Gordon Lightfoot
All Live

THE REVIEW

For me, it is a great honor to talk about a memorable event like a new music release by Gordon Lightfoot, a full eight years since his last album, "Harmony" from 2004. The man from Toronto, who wrote historical pages with "Early Morning Rain" and "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald," and who is my favorite North American folk songwriter, returns with a live album. He did it once before in 1969, presenting some new pieces in his "Sunday Concert" and marking a watershed between his acoustic '60s and the more creative and varied '70s. Now, with "All Live," he writes his artistic testament. He is no longer the elegant crooner of his roaring years; his voice has grown drier, losing its rich softness, but the charisma is still there, ageless.

However, Gordon Lightfoot has now counted seventy-four springs, and a heart that in recent years has played some nasty tricks on him, yet he has not stopped performing in front of his audience. Though his now ultra-established status as a Canadian national legend would allow him a well-deserved golden retirement; it is from these details that the greatness of an artist is measured, and this collection of live songs dating from the period 1998-2001, is a demonstration of that. A calibrated and comprehensive selection, although obviously it is not possible to summarize an immense production in both quantity and quality in just nineteen songs, but the final result is very commendable, with great classics and lesser-known tracks from the post-1980 period skillfully blended in a sober and almost essential style, which highlights the deep folk soul of Gordon Lightfoot and the intrinsic melodic greatness of these songs, resulting nonetheless in a smooth, energetic, and above all, very enjoyable album. Yes, I used that precise adjective because enjoyment is not exclusively for pop, pop-rock, or punk; even beautiful folk songs sung by a sprightly old man with his acoustic guitar and little else for support can convey feelings of light-heartedness, smiles, and emotional involvement that don't necessarily reach cerebral levels because Gordie has always been a master at composing light music with a message, intelligence, and depth, without losing its folksy, popular character and in this live and bare setting, it's more evident than ever.

So let yourself be conquered by sweet and reflective melodies like those of "Fine As Fine Can Be", "Carefree Highway", "Song For A Winter's Night" or "Rainy Day People", admire the emotional spleen of "If You Could Read My Mind" and the soft pace of "Sundown", enjoy his art of storytelling expressed at its highest peaks both in the pioneering epic of "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" and in the tragedy of "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald". Don't forget to lend an attentive ear to small lesser masterpieces like "Shadows", "14 Karat Gold", "A Painter Passing Through", "Restless", "Baby Step Back", and "Let It Ride", and finally surrender yourself to that timeless wonder which is "Early Morning Rain", because everyone, at least once in their life, has felt like the old hobos of North American literature, without roots, destination, home, or points of reference, and above all, ask yourself: is this man really just a Canadian national legend and not a living heritage of all humanity?

"This old airport's got me down, it's no earthly good to me, and I'm stuck here on the ground as cold and drunk as I can be, you can't jump a jet plane like you can a freight train, so I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain"