Staff outside the Orillia Opera House change signage to honour Gordon Lightfoot in Orillia, Ont., on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.Christopher Drost/The Canadian Press
A generation of old friends, longtime couples and families raised on Gordon Lightfoot gathered Saturday night in the singer-songwriter’s Orillia, Ont., hometown to mark the passing of the Canadian musician.
By sheer coincidence — or as some suggested, a case of mournful serendipity — a concert planned months ago as a tribute to Lightfoot as a living legend wound up being a celebration of a life well-lived.
The musician died Monday at age 84.
For Chicago residents Jan Goldsmith and her son Rick Goldsmith, saying goodbye was essential. The two flew into Canada earlier Saturday and travelled to Orillia for the concert with plans to attend Lightfoot’s public visitation on Sunday.
“I’ve been listening to Gordon since (my mom) introduced me as a kid ... and he’s been a part of my life almost on a daily basis since,” said Rick.
“We had to be here.”
The Goldsmiths described a mixture of sadness and joy that ran throughout “Early Morning Rain: The Legend of Gordon Lightfoot,” a musical retrospective held at the Orillia Opera House, inside the 677-seat Gordon Lightfoot Auditorium.
It was a venue where the musician performed many times before. And staff shared stories of how Lightfoot was known to wander to the theatre whenever he was in town.
Outside the venue, a bronze bust of the singer attracted fans who posed for photos amid bouquets of flowers lined at the base.
On stage, Leisa Way & the Wayward Wind Band shared their own tales of Lightfoot’s legacy by leading the audience through a loose chronological recounting of his career, starting with songs from his time as an Orillia boy.
Their openers included a rendition of “We Come Here to Sing,” recorded when he was in the early 1960s duo the Two Tones followed by an interpretation of the lyrics to “The Hula Hoop Song,” a commercial jingle he wrote as a teenager.
As the show progressed, more beloved Lightfoot hits surfaced.
A warm take on “Steel Rail Blues,” with the full band at centre stage, led to Way’s upbeat solo of “If You Could Read My Mind.” Other favourites “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown” and “Early Morning Rain” closed out the show.
For a room largely comprised of people who grew up on Lightfoot — many of them little more than a decade his junior — it was a night of healing.
Chris Robbins, who came to the show with her husband and an entourage of friends, said she was there to celebrate Lightfoot’s work.
“He touched the core of the country from coast-to-coast,” she said outside the venue.
“It’s a sold-out show, that’s perfect,” she added. “He usually did that.”
Duncan McDonald, an Orillia resident, brought his wife along in hopes of sharing a room with like-minded music fans.
“I want to be here to honour him; listen to the music; grieve a little bit; and sing a little,” he said.
McDonald anticipated a night with “a lot of tears, a lot of laughter, a lot of joy and a lot of mourning for a time that’s passed.”
The gathering was also one of kindness, as Lightfoot fans Will and Zenith Andrews discovered. The couple got married in the Philippines seven years ago, and Will sang Lightfoot’s “Beautiful” to his wife as she walked down the aisle.
On Saturday afternoon, they made a split decision to travel 90 minutes from Whitby, Ont., to Orillia without concert tickets, simply to see off Lightfoot in any meaningful way they could.
“We came here tonight because we wanted to see the statue,” explained Will, standing outside the opera house.
A few minutes later, the couple found themselves on the winning end of free tickets. Two separate concertgoers heard they were ticketless and handed them spares. After the show, they were beaming.
Other Lightfoot fans will have a chance to say farewell to the singer on Sunday when a public service will be held at St. Paul’s United Church from 1 to 8 p.m.