Gordon Lightfoot
“I’m listening to what I hear today on the radio,”Lightfoot said during a telephone interview from his Toronto home,”and I’m listening for quality and air worthiness. Which is something I need for what is my next album which is my last album under contract with Warner Brothers.”
Lightfoot’s latest album “Waiting for You” his 18th,was the first collection of new material since his 1986 album “East of Midnight”.
While the 56-year-old folkie still has a loyal following both in Canada as well as the USA,he is planning to make his next album more contemporary radio friendly. “The album I’m working on right now I’ll try to make more airworthy,”Lightfoot said. “Instead of producing the record myself,I’m probably going to have to get somebody to help me.” Lightfoot’s process of songwriting and creating music is radically different from the way today’s cut and paste record producers manufacture cookiecutter bands.
Since 1965,with his self-titled debut on United Artists Records, Lightfoot’s body of work has maintained a quality and focus on craftsmanship which is almost entirely forgotten in today’s image-crazy contemporary music scene.
“I want to be sure that people like the songs first,”Lightfoot said,”and that we get pretty good feedback on anything I release. If I were to try and break back onto the charts again,I would have to get the formula for radio back. There’s a certain sound they’re looking for before they’ll even consider playing anything.
I’ve tried to do that before and it didn’t work so it’s time to try and do that again. In any case,we’re not going to get the huge sales required,but I’ll still try to put everything I can into the record.” Lightfoot realizes that pop and contemporary music are primarily youth market cultures, driven by the newest fad or supposed next big thing. Yet he feels the constant new crop of acts charting high on the Billboard magazine Top 40 has actually become a strength for the music industry overall. “I like to see new people coming in all the time,”he said. “Because that’s the way it should be.
I like to keep my end up on the live performances by doing excellent shows with real precision playing.
” Lightfoot recognizes the work of the younger folk artists who have made a contribution the the folk genre. “There are at least four or five folk artists who are in the pop field today, “Lightfoot said. “Mary-Chapin Carpenter is one of the artists who have made a positive impact on country music.” The current North American tour which Lightfoot and his touring band, Rick Haynes(bass), Terry Clements(guitar),Barry Keane(drums) and Michael Hefferan (keyboards),is playing to sold out venues across the country. “I have such a wonderful following down there,”Lightfoot said. “They’re always out to see me and there’s always lots of them. There’s enough fans so that I can do the whole tour and not lose anything on it. So there are also many people out there who believe that the song is king.”