Review – Gord would be proud

MORRISBURG – The weather outside may have been a bit frightful, March 27-29, but inside Upper Canada Playhouse, where Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind Band presented ‘Early Morning Rain’, a love song to Gordon Lightfoot, the music was absolutely delightful.

Playing to an enthusiastic full house, Leisa took us through the story of the late Canadian icon’s life, sharing those wonderful songs that, as Leisa said, “shaped who I – and you – are as Canadians.” As she and band members Bruce Ley, Don Reid, Brant Garratt, Junior Riggan and Matt Ballagh made clear from the opening bars, “We’ve come here to sing!” And sing they did, to regular bursts of applause from the crowd.

This was a production which took us from Gordon Lightfoot’s singing start at age 4 in Orillia, to his triumphs at Massey Hall and his awards as both a Canadian star and also an international star. Ian and Sylvia Tyson, Anne Murray, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Peter, Paul and Mary, Glen Campbell – they all sang Lightfoot songs. And Dylan did him the further honour of saying “Lightfoot died without ever having made a bad song.”

Leisa is a superb singer with a voice both rich and warm, and able to soar where the music takes her. In an earlier Morrisburg Leader interview she described her band members as “stellar musicians” who have “gorgeous voices and warm personalities.” Audiences got to see that talent with Brant, Junior and Matt taking the vocal and instrumental leads in several numbers, and winning spontaneous bursts of applause from the delighted audience. Don and Bruce stepped out from behind drums and keyboard to sing with the others in a country kitchen hoe down.

Behind every song was a story. Gord’s marriages were not always joyful and a song like ‘Bittergreen’ made this clear. And, despite embargoes by many US stations, Gord did not shy away from the horrors he witnessed in Detroit during a five day riot. ‘Black Day in July’ told of racism and violence and it was played on every Canadian station. ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Sundown’ reminded us all of how wonderful and hurtful love can sometimes be. And when the band performed the ‘Canadian Railroad Trilogy’ and the ‘Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’, those quintessential Canadian pieces, some in the audience were moved almost to tears.

This was a concert filled with the greatness of one of Canada’s finest composers, whose music touched hearts and minds and will as long as there is a Canada that knows and loves Gordon Lightfoot. That might explain why Leisa Way and the Wayward Wind band ended their concert with all of us up on our feet singing ‘O Canada.’

We did it “for Gord.”