Lightfoot spices familiar tunes with some new, some blue
by Cindy Reynolds, The Knickerbocker News, July 2, 1977
Some things old, some new and even something bluesy was spun out Friday night with a well-paced gusto by balladeer Gordon Lightfoot at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
The audience loved it all, because they came to be reassured by the Canadian minstrel man that a “summertime dream” can still be heard in his hearty, smooth singing and guitar picking. Lightfoot took his fans’ eagerness to enjoy his “big time” tunes, such as “Sundown” and “If You Could Read My Mind,” as a door to open his latest musical ventures—blues and a throwback to the hard rock beat of the 1960s.
He had control of the friendly crowd, which numbered more than 6,000. The devoted ones laughed at his familiar jokes: When Lightfoot began, “I want to introduce the members of the band,” the appreciative chuckles were heard even before the five men shook hands and talked among themselves with their backs to the audience. The vintage humor is tied to the favorite songs, some more than a decade old, such as “Canadian Railroad Trilogy.”
With his new material, Lightfoot peppered each introduction with apologies and reminders that “we’ll get back to the old stuff later, but you know each year we like to throw in a couple new ones. With 120 songs on record, it’s hard to play them all.”
After his fairly recent “Don Quixote,” he launched into “the first blues I’ve ever done—’If There’s a Reason’.” While no whistling or cheering accompanied him as on “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” the clapping remained enthusiastic. Lightfoot’s deep, vigorous voice seems a bit out of place in a plaintive, howling song, unadorned by soft lyrics or simple guitar strumming. He followed with the hard-driving “l Ain’t Got Nothing to Hide,” reminiscent of the repetitive thumping of The Band’s brand of country rock.
Lightfoot used “Sundown” to stir up the crowd again. Several members of the audience, in keeping with the supposed spirit of the weekend, shot firecrackers about briefly during Lightfoot’s tender “If You Could Read My Mind.” These blasts later nearly drowned out the singer’s jokes, and towards the end of the evening, when he was tuning his guitar amidst yells for particular songs, Lightfoot finally acknowledged some of the disturbances: “I’m trying to accommodate you all and retune this thing just right. But if you don’t stop yelling, I won’t be able to hear a goddamn thing.” The rest of the fans almost gave him a standing ovation then.
Lightfoot’s pacing—familiar peppy, then sad tunes, elaborate explanations for new ones, humor and one encore—was similar to last year’s show at SPAC. Also returning with him was Canadian Liona Boyd, a classical guitarist who played primarily Spanish pieces. The intricate, soft sounds set a relaxed mood for Lightfoot’s easy style.
They will be performing tonight at Tanglewood in Lenox, Mass. Lightfoot usually conducts a summer tour to trot out some new works before an album is introduced in the fall. He could do this year after year, and his fans would welcome the chance to hear lyrics that can be romantic without being sappy, rowdy without being run-of-the-mill and patriotic without being corny. He appears unassuming until he lets a joke fly, and he and his band present the songs as polished as any studio mix.
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