Back To Reality
Hi Everyone!
Allow me to crawl out from under this rock. With pasty white skin and squinty eyes, I’ll update you on my world. If you’re smart, you’ll go play computer Scrabble or sort your spam folder.
Since my last post, we (Barry, Rick, Carter, and me) played at the famed Mariposa folk festival in Orillia as The Gordon Lightfoot Band. We followed Judy Collins on closing night with a tribute set.
Tamara Lindeman, lead vocalist of Weather Station, sang “If You Could Read My Mind,” Meredith Moon (Gord’s daughter) sang and played banjo on “Pony Man,” and Tom Wilson from Blackie And The Rodeo Kings performed “Cold On The Shoulder.” We ended with a gang twang of Sundown in which an overcrowded stage made it difficult to know who the hell was up there.
It was wonderful, and the crowd ate it up. Gord is God at Mariposa, and there were more than a few moist eyes as the main stage was officially named “The Gordon Lightfoot Stage.”
We may be involved in more tributes planned for other venues, but all are tentative.
As a band, we were as flawless as we could be with little or no rehearsal. Being able to adapt to different keys, arrangements, and tempos after doing these tunes for so many years is a remarkable skill, and Rick, Barry, and Carter easily pulled it off.
Personally, I played a clunker or two and got away with it, but don’t tell anyone ……
It did seem at times to be a game of stump the piano player. Another band member has confessed that he stopped playing at one point to get his bearings.
All in a days work though as the performances were overwhelmingly appreciated by the more than ten thousand strong audience.
That, and two benefit gigs with other bands, were the only times I performed in July. I did get paid for one of those charity shows which I tried with no success to donate back. I wasn’t much further ahead though as a zealous cop on the way home clawed back a lot of it with a speeding ticket.
Just a lull. I’m taking a break from my type A personality.
However, I’m not done yet! Not on your life! I have a movie to score, a hit song to compose, and a bestseller to write, not to mention the Broadway musical and the symphony I’m planning……..