Columnist Joe Delaney: Lightfoot: To The Orleans by way of Canada

Joe Delaney

Friday, March 22, 2002 | 9 a.m.

Joe Delaney's column appears on Thursdays and Fridays. Reach him at joe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4066.

Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian poet, songwriter and philosopher, is back at The Orleans, tonight through Sunday, painting beautiful true-to-life pictures with words and music ... He joins Paul Anka, Celine Dion, Rich Little and Anne Murray, among others, as one of our northern neighbor's most prolific entertainment exports ... He is on our don't-miss list.

Lightfoot was born and raised in a tiny, remote resort town, Otillia, about 80 miles north of Toronto -- not the best starting point for embarking on a show-business career ... He grew up in a family where everyone sang ... His grandmother had an old piano ... Grandma would play and his mother and three aunts would gather around and sing.

His first music lessons were on that old piano ... Working summers in his father's laundry, playing piano socially, Lightfoot, as Anka had a few years earlier, decided to emigrate ... Lightfoot was just 20 in 1958 when he enrolled in now-defunct Westlake College in Southern California to study musical composition and orchestration.

Canada called and Lightfoot returned to live in Toronto, where he built a reputation as an arranger and as a producer of commercial jingles ... Bob Dylan was a profound early influence as was Pete Seeger, and along with good friends and recording artists, Jan and Sylvia, Lightfoot was encouraged to write songs ... He switched to guitar and began playing in local coffeehouses.

Lightfoot developed his own onstage persona and enjoyed success with his first recording release, "Remember Me" ... Jan and Sylvia added two of his songs to their repertoire, "For Loving Me" and "Early Morning Rain" Peter, Paul and Mary recorded "For Loving Me" which hit No. 30 on the U.S. best-selling charts in 1965 ... Lightfoot signed with the United Artists label.

Switching to Reprise Records in 1969, his first release, "Sit Down Young Stranger" sold 750,000 copies ... "If You Could Read My Mind" was an even bigger hit in 1971 ... Other artists began recording Lightfoot songs, including Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand ... Lightfoot peaked for the first time in the mid-1970s.

He went gold with "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," based on a true story about an ore vessel that sank in Lake Superior ... A quarter of a century later, he attended a reunion of the surviving relatives ... They have stayed in touch ever since ... It was in the 1980s that Lighfoot decided to slow his pace as a recording artist.

He has averaged one album every six years, each has been a top seller ... The next CD, "A Painter Passing Through" is scheduled for release in April ... You won't spend a more pleasant musical evening this weekend than you will with Gordon Lighfoot.

Weekend wrap-up

University of Nevada, Las Vegas has two outstanding events this weekend, with master song interpreter Linda Eder tonight at 8 at Artemus Ham Hall and the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society, directed by Dr. Douglas Peterson, with special guests in concert, Sunday at 3 p.m., also in Ham Hall.

Harrah's Clint Holmes officially unveils his new show tonight at 7:30 in the newly named Clint Holmes Theatre ... Guitarist Ed Gerhard will introduce selections from his latest CD, "House of Guitars," tonight at 7 at Winchester Community Center.

Cirque du Soleil will hold its second annual Run and Fun Walk, benefiting the Center for Independent Living, starting at 6:30 a.m. Saturday at Paseo Verde Park in Henderson ... There will be many activities plus entertainment and live music by Cirque du Soleil members.

Friday night's jazz will be at Pogo's, Saturday, it's the Bill Trujillo Quartet, 6-9 p.m. (Anthem); after midnight Saturday, it's the Lon Bronson Orchestra (Riviera); and Rocky Gordon leads a Sunday Jazz Brunch Jam, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Gordon Biersch Brewery).

Don't miss the Jamaican-influenced jazz music of Monty Alexander & His Band, opening Monday for a fortnight at the Blue Note Jazz Club ... Our check for this year's Sun Summer Camp Fund is on its way ... Please join us and send every possible deserving youngster to camp this summer ... There is no overhead ... See you next Thursday.