PunBB

Great show it was awesome to see that side of both of them just hanging out joking around they have unbelievable sense of humors. I like the rest of the crowd spent a good amount of time laughing at these guys and the joking that was going on.

Overall a great concept I have never been to a show like this and it was something special :thumb:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/columnists/jane_stevenson/2010/02/05/12749866-sun.html">http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment ... 6-sun.html</a><!-- m -->

Lightfoot paired with Hip frontman
By JANE STEVENSON, Toronto Sun

A master class in songwriting was offered up by two of the greatest Gords our country has arguably ever offered up - folk icon Gordon Lightfoot and Tragically Hip rocker Gord Downie - on Thursday night at the George Weston Recital Hall.

The occasion was the inaugural concert in a new six-part series, If You Could Read My Mind, named for Lightfoot's 1970 breakthrough song.

Being put on by the Canadian Songwriters' Hall of Fame, the brilliant idea - one that was long overdue - was to pair up two artists to perform stripped-down versions of some of their work and discuss their craft in an intimate setting.

Backed by his two longtime bandmates, Terry Clemente on acoustic guitar and Rick Haynes on bass, Lightfoot trotted out Rainy Day People, Shadows, If You Could Read My Mind and Let It Ride over the course of two hours and plenty of conversation.

Downie, wearing a hat and glasses and seated and strumming an acoustic guitar on his own, dipped into The Hip's Morning Moon and Bobcaygeon, his older solo track, Willow Logic, and a brand new song, (The) Hard Canadian, from his upcoming third solo album due in May.

Additionally, emerging songwriter and East Coast folkie Catherine MacLellan, the talented daughter of another Canadian songwriting legend, Gene MacLellan (Snowbird, Put Your Hand In The Hand), performed three songs, including Lightfoot's I'll Be Alright while he sat a few feet away.

"I got really high and listened to Gordon Lightfoot albums for 12 hours, " she joked of her preparation.

Still, the small theatre setting was perfect for the animated, funny, revelatory and - at times - touching discussion between the two men and host Laurie Brown.

It was hard not to notice Downie's admiration of the 71-year-old Lightfoot - whose "austerity and economy of words" he praised - as The Hip's lead singer got downright emotional early in the show which was being taped for later broadcast on CBC Radio 2.

At first he joked about his obsession when Brown asked the two men what they primarily thought of themselves as - a songwriter, an entertainer, etc..

"I think of myself of Gordon Lightfoot," deadpanned Downie, who would continue the yuks for the duration of the night.

And when Downie went to perform his first song, his nerves and emotions got the better of him.

"That was a wrestling match Gord," said Downie to Lightfoot, touching his knee, afterwards. "But I won. I love being here but it's making me crazy. I promised myself I wouldn't cry."

"It didn't take long," Lightfoot goodnaturedly ribbed back.

Downie was also asked, via an audience question, about which artist's shoes he'd most like to walk in, and he pointed to Lightfoot's snazzy white ankle boots: "Quite literally, I want those shoes."

As the show wound Downie said to Lightfoot: "Until tonight, I only really knew you from the radio. A 10-year-old kid listening to Sundown. It was like a secret from you to me. Thanks for being a great teacher."

Otherwise, the Orillia, Ont-born Lightfoot said he first began writing songs in Grade 12 - his first ever was a novelty tune called The Hula Hoop Song which was inspired by a Life magazine cover - and was inspired more seriously later by Dylan but admitted that "recording was like going to the dentist."

He said he still has a technical rehearsal with his band every Friday to keep his guitar skills up.

When Downie asked Lightfoot about dealing with writer's block, the onetime drinker didn't miss a beat: "Alcohol."

Downie, who hails from Kingston, Ont., couldn't remember the first tune he wrote but said he first sang at a house party - The Doors' opus The End of all things - "trying to infuse it with 15-year-old angst."

Later, he recalled, he and his Hip bandmates hung out at The Prince George Hotel catching travelling blues legends like John Lee Hooker in concert but Downie admitted he didn't learn to play the acoustic guitar until he was twenty.

Both men agreed their songwriting had been hugely inspired by nature over the years, helping to forge the Canadian identity, with Lightfoot revealing he went on massive canoe trips in Northern Ontario and Quebec, sometimes a month at a time.

The only problem - and it's a good one to have - the CSHF now faces is how to make the next five concerts as entertaining as Thursday night's premiere deluxe edition.

Lightfoot and Downie's natural chemistry set the bar high.

The only minor suggested change to the format is that a collaboration between the two men would have been fun to hear or even their versions of each others songs.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5

Tthip Wrote:http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/...6-sun.html

Lightfoot paired with Hip frontman
By JANE STEVENSON, Toronto Sun

Jeez, that's what I was going to write! :-)

A truly fun evening...definitely time well spent.
After, I couldn't help thinking they missed a once in a lifetime chance for a Gordon/Gordie duet of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald!!!

Cheers,
Ken(adian)

chris Wrote:Contrary to what Pat wrote there were no antidotes shared; but there were some fun anecdotes.

*Shakes fist and curses to the sky. The editor is foiled again. I should have seen this coming, based on the amount of changes I've had to make this morning to the column I wrote write after this review. Oi...

Chris, as always, it's a pleasure being corrected by you.

Cheers,

Pat

As everyone else has stated, the night was incredible. The wit of Downie is hilarious, and all of the performances were great. It was pretty cool that my question was used as well. I think it was the first one she asked from the audience cards. Which of your songs are you most proud of writing? LIghtfoot said If you Could Read My Mind, and Downie said Bobcaygeon.

As Pat said, Hard Canadian is going to be an awesome song. Gord said he wrote the brunt of it in a Detroit hotel room looking out of his window at the Ambassador Bridge. There was one point in the song where he really let his vocals take off and it was awesome. Laurie Brown even commented on it after the song.

From where my dad and I were sitting, front row on the right side facing the stage, we were about 10 feet from Gordon Lightfoot when he was performing and it was something I will never forget. Rainy Day people is one of my all time favourite songs and so is Let it Ride which he finished with. I got goosebumps during each.

Pretty special night...got to see lightfoot sing from eight feet away. What irked me was the stool next to Lightfoot's (song) mic, which was right between me and Downie, so all I could see of him all night was his hat and his legs. Argh.

Laurie Brown was just awful as an interviewer. I'm still mad Gord didn't complete his fiddler's green story. Thought morning moon was pretty rough on the acoustic, made me miss the rest of the band. The other three were pretty good, though.

I loved the bit when Lightfoot was talking about Canadian Railroad trilogy:

Lightfoot: (talks for 5 minutes about CRT, without ever mentioning its name)
Brown: What do you think of that song, Gord?
Downie: (pauses….) Which song is that?
Brown: Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Downie: Oh…
Lightfoot: That’s okay, I don’t know all of *your* catalogue, either.

aha yes, Lightfoot was the slightest rambler in interviews, only compared to Downie's sometimes one-worded-yet-powerful answers ..that slightness is what also makes him a beauty. Great stories.
I do also wish that GD got to finish the fiddler'sgreen story..
I think GL used the word repertoire instead of catalouge

Wow, still in awe of the night. Awesome chemistry.
Lol imagine canoing with the Gord's. Thats unimaginable actually
I wonder how much grass GL takes with him northward for a 30 day escapade,
wow something like that is being added to the bucket list.

Anyone know of free software to strip audio off my mp4 from my camera. I did this once before and flipped it into mp3's
for a personal listen and cannot remember what I used. Anyways Love to get the headphones on for this one
again.. Downie's new one, Bob C and one of Lightfoots oldies.

I like when Downie get's real...talking about his Daughter on a trip to centre island, the email reading was real, almost not making it thru the Fiddlers Green story re: emotion is real..... but every interview he has ever done he often quotes, poets and authors sometimes seemingly in some Jim Morrison kinda way to sound well read.... sh-t we know you are well read... pick up any lyrics sheet over the last 20 yrs and he is the only man who can get words and phrases that some of us have to look up into a melody or song... man.

My Dad, being the English teacher, loved the name dropping Downie did, especially with the Romantic poets. He taught Hip lyrics toward the end of his career (specifically showing the different readings of Bobcaygeon before and after seeing the video) and I think this really furthered his appreciation of GD's lyrics.

Also, Radio 2 Drive is playing songs from last night this afternoon. Apparently they're going to play Hard Canadian during the 5 pm local time hour (I'm skipping ahead and listening to the Atlantic feed on iTunes right now). Already played was Sparrow by Catherine MacLellan; If You Could Read My Mind was Tom Power's last song on the morning show today as well.

Cheers,

Pat

Good point
maybe it's my frustration sometimes of not connecting with every name he mentions...
I've gone and looked up artists and authors that he has mentioned over the years

I did that with Morrison too... The Doors Of Perception... I picked up Huxley's book from a
garage sale one time after reading about it in "No One Here Gets Out Alive"

The ...." pauses..." in Hard Canadian were especially powerful in that Theatre last night

daylight Wrote:The Hard Canadian.

Thank you Sir :thumb:

nice, thanks and I like

Thanks daylight. Loved it last night, and still love it today! :thumb:

Is that from his performance last night or the studio cut?