Gordon Lightfoot in Edmonton Nov.2nd 2014

On Sunday my Cuz and I went to the Canadian singer/songwriter folk legend Gordon Lightfoot concert here in Edmonton at the Jubilee Auditorium. I was looking forward to seeing Gord in concert as I had never seen him before and at seventy-five years old, you don't know how much longer he will be performing. I remember growing up on his music, having heard my parents play his music and then of course hearing it on the radio a lot.

Gordon Lightfoot played two sets on this evening, the first one being about 45 minutes, what surprised me about the first set was him performing his biggest hit "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald", I figured he would leave that til the encore, but nope. And I have to say, it didn't sound all that good. Another song I was really looking forward to hearing "Sundown" in which he did do, that too did not sound good, actually it was a mess, right from the get go. I hate to say it, but there is no way to sugar coat it, Gord just doesn't have the voice anymore. He seemed to mumble the words at times and just doesn't have the delivery he once did. After all the man has had his health issues. He looked healthy and even joked about the rumours of his demise years ago.

After a twenty minute break, Gord and his band came back for the second set, and it was more of the same. I even saw a few people leave during the intermission. Probably because they had heard the one song they really wanted to. My Cuz and I toughed it out for about a half hour or so, before we looked at each other and just knew it was time to leave and go for a few beers. All and all it wasn't a very good show, not in my eyes anyways, sad but true. Sometimes, musicians just don't know when there time has come.

Gordon Lightfoot at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton.