriter and musician, Gordon Lightfoot brings his 80 Years Strong Tour to City National Civic on March 5.

After more than 50 active years of hit song making and international album sales well into the multi-millions, it's safe to say that esteemed artist Gordon Lightfoot resides with some very exclusive company atop the list of all-time greats. His song catalog is incredibly vast and includes such immortals as “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown,” “(That's What You Get) For Lovin Me,” “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," "Canadian Railroad Trilogy," "Ribbon Of Darkness," "Beautiful," "Song For A Winter's Night" and "Rainy Day People" to name a few.

Lightfoot recently celebrated his 80th birthday, and the legendary artist will continue his cross-country USA tour entitled "GORDON LIGHTFOOT: 80 YEARS STRONG TOUR". The tour will feature his well-known hits as well as some deep album cuts for the die-hard fanatics. All of which are woven together with some of Lightfoot's own behind the scenes stories and personal anecdotes about his historic 50-plus-years musical career and his 80 years of life. The event is sure to be a great thrill for live audiences and anyone who enjoys hearing great music and seeing a living legend in person.

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Music + concerts, music + concerts | why gordon lightfoot is still touring at 80, and what he admires about bob dylan, the singer-songwriter brings his ’80 years strong’ tour to southern california for a quartet of concerts.

Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot celebrated his 80th birthday on stage in his Canadian hometown of Orillia, Ontario, playing his 80th show of 2018 as part of a seven-night run of shows he says he’d agreed to do months in advance. There was just one caveat.

“A long time ago they asked me if I would do it,” Lightfoot says. “I said, ‘Well if I’m still walking around, I will be there.’ And of course, I was.”

In a call from his home in Toronto, the folk-rock icon jokes more than once about shuffling off this carefree highway. But he’s already stared down a few life-threatening medical crises in the past 15 years and finds himself today feeling healthy, happy, and ready to head out on a tour titled 80 Years Strong.

Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot comes to Southern California for four shows March 8-12, 2019. (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Gordon Lightfoot performs on the Palomino stage at Stagecoach Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Sunday, April 29, 2018. (Photo by Matt Masin, Contributing Photographer)

Singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot celebrated his 80th birthday on stage in his Canadian hometown of Orillia, Ontario, playing his 80th show of 2018 as part of a seven-night run of shows he says he’d agreed to do months in advance. There was just one caveat. “A long time ago they asked me if I would do […]

And that, Lightfoot says, is still what he loves more than almost anything other than his wife Kim, who travels with him and the band, and his six kids and five grandchildren.

“When I get out on the road, I really love it, getting out and doing the shows,” he says. “It becomes your central focus, doing the shows and doing them well. Every night you’re like a team; you want to go out and win. Just to make sure that everything is in perfect tune and be loose about it, too.”

The creator of songs such as “Sundown,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” Lightfoot says he and his band, many of whom have been with him for years, still get to each theater early to tune their instruments, do their soundcheck, and try their hardest to make sure the show goes off without a hitch.

“Tuning and intonation, when you get that right that’s what really makes it fun,” Lightfoot says. “I’m really careful about tuning because I know how much it can add. It can add volume, it can add energy.”

Lightfoot’s last studio album, “Harmony,” goes back to 2004, and while in recent years he’s said he wasn’t all that interested in writing and recording new material , this year he’s close to finishing a new record.

Or at least a new record with a lineage that stretches back to 2001 before an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2002 knocked him down and nearly out for good, he says.

“I found some stuff actually, some very good stuff that got, should we say, misplaced?” he says. “It was right back before I had the aneurysm, back about 2001. A lot of stuff that’s going to be on there was recorded a long time ago, like 18, 19 years ago. But it’s really good.”

Lightfoot said he’s currently writing the band arrangements, though he says some of the songs he laid down years ago with just his voice and guitar are so good he might leave them as solo numbers on the album.

“You recall Bruce Springsteen when he did his ‘Nebraska’ album, he just played everything solo,” Lightfoot says. “He’s capable of that, but I have enough here to have half an album (solo).

“I know that there’s enough material there, plus whatever I have produced on my own in the meantime. A few other tunes and I’ve got a dozen songs, half of it solo, and half will have my band.”

That aneurysm put him in a coma for six weeks, and while he wasn’t released from the hospital for more than three months he still oversaw the completion of the sessions for “Harmony” from his hospital bed.

“Once I became cognizant again the first thing I started thinking about was, ‘OK, let’s start,’” Lightfoot says. “But thing is, they missed a few of them. I’m glad they missed them because there’s some really good stuff there.”

Around that same time in 2002, feeling his own mortality a bit, Lightfoot says he decided to grant Canadian music journalist Nick Jennings the rights to do his biography posthumously. When he got better, and stayed better, the project went on hold for years, finally arriving in 2017 to critical acclaim.

“I don’t even know if I’d be capable of doing a memoir,” he says of why he decided to let Jennings do the book. “I don’t know how to type. It’s one of the things I always admired about Bob Dylan: he was a real fast typer. He had an old Underwood and he’d go on that thing, I’ll tell you.”

Dylan, like Lightfoot, still tours steadily though increasingly peers and friends such as Paul Simon have started to announce farewell tours. Lightfoot says he plans to be more like a different friend, John Prine, who is still playing concerts after a serious bout of cancer.

“I had one that almost killed me, and when I got better I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to stop,’” Lightfoot says. “And I’m not going to even say anything if I feel like stopping. I’m just going to keep going and keep up my routine.

“I’m going to go until, well, I guess until I fall down. Whatever it takes.”

Gordon Lightfoot

Friday, March 8 : The Canyon, 24201 Valencia Blvd., Suite 1351, Santa Clarita.  Doors open at 6 p.m., Lightfoot at 9 p.m. Tickets are $48-$88.

Saturday, March 9 : The Saban, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.  Show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $48-$88

Sunday, March 10 : The Rose, 245 E. Green St., Pasadena. Doors at 6 p.m., Lightfoot at 9 p.m. Tickets are $48-$98

Tuesday, March 12 : City National Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. Show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $27.50-$100

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Gordon Lightfoot

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Gordon Lightfoot has often been credited as the finest singer-songwriter from Canada. His career expands across several decades and has spawned a staggering amount of albums. He has crossed over into multiple genres throughout his career, but is best known for helping set the template for contemporary folk-pop.

Lightfoot was born in Orillia, Ontario, Canada on 17 November 1938 to a manager of a dry cleaning firm. Gordon displayed musical talent as early as the fourth grade and initially focused on his skill as a vocalist. He took on the task of a choir boy at Orillia’s St. Paul’s United Church and showcased his soprano voice on various radio stations, local operettas and festivals. Lightfoot moved on to piano and drums in his teenage years and eventually made the guitar his primary instrument. He understood both standard pop and classical styles and used this advantage in both his solo performances and with his high school folk band, the Teen Timers.

In 1958 Lightfoot embarked on a journey to Hollywood, California to study Jazz composition at Westlake College of Music. While Lightfoot was in California he wrote jingles for television advertisement, but quickly got tired of this job and returned back to Canada to direct his efforts as a folk/country musician.

Before spring-boarding into his career as a solo artist, Lightfoot joined an in-house vocal group known as the Swinging Eight and subsequently fractured into a 2 piece with fellow singer songwriter Terry Whalen to form the Two Tones. By 1963 Lightfoot moved to Great Britain and began performing under his own name. During this period he hosted “The Country & Western Show” and had a certified Canadian hit with his single “Remember Me (I’m the One)”. After hearing the work of Bob Dylan (who is a mutual friend and admirer of Lightfoot) he made a conscious effort to gear his material in a more introspective direction.

Ian and Sylvia Tyson were enamored by Lightfoot’s new approach and acted as a gateway to his management contract with Albert Grossman. In addition to Ian and Sylvia covering Lightfoot’s songs, other artists like Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Marty Robbins also included some of his material in their setlist.

By the mid to late 60s Lightfoot started releasing studio albums at a consistent and relatively fast rate. He put out a total of 5 albums between 1966 and 1969 including: “Lightfoot!”, “The Way I Feel”, “Did She Mention My Name”, Back Here on Earth”, and the live recording “Sunday Concert”. All these albums were highly esteemed and have since gone on to achieve classic status in the folk cannon. Lightfoot was an absolute sensation in his native homeland; however, he only managed to assume a cult following in America. Much of his music became popular in the US via artists like Johnny Cash, Bob Marley, and Elvis Presley.

The 70s saw Lightfoot’s departure from United Artists and his assimilation on to Reprise. Through Reprise he released his slick sounding 6th album “Sit Down Young Stranger”, which contained the single “If You Could Read My Mind” his biggest hit at the time. His follow up “Summer Side of Life” came out in 1971 and both “Don Quixote” and “Old Dan’s Records” followed in 1972. Lightfoot’s next album “Sundown” did not come out until 1974. During this time Lightfoot was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy and consequently had to let up on his touring and recording schedule. Despite this setback Lightfoot managed to output some of his most complex and commercially viable material such as “Summertime Dream”, “Cold on the Shoulder”, and “Endless Wire”.

Though Lightfoot released a substantial amount of material in the 80s his work was becoming more overlooked in the US and his time was displaced among charity organizations and his involvement in acting. Lightfoot returned with some of his strongest material in the 90s with “Waiting for You” (1993) and “A Painter Passing Through”; however, his career was abruptly put on hold when he suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm that put him in a coma for 6 weeks. Before his decline in health Lightfoot had penned material that would eventually surface on his 2004 album “Harmony”.

Live reviews

Although Gordon Lightfoot is now 75 years old, he is somewhat of a living legend in the folk-pop world. As a leading artist who defined this genre, over the years, notably in the 60s and 70s, Gordon Lightfoot has been dubbed Canada’s greatest songwriter time and time again. With an incredible back catalogue of hits and solid albums, I don’t think anyone would refuse a chance to see him perform live.

With multi-platinum selling albums under his belt, and collaborations with the likes of Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash, Lightfoot’s legacy was never in question. Finally getting the chance to see him in 2012 performing All Live, was an experience that I never thought that I was going to get. He opened the show with Baby Step Back, before introducing himself to the audience and thanking everyone for coming. To be honest, I don’t think anyone could hear what he was saying, because we were all cheering so loud! He’s still a very talented guitarist, and seeing him play his older acoustic numbers was amazing. For the bigger numbers, his band were incredible and they all worked together flawlessly. Lightfoot’s voice, although showing age, was still great, and he committed to everything with absolute conviction.

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Canadian country musician Gordon Lightfoot has been credited as one of the artists who helped to define the folk/pop sound of the 1960s and 70s. It is perhaps due to this reputation that the musician continues to tour globally despite being over 75 now. Although Lightfoot has recorded with some of the most prolific artists in the industry including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and Johnny Cash tonight's setlist is all about Gordon's personal discography and features no covers of his glittering list of collaborators.

The audience seems equally pleased by this choice as they enjoy hearing the folk tones of 'All The Lovely Ladies' and 'Waiting for You'. Although some of these songs are nearing their 50th birthday, they seem to have a timeless quality as they simply wash over the audience in their unassuming manner. The folk genre changes throughout the evening between a more rock sound which features far more instrumental work from Lightfoot and his band to the far more easy listening pop influenced work. Either way, the crowd are responsive and attentive when it comes to thunderous applause following the finale.

Great show. Started right on the button at 8pm. Gord's voice worried me on first song but seemed to gain strength depending on whether he had to sing in the upper range or not. At almost 80, his voice has thinned and gotten a little reedy. His guitar work was spot on. He played a greatly different set list than the last several times I've seen him which was great. He sounded really strong on Don Quixote, Early Morning Rain, Restless and others. As usual these days at Massey Hall there is someone in the audience who thinks we paid to hear them as they shouted out their love to Gord throughout the show while talking through his set and texting on their brightly lit cellphone. They have some personal need for attention or think somehow they are communing with the artist. Anyway...really annoying and nothing worse than a 60 year old groupie.

Gordon Lightfoot at the State Theater was a most excellent event. My brother and I were in the minority, being that the majority of the crowd was at least twenty years older than my father.

Gordon played almost all of the old songs that we love, but left us just shy of a complete set, foregoing "Cotton Jenny," for some of the older ones.

Even with the omission, we were left in awe that the original band, as we assumed it was, could still sound so clean and crisp after playing and singing for over forty years. Gordon sounded a little thin on some of the songs, but for recording and touring for all those years he could still belt out all the lyrics, even with a range reduced by age and stress.

Overall, a wonderful concert, and I'm looking forward to more tours by the bands and artists of the 60's and 70's.

Hmmm...I want badly to say so many good things about this show but...It's hard to. His voice is so gone as is memory as he was unable to remember words and lacked the ability to complete a sentence. Very hard to understand [Lightfoot] from the stage both in lyrics and spoken words. I can however say that this was a show that was on my bucket list. Oh...and no pics or videos to be taken at these shows :(

GORDON LIGHTFOOT; Wonderful concert at the Brown Theatre in Louisville, KY on March 14, 2016. It was my 11 year old granddaughter's first concert and we both had a wonderful time.

Lightfoot is a terrific writer, performer and entertainer. The band play together as if their hearts beat in sync.

We both loved it and hope to see him again.

Joanne Kelly; Stockbridge, Massachusetts

THIS WAS PROBABLY MY 18-20 TIME I VE SEEN GORDON. THE FIRST TIME WAS 1970, AT COLUMBIA, MO. I AM A BIT OF A FAN,

THIS SHOW WAS BITTERSWEET, AS I HAVE AGED I KNOW LIGHTFOOTS MUSIC MIRRORS MUCH OF MY LIFE.

VIETNAM, THE 70S, THE POLITICS OF AMMERICA, AND THE CONSTANCY OF THE USE OF MUSIC TO GROUND MY GENERATION TO OUR GROWTH AND CHANGES.

THANK GOODNESS I KNEW LIGHTFOOT

Excellent show, he played all of the favorites, as well as a couple songs I hadn't heard before. The atmosphere was Pleasant, weather perfect.

I'm so impressed that Gordon still has the ability to perform at his age, and he can still hit all of the notes. He hasn't lost anything over the years.

Highly recommended.

Huge waste of time and money. Voice completely gone. Is in danger of ruining his legacy if he continues. I know he is 77 years of age now, but why continue to fleece the public?

We left in the interval, as did several others. At least we got home an hour earlier than expected.

Gordon Lightfoot was amazing. Even though he was fighting a cold, he was a professional. He and his band are so talented. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the concert! Thank you for sharing great songs and memories. A true gentleman!

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Gordon Lightfoot Is Still Following That Carefree Highway

By David Browne

David Browne

Anyone who ever owned an album by Gordon Lightfoot might not immediately recognize the man sitting on a metal chair in a dressing room at New York’s Town Hall. These days, Lightfoot only passingly resembles the strapping, mustached, square-jawed troubadour whose ballads, like “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Early Mornin’ Rain” and “Carefree Highway,” became coffeehouse standards. He no longer perms his hair as he once did. Lanky, sandy-brown locks now fall around his face, which is clean-shaven and, like his body, thin and bony. His hands show purple splotches. He resembles a weathered oak tree, albeit one in faded blue jeans and white tennis shoes.

Then again, consider his age. Lightfoot calls his current series of shows the “80 Years Strong Tour.” Running through December, they celebrate the milestone he hit last November.

“Tell him what you did for your birthday,” Kim Hasse, his current wife, says to her husband, flashing a you-won’t-believe-this smile.

“We had a seven-show tour coming up,” Lightfoot says. He speaks haltingly at times, placing an emphasis on certain words to make his point. “And I got pneumonia . So I went to the hospital . And there were only five days left before we had to start. I said, ‘I have to leave,’ and they said, ’You can’t.’ I said, ‘I have to. I have to go to work .’”

His tone is both wry and incredulous, as if he can’t quite believe that anyone would try to stop him from doing his job. “My heart specialist was in the building at the time and he walked in and said, ‘If he wants to go, let him go. He’s not in jail .’ So they let me go.”

Like his songs, Lightfoot endures ; in recent years, he’s even been receiving more props. The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg once half-joked that he wants “If You Could Read My Mind” to be sung at his funeral (on a reunion record, the ‘Mats also covered “I’m Not Sayin’”), and last year, Lightfoot played his first-ever show at Stagecoach, Coachella’s sister country festival. Months later, he’s still sporting the wristband from that performance. (“I never took it off!” he says. “Eight thousand people in that place. Palm Springs.”) A documentary about his life, Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind,  is currently playing in theaters in his native Canada, with a U.S. release pending .

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Lightfoot’s songs were both emotive and repressed, and the best of them — a list that also includes “Sundown,” “For Lovin’ Me,” “Rainy Day People” and so many others — were simple and sturdy, like solid, reliable pieces of furniture. Asked why those tunes continue to be covered and why people still want to see him play them, Lightfoot pauses, as if he isn’t sure. “I suppose it’s the turn of the phrase. Or the fact that they’re so simple . People can play these songs if they can get around this business here,” he adds, pointing to the capo strapped onto his fretboard.

“We’ve got songs that register well with the crowd, like ‘Read My Mind’ and ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Don Quixote.’ They’re all tunes that just move along and have a forward momentum, which is what I look for in my writing. Forward momentum .”

On a table next to Lightfoot is the briefcase he carries to every show, and this afternoon, it’s open to expose what keeps his own momentum going. Several bottles of vitamins are on display, along with an empty, clean ashtray (he gave up smoking last October). Lightfoot has several hours to kill before his performance, but he isn’t going anywhere; adhering to his recurring ritual, he will stay at the venue to get a feel for its vibe and to carefully tune each of his guitars. On a clothing rack right behind him are a half dozen of his stage shirts, some embroidered. “He’s old school,” says Hasse, proudly.

Lightfoot begins reminiscing about his earlier shows in New York (including one at this same venue), which leads him to remember the time he and Canned Heat shared an unlikely double bill at San Francisco’s Fillmore West. “Yeah, we were in there with the best of ’em,” he says. “I’m a competitive sort of guy.” At this point, it is indeed possible to trace the history of post–World War II pop through him. The son of a dry-cleaner owner (“we called it the ‘carriage trade,’” he notes bemusedly), he sang in large-ensemble pop-folk groups in his native Canada, studied jazz in California, then returned to Canada and began hitting up the folk circuit. He was soon managed by the late Albert Grossman, and one of his acts, Peter , Paul and Mary, made a hit out of Lightfoot’s “Early Mornin’ Rain.”

“That’s when they said, ‘Do you sing? Do you just write songs?’ What do you do ?’” Lightfoot recalls.

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What he did was sing and write his own material, and his own career soon launched in full, with records and the occasional Top 40 hit rolling out during the following two decades. His songs have been covered not only by the Replacements but by Elvis Presley, Neil Young, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Liza Minnelli and Bob Dylan , among many others.

Along the way Lightfoot befriended fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, then living in Detroit with her first husband, Chuck: “I got to hear Joni’s music before she made a deal with anybody,” he says. “Tom Rush and I would sit with her and Chuck at the kitchen table and she would play these wonderful songs.”

He and Dylan had an often tangled history, starting with both being managed for a time by Grossman. Hours before Dylan electrified the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Lightfoot had played an acoustic set in the afternoon. As preparation began for Dylan’s band-backed performance, Lightfoot saw for himself the emotions it provoked. “I remember Albert and the musicologist Alan Lomax getting into a wrestling match in the afternoon of that day. Joan Baez, Donovan and I, we all stood around and watched. It was over the drum kit. They were trying to stay traditional, and somebody brought the drum kit onstage for the first time. It was quite a kerfuffle over it. It was a hot day in Newport. And a dry day. And I remember the dust was flying .”

That night, Lightfoot stood by the side of the stage and watched as Dylan plugged in. He says he heard Dylan say to Grossman, “I’ve lost my harmonica, Albert,” even though it would be Paul Simon who put that line in a song (“A Simple Desultory Philippic [Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission]”). “I don’t think Paul Simon was anywhere in the vicinity,” he says. “But I  heard it.

“And then Bob went on and I remember a few pennies and quarters up on the stage. I guess they were trying to insult him, but they did not succeed. He carried right on through.” (Lightfoot himself eventually added drums but not for a few years: “I wasn’t … controversy-inclined ,” he says dryly.) Lightfoot can also be seen, briefly, in Martin Scorsese’s documentary on the Rolling Thunder Revue; when Dylan and his carousing folkie caravan played Toronto’s Maple Leaf Garden, Lightfoot joined them onstage and invited them back to his house for a party. Dylan inducted Lightfoot into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986.

The Eighties were a rough time for Lightfoot as well as many of his peers. He stopped drinking in 1982, after his record company told him he was doing what he calls “irrational things.” He pauses. “Does that make sense? I was doing irrational things ,” chewing over the phrase. “The record company was not happy with me over it. They said, ‘You gotta [give up alcohol] because it’s hurting you.’”

Lightfoot says he passed on starring in a movie based on his left-field 1976 hit “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (about a real-life sinking of a freight boat and the loss of its entire crew) due to in part to his stubbornness (“I was doing things the way I was doing them and I wanted to keep going them that way”) but also because of his drinking. “I was not going to offer myself to them as an alcoholic,” he says. “My conscience would not allow me to do that.”

“Maybe you didn’t want to lose control,” Hasse offers, as if gently reminding her husband of his tendencies.

“They said, ‘Think of the money you’ll earn!’” Lightfoot says, brushing it off. “I said, ‘I don’t care. We’re doing fine.’ I’ve always felt that way. We’re doing good.”

The hits began to dry up during this time, and long before it became fashionable as it is now, Lightfoot became one of the first pop stars to be awarded a Vegas residency, at the MGM Grand in 1982. Although Lightfoot drew a crowd, the owner of the venue was still irked, telling him, “I loved your show, but you’re the first son of a bitch who ever walked on my stage in blue jeans!”

Lightfoot flashes a bemused smile. “I kept wearing my ‘costume.’” He smiles. “My costume . Good fun.”

Lightfoot’s current life is a bit more of an even keel. He and Hasse, a former actress and stand-in who is about 25 years his junior, married five years ago (“very much a surprise to me,” he says). The two live in Lightfoot’s multi-room home in the suburbs of Toronto. Drake is building a new house right across the street; Lightfoot jokes that he hasn’t yet been invited over to play basketball.

Lightfoot is on his fifth marriage and has several children. (In the Seventies, he was also briefly in a relationship with Cathy Smith, who was with John Belushi on the night he overdosed.) You wonder if all those relationships come rushing back when he sings songs he wrote about those situations — “If You Could Read My Mind,” for instance, is about the collapse of his first marriage in the late Sixties. He pauses, drops his head and nods. “I know what you mean,” he says. “Things are happening and somehow they find their way into the content. We’re going through life’s roller coaster and it just unconsciously finds its way into the song. It creates a good song.”

Then he stiffens up. “But do I feel sad or depressed? No.” He pauses, as if his life is suddenly playing itself out in his brain. “I didn’t mean to bring on some of the emotional trauma I’ve caused in people,” he says. “Because I have. I have . I’ve caused emotional trauma in myself and in women.”

Health issues beyond mere alcoholism have also dogged him. In the early Seventies, he dealt with a bout of Bell’s palsy that froze part of his face. (To cover it up, one side of his mug was shown in shadows on an album cover.) In 2002, an abdominal artery in his stomach burst, putting Lightfoot in a coma for six weeks, followed by further operations. He’s still embarrassed by the sacrifices others made for him. “I was ashamed at the amount of blood they went through,” he says disgustedly. “It would have been better off if I had died . I think it was 28 units.” Afterward, he rewarded himself with a glass of wine. “So that was the end of a roll,” he says sternly. “But did I become an alcoholic after one glass of wine? No.”

One wonders why, at this age and with some of his previous health issues, Lightfoot puts himself through the grueling rigors of the road. “Well, we’ve all got families,” he says. “And I can still earn .”

Hasse also makes the case for the emotional investment his fans still have in Lightfoot. “Guys cry when they meet him,” she says. “They get very emotional over his songs. And the girls just flirt.” She smiles broadly.

“Yeah, they flirt!” Lightfoot retorts. “Yeah, sure.” Then he seems to dismiss it: “I’m not as much of a flirt as I used to be.”

“Thank God!” Hasse says cheerily.

“I flirted more when I drank,” Lightfoot continues. “When I stopped drinking, I stopped flirting. But really … I wouldn’t call it flirting. I’m just being polite, basically. I want to be friendly and I want them to feel relaxed. I want to make ‘em feel comfortable . I don’t like to come on like any kind of special person or anything. I just want them to see me as normal sort of a guy.”

His road manager says it’s time for the ritual of the tuning of the guitars. “Let’s go down!” Lightfoot announces heartily and stands up.

At a soundcheck, he and his four-piece backup band run through parts of different songs, with Lightfoot singing along quietly, so as not to abuse his voice. The band exits once the levels are correct, but Lightfoot remains. He sits down and hunches over his guitars one by one to begin the string-by-string tuning process. It’s slow, painstaking work, and after a half hour, only Hasse is left in the theater with him. When he’s done, he looks around, momentarily bewildered at the absence of anyone around him, until Hasse calls over to him and they retreat once more to the dressing room.

“I have to make sure they’re all in perfect tune,” Lightfoot says. “Perfect … tune .”

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Gordon Lightfoot: Canceled

Wed, Apr 19, 2023 @ 8:00P

Gordon Lightfoot announces the cancellation of his U.S. and Canadian concert schedule for 2023. The singer is currently experiencing some health-related issues and is unable to confirm rescheduled dates at this time.

We thank you for respecting his privacy as he continues to focus on his recovery.

Tickets will be automatically refunded at the point of purchase.

Support: Max Gomez

Internationally-acclaimed folk-pop singer Gordon Lightfoot comes to Balboa Theatre, Saturday, December 3 . The performance is part of his concert tour which features Lightfoot’s well-known hits as well as some deep album cuts woven together with his own behind-the-scene stories and personal anecdotes.

After more than 50 active years of hit song making and international album sales well into the multi-millions, it's safe to say that esteemed singer-songwriter and musician Gordon Lightfoot resides with some very exclusive company atop the list of all-time greats. His song catalog is incredibly vast and includes such immortals as “Early Morning Rain,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown,” “(That's What You Get) For Lovin Me,” “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," "Canadian Railroad Trilogy," "Ribbon Of Darkness," "Beautiful," "Song For A Winter's Night" and "Rainy Day People" to name a few.

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Celebrating Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Concert Set For 2024

The official poster for the Gordon Lightfoot tribute concert

Gordon Lightfoot will be celebrated with a 2024 tribute concert by many of his Canadian music peers. The announcement was made on November 17, 2023, on what would have been the music icon’s 85th birthday. The concert, Celebrating Gordon Lightfoot, honoring his music and legacy, will be held at Toronto’s Massey Hall, in collaboration with the Lightfoot Estate, on May 23, 2024, just over a year after his passing. Pre-sale tickets will be available beginning Nov. 22 at 10 a.m. local time, with password READMYMIND. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Nov. 23 at masseyhall.com or by calling the Massey Hall box office at 416-872-4255.

The evening, led by two extraordinary house bands, Blue Rodeo and the members of Lightfoot’s longtime band, The Lightfoot Band (Rick Haynes, Barry Keane, Mike Heffernan and Carter Lancaster), will feature performances by Allison Russell, Aysanabee, Burton Cummings, Caroline Wiles & Bob Doidge, Meredith Moon, Sylvia Tyson, The Good Brothers, Tom Cochrane, and William Prince, with more to be announced.

Proceeds from Celebrating Gordon Lightfoot, as requested by the Gordon Lightfoot Estate, will support Massey Hall, a charitable not-for-profit, including the Revitalization of the Hall, its music appreciation, education, community outreach and artist development initiatives.

Lightfoot was considered by many to be Canada’s greatest singer-songwriter, best known for such hits as “Sundown,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “If You Could Read My Mind.” Lightfoot was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, as well as Canada’s Walk of Fame. He died on May 1, 2023, at age 84.

He was the subject of a 2020 documentary, Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind .

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Gordon Lightfoot Concerts 1970s

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? ?, 1970 Opera House, Orillia, ON (Benefit. Lightfoot raised $3000 for YMCA Breezy Point Boys Camp)

January 30, 1970 Oakland Sports & Rec Building, Rochester Hills, MI

March 11, 1970 Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, MI (Earth Day)

April 6, 1970 MSU Auditorium, East Lansing, MI

May ?, 1970 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

July 17, 1970 Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA (cancelled appearance supporting Blood, Sweat & Tears. Replaced by John Hartford)

November 14, 1970 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI

November 15, 1970 Alma College, Alma, MI

November 28, 1970 Pasadena City College Sexson Auditorium, Pasadena, CA

February 28, 1971 Fillmore East, New York City, NY (supported by Happy and Artie Traum)

March 12, 1971 Bowen Field House, Ypsilanti, MI

May 1, 1971 Mount Holyoke College Chapin Auditorium, South Hadley, MA

May 13, 1971 Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, OR

May 15, 1971 Portland Auditorium, Portland, OR

May 17, 1971 Civic Auditorium, Portland, OR

June 4, 1971 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG

October 3, 1971 Music Hall, Cleveland, OH

October 6-7, 1971 Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, AB

October 8-9, 1971 Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, AB

October 14, 1971 UC Davis Freeborn Hall, Davis, CA (supported by Mimi Farina & Tom Jans)

October 17, 1971 Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA

October 23, 1971 Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh, PA

November 11, 1971 Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY

December 3, 1971 Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

December 5, 1971 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI

January 4-5, 1972 Troubador, Los Angeles, CA (supported by Judee Sill)

January 30, 1972 War Memorial, Syracuse, NY

February 6, 1972 MSU Auditorium, East Lansing, MI

February 12, 1972 Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI

March 5, 1972 Travelodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00)

March 8, 1972 UTA Texas Hall, Arlington, TX

March 9, 1972 Music Hall, Houston, TX

April 15, 1972 Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY

May 15, 1972 Portland, OR

June 10, 1972 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG

June 13, 1972 National Stadium, Dublin, IRE

October 14, 1972 U-D Memorial Building, Detroit, MI

October 22, 1972 Comminity Theater, Berkeley, CA

October 22, 1972 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA

November 3, 1972 Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

November 24 & 26, 1972 Philharmonic Hall, New York City, NY

February 11, 1973 O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, St. Paul MN (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00)

February 24, 1973 Bradley University Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse, Peoria, IL

April 6, 1973 Spokane Falls Community College, Spokane, WA

April 7, 1973 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

April 11, 1973 Civic Auditorium, Portland, OR (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00, supported by Mimi Farina)

April 12, 1973 Opera House, Seattle, WA

April 13-14, 1973 Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC

April 16, 1973 HIC Arena, Honolulu, HI

April 21, 1973 Auditorium Theatre, Rochester, NY

May 19, 1973 Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, AZ

May ?, 1973 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON (joined Kris Kristofferson on stage to sing "Me & Bobby Magee")

May 24, 1973 Carlton Cinema, Dublin, IRE

May 25, 1973 Floral Hall, Southport, ENG

May 27, 1973 Free Trade Hall, Manchester, ENG

May 28, 1973 City Hall, Newcastle, ENG

May 30, 1973 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG

June 1, 1973 Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, ENG

June 3, 1973 Town Hall, Birmingham, ENG

October ?, 1973 John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH

November 10, 1973 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI

November 24, 1973 American Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, CT

December 15, 1973 University of Iowa Allman Fieldhouse, Iowa City, IA (with Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings & Billy Swan. The encore featured Jennings, Kristofferson & Lightfoot singing "Goodnight Irene")

January 24, 1974 Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA

January 25, 1974 Community Concourse, San Diego, CA

January 26, 1974 UCSB Old Men's Gym, Santa Barbara, CA

January 30, 1974 Dorothy Chandler Pavillon, Los Angeles, CA

February 8, 1974 Northern Arizona University Men's Gym, Flagstaff, AZ

February 9, 1974 University Of Texas Memorial Gym, El Paso, TX

February 10, 1974 University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

February 15, 1974 Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee, WI

February 16, 1974 Duluth Auditorium, Duluth, MN

February 17-18, 1974 O'Shaughnessy Auditorium, St. Paul, MN

February 21, 1974 Memorial Gardens, Sault Ste. Marie, ON

February 22, 1974 Calvin College Fine Arts Center, Grand Rapids, MI

February 23, 1974 US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD

February 26, 1974 University Of California Men's Gym, Santa Barbara, CA

March 1-3, 1974 National Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON

March 15, 1974 Miami Beach Auditorium, Miami, FL

March 16, 1974 Peabody Auditorium, Daytona Beach, FL

March 17, 1974 Municipal Auditorium, Jacksonville, FL

March 22-25, 1974 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

March 28, 1974 Academy Of Music, Philadelphia, PA

April 5, 1974 McMorran Arena, Port Huron, MI

April 6, 1974 Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL

April 7, 1974 Ambassador Theatre, St Louis, MO

April 8, 1974 Gallagher Hall, Stillwater, OK

April 12, 1974 Civic Centre, Atlanta, GA

April 13, 1974 Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

April 18, 1974 Grand Theatre, Quebec City, QC

April 19-21, 1974 Place Des Arts, Montreal, QC

April 22, 1974 Granada Theatre, Sherbrooke, QC

May 3, 1974 Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY

May 4, 1974 Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, AZ

May 5, 1974 Stanford University Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford, CA

May 10, 1974 University Of California, Davis, CA

May 11, 1974 University Of Alaska Patty Gym, Fairbanks, AK

May 12, 1974 West High Auditorium, Anchorage, AK

May 14, 1974 Civic Auditorium, Portland, OR (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00 supported by Ian & Sylvia)

May 15, 1974 University Of Oregon Mac Court, Eugene, OR

May 16-17, 1974 Opera House, Spokane, WA (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00 supported by Mimi Farina)

May 18, 1974 Cottonwood High School, Salt Lake City, UT

May 19, 1974 H.I.C. Arena, Honolulu, HI

June 7, 1974 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG

June 25, 1974 Performing Arts Centre, Saratoga Springs, NY

July 5-8, 1974 Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA

July 11, 1974 Assembly Centre, Tulsa, OK

July 12, 1974 Midland Theatre, Kansas City, MO

July 13, 1974 Snow Mass Park, Snowmass, CO

July 21, 1974 Acadia University, Wolfville, NS

July 26, 1974 Lewiston State Art Park Theatre, Lewiston, NY

Gordon Lightfoot Australian Tour 1974

September 18, 1974 Melbourne, AUS

September 19, 1974 Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, AUS

September 21, 1974 Hobart, AUS

September 22, 1974 Festival Hall, Adelaide, AUS

September 23, 1974 Festival Theatre, Perth, AUS

September 24, 1974 Perth Concert Hall, Perth, AUS

September 26, 1974 Festival Hall, Brisbane, AUS

October 6, 1974 Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

October 11, 1974 University Of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN

October 12, 1974 Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL

October 13, 1974 North Central College Fieldhouse, Naperville, IL

October 16, 1974 Civic Centre, Atlanta, GA

October 17, 1974 University Of North Carolina Carmichael Auditorium, Chapel Hill, NC

October 18, 1974 Kleinhan's Music Hall, Buffalo, NY

October 23, 1974 Convention Centre, Indianapolis, IN

October 24, 1974 Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH

October 25, 1974 Veteran's Memorial, Columbus, OH

October 26, 1974 Music Hall, Cleveland, OH

October 27, 1974 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI

November 8, 1974 Pershing Memorial Auditorium, Lincoln, NE

November 9, 1974 Drake University, Des Moines, IA

November 10, 1974 Illinois State University Auditorium, Normal, IL

November 29, 1974 D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC

November 30, 1974 University Of Maryland, Baltimore, MD

December 3, 1974 Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN

December 6 & 8, 1974 Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, NY

January 23-25, 1975 Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL

January 30, 1975 Brown Coliseum, Green Bay, WI

January 31, 1975 Indiana University Assembly Hall, Bloomington, IN

February 1, 1975 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI

February 2, 1975 Rock Valley College Physical Education Center, Rockford, IL

February 8, 1975 Civic Auditorium, Duluth, MN

February 9, 1975 Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN

February 10, 1975 Performing Arts Centre, Milwaukee, WI

February 23, 1975 Grand Valley State University, Allandale, MI

February 28, 1975 Munn Ice Arena, East Lansing, MI

March 1, 1975 Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, MI

March 2, 1975 Roberts Stadium, Evansville, IN

March 5, 1975 Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, UT

March 6, 1975 University Of Wyoming Fieldhouse, Laramie, WY

March 7, 1975 Utah State University Spectrum, Logan, UT

March 8, 1975 Community Centre, Tuscon, AZ

March 17-23, 1975 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

March 28, 1975 Miami Beach Auditorium, Miami, FL

March 29, 1975 Civic Auditorium, Jacksonville, FL

April 4, 1975 University Arena, Carbondale, IL

April 5, 1975 Assembly Hall, Urbana, IL

April 6, 1975 University Of Western Ontario, London, ON

April 10, 1975 Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA

April 11, 1975 Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA

April 12, 1975 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA

April 13, 1975 Golden Hall, San Diego, CA

May 1, 1975 St. Martins College, Olympia, WA

May 2, 1975 Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

May 3, 1975 Washington State University Coliseum, Pullman, WA

May 4, 1975 University Of Montana, Missoula, MT

May 9, 1975 Hamilton Place, Hamilton, ON

May 10, 1975 Peterborough Arena, Peterborough, ON

May 17, 1975 Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh, PA

May 18, 1975 Academy Of Music, Philadelphia, PA

June 6, 1975 Music Hall, Oklahoma City, OK

June 7, 1975 Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, TX

June 8, 1975 Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio, TX

June 19, 1975 Portland Auditorium, Portland, OR (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00, supported by Mimi Farina)

June 20, 1975 Opera House, Spokane, WA (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00, supported by Mimi Farina)

June 21, 1975 Opera House, Seattle, WA (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00, supported by Mimi Farina)

June 22, 1975 H.I.C. Arena, Honolulu, HI

June 30, 1975 Garden State Art Centre, Holmdel, NJ

July 1, 1975 Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

July 5, 1975 Washington Park, Homewood, IL (supported by Maria Muldaur)

July 6, 1975 Amphitheatre Main Stage, Milwaukee, WI

July 11, 1975 Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

July 12, 1975 Red Rocks, Morrison, CO

July 13-14, 1975 Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

July 15, 1975 Convention Hall, Wichita, KS

July 16, 1975 S.I.U. Outdoor Campus, Edwardsville, IL

October 5, 1975 D.A.R. Constitution Hall, Washington, DC

October 25, 1975 Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, NED

October 26, 1975 Musikhalle, Hamburg, GER

October 27, 1975 Circuscrone, Munich, GER

October 28, 1975 Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, GER

October 29, 1975 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG

November 8, 1975 Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI (supported by Mimi Farina)

November 9, 1975 Symphony Hall, Boston, MA (2 shows 3.30 & 8.00)

November 21-22, 1975 Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, NY (2 shows on the 22nd 7.30 & 11.00, supported by Mimi Farina)

December 1-2, 1975 Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON (Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue)

March 12-14, 1976 Sahara Tahoe Hotel, Lake Tahoe, NV

March 15, 1976 Midnight Special, Los Angeles, CA

March 22-28, 1976 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

April 2, 1976 Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA

April 3, 1976 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA

April 4, 1976 Golden Hall, San Diego, CA

April 5, 1976 Colorado State University Moby Gym, Fort Collins, CO

April 15, 1976 Sports Arena, Anchorage, AK

April 16, 1976 Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC

April 22, 1976 Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID

April 23, 1976 Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, UT

April 24, 1976 Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN (2 shows 7.30 & 10.30)

April 30, 1976 Pershing Auditorium, Lincoln, NE

May 1-2, 1976 Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL

May 22, 1976 New York City, NY (Saturday Night Live)

June 11, 1976 Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON (Olympic Benefit)

June 17, 1976 Red Rocks Park, Denver, CO

June 18, 1976 Opera House, Seattle, WA

June 19, 1976 Opera House, Spokane, WA

June 20, 1976 Portland Auditorium, Portland, OR

June 24, 1976 Stadthalle, Frankfurt, GER

June 25, 1976 Circus Krone, Munich, GER (supported by Barbara Dickson)

June 26, 1976 Montreux, SUI (Montreux Festival)

July 1, 1976 Garden State Arts Centre, Holmdel, NJ

July 2, 1976 Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

July 3, 1976 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

July 9, 1976 Bushnell Auditorium, Hartford, CT

July 10, 1976 Academy Of Music, Philadelphia, PA

July 11, 1976 Saratoga Performing Arts Centre, Saratoga Springs, NY

July 17, 1976 Olympic Village, Montreal, QC (Benefit)

July 19, 1976 Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI

July 20, 1976 Blossom Music Festival, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

July 24, 1976 Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB

July 27, 1976 Mississippi River Festival, Edwardsville, IL

July 29-August 1, 1976 Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City, CA

October 1-3, 1976 Circle Star Theatre, San Carlos, CA

October 8, 1976 Convention Center, San Antonio, TX

October 9, 1976 Tarrant County Convention Center Arena, Fort Worth, TX

October 10, 1976 Music Hall, Oklahoma City, OK

October 15, 1976 Civic Centre, El Paso, TX

October 16, 1976 Gammage Auditorium, Tempe, AZ

October 17, 1976 University Of New Mexico Fieldhouse, Albuquerque, NM

October 22, 1976 Duluth Auditorium, Duluth, MN

October 23, 1976 Glacier Dome, Traverse City, MI

October 24, 1976 Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, MI

November 6, 1976 National Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON

November 11, 1976 Hulman Centres Theatre, Terre Haute, IN

November 12, 1976 University Of Cincinnati Armory Fieldhouse, Cincinnati, OH (supported by Mimi Farina)

November 13, 1976 DAR Constitution Hall, Washington, DC

November 14, 1976 Capitol Music Hall, Wheeling, WV

November 19-21, 1976 Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, NY

November 27, 1976 Convention Centre Arena, Anaheim, CA

December 4, 1976 Centennial Hall, Toledo, OH

December 10, 1976 Peterborough Arena, Peterborough, ON

December 11, 1976 Hamilton Place, Hamilton, ON

December 17, 1976 Hynes Auditorium Prudential Plaza, Boston, MA

January 28-30, 1977 Sahara Tahoe Hotel, Lake Tahoe, NV

February 9, 1977 Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, Charleston, SC

February 10, 1977 Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa, FL

February 11, 1977 Memorial Coliseum, Auburn, AL

February 12, 1977 Civic Centre, Atlanta, GA

February 25-27, 1977 Front Row Theatre, Cleveland, OH

March 4, 1977 Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA

March 5, 1977 Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA

March 6, 1977 Golden Hall, San Diego, CA

March 21-27, 1977 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

April 1, 1977 Broome County Arena, Binghampton, NY

April 2, 1977 Convention Centre, Niagara Falls, NY

April 3, 1977 Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

April 7, 1977 Convention Centre, Indianapolis, IN

April 8-9, 1977 Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL

April 15, 1977 Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN

April 16, 1977 Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS

April 17, 1977 North Dakota State University Fieldhouse, Fargo, ND

April 29, 1977 The Scope, Norfolk, VA

April 30, 1977 Civic Centre, Roanoke, VA

May 1, 1977 Coliseum, Knoxville, TN

May 5-11, 1977 Sahara Tahoe Hotel, Lake Tahoe, NV

June 14-15, 1977 Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI

June 16, 1977 Blossom Music Festival, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

June 17, 1977 Civic Centre, Charleston, WV

June 30, 1977 Place Des Arts, Montreal, QC

July 1, 1977 Saratoga Performing Arts Centre, Saratoga Springs, NY

July 2, 1977 Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

July 4, 1977 Festival Theatre, Stratford, ON

July 7, 1977 Garden State Arts Centre, Holmdel, NJ

July 8-9, 1977 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

July 10, 1977 Robin Hood Dell, Philadelphia, PA

July 14-20, 1977 MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, NV (supported by David Steinberg)

August 3-7, 1977 Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA

September 15, 1977 Portland Auditorium, Portland, OR (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00, supported by Liona Boyd)

September 16-17, 1977 Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC

September 18, 1977 Opera House, Seattle, WA

September 19-20, 1977 Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA

October 15, 1977 Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI (Four Together: World Hunger Benefit, with Harry Chapin, John Denver & James Taylor)

November 3, 1977 Arena, Denver, CO

November 4, 1977 Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, UT

November 5, 1977 Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

November 22-27, 1977 Uris Theatre, New York City, NY

December 12, 1977 Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, NY

February 15, 1978 Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, LA

February 18, 1978 Metro Centre, Halifax, NS

February 23, 1978 Kiel Opera House, St. Louis, MO

February 24, 1978 Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, TX

February 25, 1978 Municipal Auditorium, Austin, TX

February 26, 1978 Music Hall, Houston, TX

March 2-3, 1978 Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL

March 4, 1978 Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, NY

March 5, 1978 Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA

March 9, 1978 Uihlein Hall, Milwaukee, WI

March 10, 1978 Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN (2 shows 7.30 & 10.30)

March 11, 1978 Duluth Auditorium, Duluth, MN (2 shows 7.00 & 10.00)

March 18-26, 1978 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

April 7, 1978 Music Hall, Cleveland, OH

April 8, 1978 Western Michigan University's James Miller Auditorium, Kalamazoo, MI

April 9, 1978 Civic Center, Lansing, MI

April 14, 1978 Civic Centre, Wheeling, WV

April 15, 1978 York College, York, PA

April 16, 1978 Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

April 21, 1978 Vanderbilt University Auditorium, Nashville, TN

April 22, 1978 Purdue University Elliot Hall Of Music, West Lafayette, IN

April 23, 1978 Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

April 27, 1978 Centennial Auditorium, Saskatoon, SK

April 28, 1978 Agradome, Regina, SK

April 29, 1978 Sportsplex, Lethbridge, AB

April 30, 1978 Jubilee Hall, Edmonton, AB

May 5, 1978 Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI

May 6, 1978 Brown County Coliseum, Green Bay, WI

May 7, 1978 Music Hall, Cincinnati, OH

May 12, 1978 Auditorium Arena, Denver, CO

May 13, 1978 Gammage Center For The Performing Arts, Tempe, AZ (supported by Mimi Farina)

May 14, 1978 Civic Theatre, San Diego, CA

June 9, 1978 County Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA

June 10-11, 1978 Opera House, San Francisco, CA

June 22-23, 1978 Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI

June 24, 1978 Hara Arena, Dayton, OH

June 30, 1978 Mid Hudson Civic Centre, Poughkeepsie, NY

July 1, 1978 Cumberland County Civic Centre, Portland, ME

July 2, 1978 Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY

August 22-27, 1978 Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA

August 31, 1978 Performing Arts Centre, Saratoga Springs, NY

September 1, 1978 Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

September 2, 1978 Garden State Arts Centre, Holmdel, NJ

September 29, 1978 Lakeview Arena, Marquette, MI

September 30, 1978 Iowa State University, Ames, IA

October 1, 1978 Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, MB

October 7, 1978 Miami Beach Theatre, Miami, FL

October 8, 1978 Bayfront Centre Theatre, St. Petersburg, FL

October 9, 1978 Civic Centre Concert Hall, Birmingham, AL

October 10, 1978 Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, PA

October 11, 1978 Kennedy Centre, Washington, DC

October 26, 1978 Opera House, Seattle, WA

October 27, 1978 Opera House, Spokane, WA

October 28, 1978 University Of Utah Assembly Centre, Salt Lake City, UT

November 2-3, 1978 Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC

November 4, 1978 Portland Auditorium, Portland, OR

November 5, 1978 West High Auditorium, Anchorage, AK

November 8, 1978 Waikiki Shell, Honolulu, HA

March 15, 1979 Place Des Arts, Montreal, QC

March 17-25, 1979 Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

April 8, 1979 Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, NY (Benefit)

April 27, 1979 Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN

April 28, 1979 Duluth Auditorium, Duluth, MN

June 22, 1979 Golden Hall, San Diego, CA

June 23-24, 1979 Opera House, San Francisco, CA

July 6, 1979 Summer Fest, Milwaukee, WI

July 7, 1979 Garden State Arts Centre, Holmdel, NJ

July 8, 1979 Melody Fair, North Tonawanda, NY

July 10, 1979 Tanglewood, Lenox, MA

July 14, 1979 Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI

August 7, 1979 Blossom Music Festival, Cuyahoga Falls, OH

August 8, 1979 Ravinia Music Festival, Chicago, IL

August 9, 1979 Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston, MI

August 13, 1979 Performing Arts Centre, Saratoga Springs, NY

August 14, 1979 Robin Hood Dell, Philadelphia, PA (supported by Leo Kottke)

August 22-26, 1979 Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA

September 6, 1979 Hamilton Place, Hamilton, ON

September 8, 1979 Metro Center, Halifax, NS

September 15, 1979 Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA

September 28, 1979 Memorial Community Centre, Peterborough, ON

September 29-30, 1979 National Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON

October 5, 1979 Jubilee Auditorium, Calgary, AB

October 6, 1979 Denver Auditorium Arena, Denver, CO

October 7, 1979 Gammage Auditorium, Tempe, AZ

October 10-11, 1979 Carnegie Hall, New York City, NY

November 1-2, 1979 Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver, BC

November 3, 1979 Civic Auditorium, Portland, OR

November 4, 1979 Opera House, Seattle, WA

My Amazon Shop   US    CA    UK    DE

All photos ©1968 by Wilfrid Laurier Student Publications, from their Keystone '68 Yearbook. Lightfoot performed there in early January 1968.

This song was a turning point for him, at least as I see it. It's the first example of what became his unique singing style; nothing like any of the other songs on the record. And it's the first recording of him playing Travis style, which would become one of his trademarks. This picking style was originated by Merle Travis - who wrote "Dark as a Dungeon". Many guitarists use Travis style for at least some of their songs, but I have yet to hear anyone who plays it as Gordon does. (Merle Travis is one of a handful of players whom Lightfoot acknowledges as an influence; others include Ian Tyson and Bob Gibson). Lightfoot's version of "Dungeon" made an impact on others, not the least of whom is Bob Dylan, who performed it one night at Rolling Thunder in Toronto when Lightfoot was there as a performing guest. Bob dedicated the song to Lightfoot; listen, and you will understand why. (Note: the MP3 album is clearly what people in the industry refer to as "needle drop"; literally recording from a record on a turntable, rather than using the master tapes of the original record or some level of production tapes. The record this was made from was far worse than mine, but it's "essential Lightfoot", and nothing better is available). NOTE: At this time (5/2018), the MP3 album is no longer available. I guess it's time to dust off our old turntables and spin a copy of the record.

The four studio albums are available on one CD, United Artists Collection, which I have in my store here .

Visit the albums page for more information about CDs which contain the United Artists recordings.

This article is copyrighted by Valerie L. Shainin . Any publication or reproduction is strictly prohibited unless permission is obtained from the copyright holder.

Another Folk Artist: Judy Collins

Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame to induct an inaugural class of 28

It’s been about six years since Boch Center CEO and President Joe Spaulding and chairman of the board Mark Weld had what would amount to a fateful discussion about music. Both acoustic guitarists, and both in agreement that Boston had long been a hotbed of folk music, they created a folk-Americana music performance series.

But that turned out to be just a hint of what was to come. The following year, they began development and fundraising efforts for the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame (FARHOF), a project that would be delayed by the pandemic.

FARHOF opened in the fall of 2022 at the Wang Theatre , with renovated spaces, plenty of visual and aural exhibits, and tours. But it’s taken until now for Spaulding and his team to get around to something they’d been planning from the start: an official induction of the inaugural class of the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.

The festivities on April 19-20 will include a ceremony honoring 28 inductees in the categories of solo legacy artist, solo living artist, duo or group of musicians, and non-performer, along with a Paul Robeson Artist/Activist Award.

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Among the musical artists being recognized are Lead Belly, Johnny Cash, Gordon Lightfoot, Odetta, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Peter, Paul & Mary, and the Byrds. Though the celebration is not open to the public — invites went only to inductees and their families — the event is being covered by PBS and American Public Television for broadcast in November.

“This was supposed to happen a few years ago, and it’s an amazing relief that it finally is,” Spaulding said. “We had mapped out how we were going to do it, and then everything went to hell in a handbasket with COVID. So, to resurrect it, we had a committee of about 30 people — our board members and artist industry advisers — going through it. In our first pass, 187 artists were nominated. We spent about four months getting it all organized, and ended up with 28.”

Spaulding said that during the back-and-forth of the nominating and voting process, much of the discussion had to do with the cultural impact made by the contenders, along with social causes they were involved in, diversity issues, “and, of course . . . the contributions they made in music.”

FARHOF board member Noel Paul Stookey, who is being honored as a member of Peter, Paul & Mary (he recused himself from voting for the trio) spoke to the Globe by phone from his home in California.

“I think it’s the authenticity of intent that really binds us together,” he said of the honorees. “Are these issues that face humankind contemporary? Are they surmountable? Do they require — in the words of [folksinger] Anne Feeney — going to jail for justice? Do they require being out on the picket lines or writing op-eds? Yes, all of those. And if you go down that list of people, I think you’d find that they all, at one point or another, participated in all of those aspects of making a difference.”

Musician, producer, and Blue Note Records president Don Was — a FARHOF adviser — has worked with honorees Raitt, Nelson, Cash, and Staples. “I think all [of the inductees] are authentic artists,” he said by phone from Los Angeles. “They’re people who have the special gift — to be able to communicate on a higher level with audiences. They step up, they write, they say things in the songs that other people can bring into their own lives: how to cope with a troubled world, how to appreciate beauty around you. The four I produced or played with stand out because they’re not playing a character, they’re not part of a charade. They’re just being real.”

Stookey and Was both have a history of performing in the area.

“I was there with Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, and again on the Last Waltz Tour,” Was said. “We played at the Wang and at the Shubert, and that’s how I met Joe Spaulding.”

“I played in Cambridge even before Peter, Paul & Mary,” said Stookey. “I had a girlfriend, Betty Bannard, who I later married , who worked at a publishing company in Boston. I was playing solo at that time. I lived in New York, and on my days off I would go to Boston to be with Betty, and I worked at Club 47.”

Along with the awards ceremony and presentation, plans for the event include a casual get-together among the inductees and their families, and some mostly unstructured performances. Among those scheduled to take part are Joan Baez, Stookey and Peter Yarrow, Amy Helm, Tom Rush, Livingston Taylor, Meredith Lightfoot, Josh White Jr., the Mammals, and Will Dailey.

Asked to address the rumor that Baez might be called up by Stookey and Yarrow to sing parts of songs that were once handled by the late Mary Travers, Stookey chuckled and said, “I think when you put folkies into the same room, there’s a historical probability to that.”

What’s definite is that the FARHOF folks are already champing at the bit to plan next year’s event.

“We’ll start right away,” Spaulding said. “On April 22, we’ll get ready to launch a bigger committee, with more nominators, and we intend to have 12 new inductees each year.”

Of additional note at FARHOF, a new photo exhibit — “ The All Seeing Eye: Blue Note Records Through the Lens of Francis Wolff ” — is going up on May 1. And Spaulding recently announced that his last day leading the Boch Center will be May 31.

“But I don’t like to use the word retirement,” he said. “I’m stepping down from the job I’ve had for the past 38 years, but I’m not walking away. I’m hoping to be involved in a consulting position at FARHOF, and as a senior advisor to the [Boch] Center.

“And I’ve been playing my guitar a lot and have begun writing songs again.”

Ed Symkus can be reached at [email protected] .