By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com

Gordon Lightfoot plays the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $42.50 and $52.50, are available through Ticketmaster.

Gord still mining musical gold

Chances are if you like folk music or FM rock radio’s golden years, you have a copy of Gordon Lightfoot’s best-of album, “Gord’s Gold,” in your record collection. I say “record collection,” because some of you might own a copy on vinyl, dating back to when it was released in 1975. And if that’s the case, chances are even greater that you wore out the grooves on it playing over and over again songs like “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and “Early Morning Rain.” Imagine if the album would have included the infectious “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”? Released in 1976, after Lightfoot read a Newsweek magazine story about the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the song is one of the Orilla, Ontario, native’s most recognized hits.

“The bulk of my hits took place in the ’70s, but I have sustained a career performing and recording over the years,” the 69-year-old Lightfoot told Cityview. “I’m always introducing a new thing or two during my concerts, but I don’t like to belabor that because people want to hear the hits.”

Revered by folk music fans and critics [Bob Dylan once said, “Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever.”], Lightfoot has been mining musical gold since he came to prominence in Canada during the ’60s. After studying music in college in California during the late ’50s, Lightfoot returned to Canada where his warm baritone vocals, poetic songwriting and hypnotic sound made him a star of the competitive Toronto folk music scene. In 1965, he signed with Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman and United Artists, and made a splash at the Newport Folk Festival.

One year later, Lightfoot released his debut album, “Lightfoot!”, which included “Early Morning Rain,” “Steel Rail Blues” and “Ribbon of Darkness.” In 1970, he scored a hit with “If You Could Read My Mind,” and the rest, as they say, is history, as Lightfoot went on to record several additional hits that garnered him five Grammy nominations, 17 Juno Awards and membership into Canada’s Walk of Fame and The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Over the years, artists like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Dylan have also recorded his songs.

“It was a fun kind of music that I was capable of playing,” Lightfoot said with humility when asked why he preferred folk music to other genres.

Like a lot of folk music stars of the ’60s and ’70s who struggled to gain radio airplay for their new material during the ’80s and ’90s, Lightfoot helped sustain his career by touring. But unlike many of his contemporaries, Lightfoot limited his touring schedule [and still does] to about 50 dates a year, driving up demand for one of his coveted performances — like the one scheduled to be held April 1 at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines.

“I don’t find touring tiresome,” Lightfoot said. “I find it rejuvenating.”

Playing centers and large theaters without support from a record company as Lightfoot does is almost unheard of in the cutthroat music business today that champions youth, trends and corporate connections over experience, durability and independence — unless you’re a household name. Lightfoot, who has not been under contract with anyone since 1998, finds his return to the grassroots level of the business to be liberating.

“It’s nice to be a performer like before I ever had a contract, so I can get my teeth into it because we’re doing some great shows,” Lightfoot said. “And they’re not as ballad heavy as people might think they are. People really do respond to them.”

The same, Lightfoot admitted, can’t be said for many promising folk artists who can’t play larger venues because they don’t have the kind of popularity their elders enjoyed on radio 30 and 40 years ago.

“There’s no particular direction any of them can go in because the music business is so directed at the hip side of things — the real super modern approach to music — which is good because that’s the way life is these days,” Lightfoot said. “So I just try to encourage them and tell them what a great job they’re doing. Unfortunately, they can’t good record deals because all that sells is rock, and that’s the way it shall be. I’m glad I’m not trying to get a record deal now. At the time I started out, they were looking for folk artists. I was lucky enough to get in the same office as Dylan was in.”
With that said, Lightfoot said he isn’t worried that folk music’s traditions will be lost on future generations of musicians because “the music stays at a grassroots level where it belongs.”

The folk music world nearly lost one of its greatest voices on Sept. 7, 2002, when Lightfoot was felled backstage at a concert in his hometown of Orilla by an aortic aneurysm that drained into his lower abdomen. He underwent emergency surgery and slipped into a coma for six weeks. The musician would later undergo two additional surgeries and two years of rehabilitation to recover from the ordeal, calling it a “major upheaval where everything came to a stop” and he wouldn’t play another concert for 28 months.

“At four o’clock that day I was on the floor of a dressing room and I could not get up. I don’t remember anything for six weeks after that,” Lightfoot said, adding, “There was nothing particularly enlightening about it. I didn’t see magical things on my ceiling. Instead, I was worried about how I was going to pay my staff. All I wanted to do was get back to work.”

Lightfoot said he is proud that he never missed a payroll for his employees, which includes a handful of loyal musicians who have recorded and toured with him for years. To keep the bills paid, Lightfoot, with the help of his crew, polished some practice guitar and vocal tracks, which resulted in the release of the 2004 album “Harmony.” “I didn’t have a great deal of faith in it, but there are some very nice songs there,” Lightfoot said.

Today, Lightfoot admits, his health is good and he is comfortable with his status as an elder statesman for the folk scene. But when the time comes, someday, he said, he would like to be remembered as “A decent guy who worked hard and looked after my family, my people.”

Scene notes

Sam Summers of First Fleet Concerts has booked some shows each at People’s Court and the House of Bricks. Unearth plays People’s Court March 31, followed by Emerson Hart, the singer for Tonic, on April 4 ($10), local rockers The Envy Corps on May 7 with openers Keeper’s of the Carpet ($12) and Grammy nominated As I Lay Dying on May 8 ($17). At the HOB it’s Emery on April 15 ($12) and Aiden on May 17 ($15). Tickets are for all shows are available through IowaTix.com. … Part klezmer, part bluegrass, clarinet-mandolin player Andy Statman brings his eclectic brand of music [promoter Abe Goldstien calls it “jewgrass”] to Waukee on April 2 where he will perform at Caspe Terrace. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students. Call 279-6452 or e-mail abe@trilixgroup.com. … Playing the Adler Theatre in Davenport: Loretta Lynn (April 11) and B.B. King (May 31). Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. … In other Davenport news, a bevy of artists are tentatively scheduled to play the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest July 3-5, including The Kinsey Report, Elvin Bishop, Tinsley Ellis, Phil Guy, Denise LaSalle, Otis Taylor, The Holmes Brothers, Guy Davis and John Nemeth with Junior Watson. … Citadel’s classic rock station 95 KGGO celebrates its 30th anniversary by hosting Summer Jam 2008 on June 28 at Water Works Park. The lineup includes Bad Company with Brian Howe, Nazareth “with creative founding member” Manny Charlton, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot and Iowa’s own The Blue Band and The Hat Trick Heroes. Tickets, $25, are on sale through IowaTix.com and increase in price as the show draws nearer. ... The Iowa Events Center finalized its 2nd Annual Rib America Festival lineup: July 18 — Beatlemania Live! and Dennis DeYoung of Styx; July 19 — The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Marcia Ball, Cowboy Mouth and Hootie & the Blowfish; July 20 — Tab Benoit, Soul Asylum and Jonny Lang. A limited number of reserved VIP seats located in front of the stage are on sale now through Wells Fargo Arena and Dahl’s Foods locations, or by phone at (866) 55-DAHLS or online at www.dahlstickets.com. General admission is $4. … Singer-harmonica player Malcolm Wells has left The Soul Searchers. The longtime local blues band continues with guitarist Scott Eggleston handling vocal duties. … The initial lineup for the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes, Minn., July 23-26, includes Phil Lesh and Friends, Mickey Hart Band, The Flaming Lips, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic. A regional showcase, in which Iowa bands can compete for the chance to play the fest, will be held April 24 in Iowa City. Visit www.10klf.com for details. … West Des Moines singer-songwriter-guitarist Scott Stilwell, founder of the former folk music venue Lighthouse Coffeehouse, is recording a CD of original songs. You can follow his progress at www.myspace.com/scottstilwellmusic.com. … Gravel-voiced Eastern Iowa roots rocker William Elliott Whitmore has signed with Anti-Records, home to artists like Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Neko Case. … Wolfgang’s Vault, the owner and manager of the late concert promoter Bill Graham’s archives of live concert video and audio from four decades as well as concert memorabilia, has announced that they have purchased Daytrotter, the largest online archive of modern music based in the Quad Cities. Daytrotter provides studio time for burgeoning indie artists to record live sessions that are then offered to the Daytrotter online community for free download. Sean Moeller, Daytrotter’s founder, will retain creative control of the Web site and live sessions. CV

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