Canadian troubadour comes to Helena and Billings
Gordon Lightfoot, the author of such hits as as “Early Morning Rain,” “Sundown,” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “If You Could Read My Mind” makes two stops in Montana this month: 8 p.m. June 16 at the Helena Civic Center (406-447-8481 or www.helenaciviccenter.com) and 7:30 p.m. June 17 at the Alberta Bair Theater (406-256-6052 or www.albertabairtheater.org).
The Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee has recorded 20 albums, and posted five No. 1, five Top 10 and over a dozen Top 40 hits. His concerts weave together all those familiar songs with Lightfoot’s own behind-the-scenes stories and personal anecdotes about his historic half-century musical career.
The Canadian-born troubadour received the inaugural Massey Hall Honors Award in 2014 for playing at Toronto’s famed venue 152 times in 50 years.
In an interview that appeared in The Low Country Today, Lightfoot shied away from the word legend. “I’ve certainly been around a long time and been at it now over 50 years but I don’t consider myself a legend,” he said. “I’m a guy who likes to sings my songs in front of people who want to hear them. I work at what I do and I enjoy it.”
He travels with about 15 people and typically performs up to 80 shows a year. “We try to keep it as simple as possible,” he told Low Country Today. “We go out, do our shows for a few weeks, and after that we all go home to our families for a few weeks.”
“It’s a good rhythm,” he added. “I’m just grateful I can still do this at 76.”
His work has been recorded by a host of performers, including early rock and folk pioneers Elvis Presley, Judy Collings, Johnny Cash, Peter, Paul and Mary and Richie Havens. Bob Dylan lists Lightfoot as one of his favorite songwriters and often includes “Shadows” in his set list, and Robbie Robertson of The Band called him a Canadian “national treasure.”