Lightfoot show blends pop styles well, as usual
by Martin Moynihan, The Knickerbocker News, August 4, 1980
Gordon Lightfoot’s annual stop at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center was, of course, uniquely Gordon Lightfoot. The Canadian singer-songwriter took themes from several types of popular music and sang them with his distinctive voice to produce the sound just about everyone expected. So what’s new?
Not too much, really, although Lightfoot leaned a little more on rock themes, and performed quite a few cuts from his new album “Dream Street Rose,” including several ballads and a fine sea song, “The Ghosts of Cape Horn. The latter sounded much like and might be the successor to his biggest hit in recent years, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”
But Lightfoot seemed more at ease this trip than he did, say, a couple of years ago, when he was making a transition from acoustic guitar with one backup guitar to the leader of an electrified band. In good voice and seemingly in an ebullient mood, he performed well what was expected of him and added his own touches for this tour.
Saturday night, in a concert that fit perfectly between two rain showers, the pieces were all there. Lightfoot blended folk, country, pop, and just a tinge of rock and put on a show that was uniquely Lightfoot.
An audience of 6,308 that spanned several generations seemed to hold its warmest applause for Lightfoot’s hits, songs covering more than a decade, including “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” the heroic “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” the more recent “Sundown,” and “Summertime Dream.” For his own reasons, he clowned around a bit with “Don Quixote.”
But Lightfoot tours are always different in that the man is an extremely prolific songwriter, with more than 400 tunes to his credit. Saturday’s show showed new material emphasizing the singer’s generally fine way with an up-tempo ballad. Another song from his new album dealt with the environment and the creatures of the wild and was nicely handled and had a particularly electric sound.
Lightfoot’s biggest problem in a live performance, and he has had it before in Saratoga Springs, is diction. Too many of his lyrics were lost in the spacious amphitheater, although many of the words were heard perfectly. This led to a couple of songs sounding disjointed, although most could be clearly heard.
Lightfoot accompanies himself on acoustic 6- and 12-string guitar, and is an accomplished strummer. But a good portion of his sound comes from accompanists Terry Clements on electric guitar and Richard Haynes on pedal steel guitar. Both are versatile musicians, with Clements playing excellently and providing some vocal backup and Haynes coaxing violin-like sounds from his instrument. Edward Ringwald on electric bass and drummer Barry Keane rounded out Lightfoot’s band.
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